Thomas E. Schindler, Science writer

Thomas E. Schindler is a graduate of Harvard University and the University of Illinois-Chicago. After earning his PhD in microbiology and immunology, he conducted post-doctoral research at Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. He worked in research and development for Xytronyx, Inc., a biotechnology company, for eight years before pursuing a career as a high school chemistry teacher in Falls Village, Connecticut. Today, he is an accomplished science writer who has devoted several years to researching and writing about the neglected heroine of bacterial genetics, Esther Zimmer Lederberg.

"The author does an excellent job of explaining how the growing understanding of bacterial reproduction allowed molecular biology to flourish as a discipline and shaped scientific understanding. The biography deftly portrays the science scenes — particularly in the vivid description of Lederberg's use of a makeup pad to transfer bacteria from one petri dish to another instead of to dab powder on her cheeks, a major improvement in lab techniques. A concise and well-written account of a little-known yet important biologist." - Kirkus Reviews

"Esther Zimmer Lederberg (1922-2006), the best known American woman microbial geneticist in the 1950s, was a pioneer and founder of her field. Her scientific discoveries remain at the center of global health policy in antibiotic resistance, but she hasn't received, as yet, recognition from the field or the general public. In this biography, Thomas E. Schindler pays tribute to Esther's obscured legacy by sharing her story and providing a detailed examination of the work she conducted in labs at Stanford, the University of Wisconsin, and Yale. Esther's lifelong passion for science and her remarkable achievements should inspire new generations of women scientists and girls to better overcome the combined gender, race, and class bias." - Pnina Geraldine Abir-Am, Historian of Science and Resident Scholar, Womens Studies Research Center, Brandeis University

"An insightful, readable biography of a remarkable scientist, her deep affection for and knowledge of the bacteria that rule our world, and her major contributions to the Nobel Prizes won by her husband and former teacher, which have never been properly acknowledged. This should be read by every woman in big-time research science, technology and medicine, and by those who love them." - Tom Shachtman, author of Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold