Charlotte Auerbach - Research in Edinburgh

Research in Edinburgh

Auerbach's dissertation was on the development of legs Drosophila (Kilbey 1995). After her dissertation she became a personal assistant to Crew who connected her to the lively group of scientists he had assembled, and to invited scientists including Julian Huxley, J.B.S. Haldane, and most importantly to Lotte, to Hermann Joseph Muller (Kilbey 1995). The famous geneticist and mutation researcher stayed in Edinburgh 1938-1940 and introduced her to mutation research. Initially, she refused to work with Muller, when Crew told her to. Muller however who was present when she opposed her boss, assured her that he would only want to work with people who are interested in the projects. But since she was interested in how genes operate, Muller noted that to understand this it would be important to understand what happens if the genes are mutated - this convinced her (Kilbey 1995). She said herself "His enthusiasm for mutation research was infectious and from that day on I switched to mutation research. I have never regretted it."