In Memoriam: Evelyn M. Witken, 1921-2023

Evelyn M. Witkin, a professor emerita at Rutgers University in New Jersey and a world-renowned geneticist who helped to unlock secrets to how DNA damage and DNA repair affect cancer and aging, died on July 8 in Plainsboro, New Jersey, after a short illness. She was 102 years old.

Professor Witkin was a graduate of New York University. She conducted research at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island while studying for a Ph.D. in genetics at Columbia University. Her research focused on the effects of radiation and the mechanisms that bacteria employ to repair damaged DNA.

Dr. Witkin taught at the Downstate Medical Center at the State University of New York, and in 1971 she joined the faculty at Rutgers University in New Jersey. In 1979, Dr. Witkin was named the Barbara McClintock Professor of Genetics at the university.

Dr. Witkins became a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1977. She was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Academy of Microbiology. She earned the 2000 Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal, received the National Medal of Science in 2002, and in 2015, she and fellow geneticist Stephen J. Elledge won the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research, one of the highest honors in the medical sciences. She retired from Rutgers University in 1991.

“Evelyn was a national treasure. It’s impossible to do justice to her remarkable life and career. What really set her apart is how kind, humble, and gracious she was for someone so accomplished,” said Bryce Nickels, professor in the department of genetics and laboratory director at the Waksman Institute of Microbiology at Rutgers. “She was such a special person, one that was ahead of her time, and she serves as a tremendous role model not just for scientists but for all of us in terms of living a life full of integrity, kindness, and humility. She will be deeply missed.”