Biography
BiographyLeon Wofsy is Professor Emeritus of Molecular and Cell Biology / Immunology at the University of California at Berkeley. His career in science and academia began when he was almost forty years old. Earlier, for more than fifteen years, he was a leader of Marxist youth organizations. That experience began during the student upheavals at New York’s City College (CCNY) in the late 1930s, and encompassed the time of McCarthyism in the 1950s. He became a professor at UC Berkeley in 1964 just as the Free Speech Movement was about to erupt. He is the author of many scientific papers and articles on social issues. He edited a book on the Cold War, Before the Point of No Return (Monthly Review Press, 1986). His memoir, Looking for the Future (IW Rose Press, 1995) is available online in the Free Speech Movement Archives, Book Collection, UC Bancroft Library.
Born: Stamford, Connecticut, November 21, 1921
Married Rosalind Taub, November 25, 1942
Children: Carla and David
Grandchildren: Danielle, Kevin and SusanPartial list of articles since retirement:
Biotechnology and the University, Journal of Higher Education 57: 5 , 1986
Immunotoxins (with Dr. Olivia Martinez), Handbook of Experimental Immunology, 4th ed (Weir and Herzenberg) Vol. 1, Chapter 37 (Blackwell, London, 1986)
Survival in the Nuclear Age, Monthly Review 39: 37, June 1987
Gorbachev’s New Thinking, Monthly Review 40: 18, October 1988
An Unexpected World, CrossRoads 1: 13, June 1990
On Intervention, CrossRoads 33 : 1, July/August 1993
Genes -->IQ-->Fate: Science or Pulp Fiction? CrossRoads 48: 19, February 1995
The Faculty Peace Committee, Bancroft Library Free Speech Movement Symposium, April 2001