James D. Ebert
James David Ebert was an innovative developmental biologist who contributed immensely to the study of developmental biology and also helped establish embryology. During his career, Ebert developed a vision for how the Department of Embryology of the Carnegie Institution of Washington in Baltimore should be run. He believed the focus of the department should be on biochemistry and genetics with regards to embryology. This was a relatively novel idea since not many embryologists were doing biochemical studies on embryos. In addition, he served as director for the Embryology Course and as director of the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole.
Ebert was born on 11 December 1921 in the small town of Bentleyville, Pennsylvania. He attended public schools while growing up and then graduated from Washington and Jefferson College in 1942. Not long after graduation he joined the United States Navy and eventually became a lieutenant. Ebert was stationed on a destroyer in the Pacific Ocean that was attacked by a kamikaze pilot. The destroyer sank and Ebert spent twenty-four hours in the ocean until being rescued. Possibly because of this attack or simply due to his passion for biology, Ebert made it a priority to befriend and train Japanese developmental biologists.
In 1946 Ebert began working towards his PhD in developmental biology under the instruction of Benjamin Willier at the Johns Hopkins University. In the same year he married Alma Goodwin who was a WAVE (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency) during the war. Ebert received his PhD in 1950 and immediately became a member of the faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). After his one year stay at MIT, Ebert moved to Indiana University. Ebert became an associate professor of zoology by 1955 and had already set up a program of experimental embryology. He was very interested in the chick embryo which led him to study how the protein make-up of the embryo changed throughout development.
Only six years after receiving his PhD, Ebert became the director of the Carnegie Institution of Washington’s Department of Embryology, in Baltimore, Maryland. Prior to Ebert’s term as director, the department had only three other directors. The new president, Caryl Haskins, had even contemplated closing the department and starting something new. However, thanks to some persuasion from Willier, Haskins spoke with Ebert and decided to give him the opportunity. Ebert and Haskins both agreed that the department needed to focus on the study of genes and their regulation as well as the way cells influence one another. The fact that Ebert was young and had an enthusiastic personality made Haskins believe that he would provide a fresh new edge to the department.
Ebert became the ideal teacher, believing that it was his job to recognize and recruit new talent and then support them in their work. He stressed the use of biochemistry and genetics, which in the 1960s blended together to form molecular biology. During this time, Ebert started to study the relationship between muscle cell differentiation and the propensity to infection in the Rous sarcoma virus.
While still managing his duties as director of the Carnegie department in 1970, Ebert also became the president and nonresident director of the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) at Woods Hole. It was at the MBL where he turned his research focus away from the Rous sarcoma virus and towards the response of murine lymphocytes to mitogens. This new research was done in collaboration with Keiko Ozato.
In 1977 Ebert ended his term at the Carnegie Department of Embryology but he remained the director of the MBL. From 1978 until 1987, Ebert lived in Washington, D.C., and held the position of president at the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Ebert’s innovative ideas never ceased. During his time in Washington he made the decision to build a large optical telescope in Chile at Las Campanas Observatory as well as make available a common campus for both Carnegie departments in Washington.
Ebert remained involved with scientific institutions for the rest of his life. When leaving one institution, he always found another one to join. He retired from the Carnegie Institution and instantaneously became the president of the Chesapeake Bay Institute at the Johns Hopkins University where he was a professor of biology for six years. Ebert was elected to many prestigious societies including the National Academy of Sciences (1967), the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Institute of Medicine. He was the vice president of the National Academy of Sciences from 1981 through 1993 and he also chaired its Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable from 1987 through 1993. His colleagues honored him by electing him as president of the Society for the Study of Development and Growth, the American Institute of Biological Sciences, and the American Society of Zoologists.
James Ebert, along with his wife Alma, died on 22 May 2001 in a tragic automobile accident while en route to Baltimore. He played an instrumental role in constructing what we know today as embryology and contributed greatly to developmental biology. He was respected by colleagues and students and his ability to relate to others’ research helped him to reach his own goals.
Sources
- Singer, Maxine. “James David Ebert.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 148 (2004): 124–27.
- Obituaries. “Jim and Alma Ebert.” Marine Biological Laboratory. http://www.mbl.edu/news/obit/obit_ebert.html (Accessed December 8, 2007).
Cite as:Sheraden Seward, "James D. Ebert", Embryo Project Encyclopedia (2008) ISSN: 1940-5030. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2286/embryo:125471
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