Background
Ellis, Emory Leon was born on October 29, 1906 in Grayville, Illinois, United States. Son of Walter Leon and Bertha May (Forman) W.
Ellis, Emory Leon was born on October 29, 1906 in Grayville, Illinois, United States. Son of Walter Leon and Bertha May (Forman) W.
Bachelor of Science, California Institute of Technology, 1930. Master of Science in Chemistry, California Institute of Technology, 1932. Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry, California Institute of Technology, 1934.
Emory L Ellis (29 October 1906 - 26 October 2003) was a biochemist. Apart from one year working for the Food and Drug Administration, Ellis remained at Caltech until World World War World War II Ellis" interests were in bacteriophage which he believed would contribute to understanding the role of viruses in cancer. He started work on their role in animals, but found that there were extra problems and expense related to maintaining the animals and so switched to phage.
Ellis published the important paper The Growth of Bacteriophage with Max Delbrück in 1939.
He gave up work on phage after this paper and returned to cancer research before moving to Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake from 1943, working with rocket-program employees as the onsite representative of Caltech. Ellis became Executive Director of the Office of Industrial Associates in Caltech for two years between 1963 and 1965 and retired in 1969.
Ellis died on 26 October 2003. In a retrospective article, Ellis described his interactions with Delbruck.
The quantitative methods for studying bacteriophage that Delbruck initially learned from Ellis, were further developed by a group of scientists informally known as the "phage group" (see phage group).
Under the leadership of Delbruck this group played a central role in the early development of molecular biology.
Member American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Chemical Society, Tau Beta Pi, Sigma Xi.
Married Marion Louise Faulkner, September 17, 1930 (deceased August 1994).