BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics. Dr. Wu developed the
first method for sequencing DNA and some of the fundamental tools for DNA
cloning in 1970. He led research on genetic modification of rice and other
crops to increase resistance to pests, drought, heat, salt, and other
environmental stresses. Dr. Wu died in Ithaca on February 10, 2008.
Ray Wu was born in Beijing in 1928. He received his undergraduate
degree from the University of Alabama and his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the
University of Pennsylvania in 1955. From 1955 to 1966, Dr. Wu conducted
research at the Public Health Research Institute of the City of New York. He
came to Cornell in 1966 as an associate professor of biochemistry and molecular
biology, became a professor in 1972, and in 2004 was named the Liberty Hyde
Bailey Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics. He served as department
chair in the Section of Biochemistry, Molecular and Cell Biology. He founded
the China-United States Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Examination and
Application Program, which from 1982 to 1989, brought over 400 of the top
Chinese students to the U.S. for graduate training. While on sabbatical leave
in 1989, he served as director of the Institute of Molecular Biology of
Academia Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan. He also served as an honorary professor at
Peking University. He held many advisory roles to the Chinese and Taiwanese
governments and as science advisor to the China National Center for
Biotechnology Development, and chaired the Scientific Advisory Committee of
BioAgricultural Sciences (Taiwan), the Advisory Committee to the Transgenic
Plan Program, National Science Council (Taiwan), and the Board of Scientific
Advisors of the International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology.
He was elected a fellow of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science
in 2003; and elected a fellow in the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
