Editing Max Delbrück

{{Short description|Biophysicist}}
{{distinguish|text=his uncle, [[Max Delbrück (chemist)]], an agricultural chemist}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2014}}
{{Infobox scientist
| honorific_suffix  = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|ForMemRS}}
| image             = Maxdelbrück-cr.jpg
| birth_name        = Max Ludwig Henning Delbrück
| birth_date        = {{birth date|1906|9|4}}
| birth_place       = [[Berlin]], [[German Empire]]
| father            = [[Hans Delbrück]]
| spouse            = Mary Bruce
| children          = 4
| relatives         = [[Emmi Bonhoeffer]] (sister)
| citizenship       = [[Citizenship in the United States|United States]]<ref name=brittanica-x1>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Max Delbrück|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/156446/Max-Delbruck|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.|access-date=June 25, 2013|quote=A refugee from Nazi Germany, Delbrück went to the United States in 1937, serving as a faculty member of the California Institute of Technology (1937–39; 1947–81) and of Vanderbilt University (1940–47). He became a U.S. citizen in 1945.|archive-date=December 26, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181226090033/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Max-Delbruck|url-status=live}}</ref>
| death_date        = {{death date and age|1981|3|9|1906|9|4}}
| death_place       = [[Pasadena, California]], U.S.
| field             = [[Biophysics]]
| work_institutions = [[Kaiser Wilhelm Society|Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry]]<br>[[Vanderbilt University]]<br>[[California Institute of Technology|Caltech]]
| alma_mater        = [[University of Göttingen]]
| doctoral_advisor  = [[Lise Meitner]]
| doctoral_students = [[Lily Jan]], [[Yuh Nung Jan]], [[Ernst Peter Fischer]], [[Charles M. Steinberg]]
| known_for         = {{Plainlist|
* "discoveries concerning the replication mechanism and the genetic structure of viruses" <small>(Nobel Committee)<ref name=nobel1969rationale>{{cite web|url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1969/index.html |title=The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1969 |access-date=June 25, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130526150123/http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1969/index.html |archive-date=May 26, 2013 |publisher=Nobel Foundation |url-status=dead }}</ref></small>
* [[Delbrück scattering]]
* [[Luria–Delbrück experiment]]
* [[Saffman–Delbrück model]]}}
| prizes            = {{Plainlist|
<!--* [[Fellow of the Royal Society|ForMemRS]] (1967)<ref name=frs>{{Cite journal | author = William Hayes | author-link = William Hayes (geneticist)| doi = 10.1098/rsbm.1982.0003 | title = Max Ludwig Henning Delbruck. 4 September 1906-10 March 1981 | journal = [[Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society]] | publisher=[[Royal Society]]|location=London|volume = 28 | pages = 58–90| year = 1982 | jstor = 769892 | doi-access = free }}</ref>-->
* [[Mendel Medal (genetics)|Mendel Medal]] (1968)
* [[Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize]] (1969)
* [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] (1969) 
<!--* [[EMBO Membership]] (1970)<ref name=membo>{{cite web|url=http://people.embo.org/profile/maxt-delbruck|title=Max Delbrück EMBO profile|publisher=[[European Molecular Biology Organization]]|location=Heidelberg|website=people.embo.org}}{{Dead link|date=August 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>-->}}
}}
'''Max Ludwig Henning Delbrück''' ({{IPA|de|maks ˈdɛl.bʁʏk|lang|De-Max Delbrück.ogg}}; September 4, 1906 – March 9, 1981) was a [[German–American]] [[biophysicist]] who participated in launching the [[molecular biology]] [[research program]] in the late 1930s.  He stimulated [[physical science|physical scientists]]' interest into [[biology]], especially as to [[basic research]] to physically explain [[genes]], mysterious at the time.  Formed in 1945 and led by Delbrück along with [[Salvador Luria]] and [[Alfred Hershey]], the [[Phage Group]] made substantial headway unraveling important aspects of [[genetics]]. The three shared the 1969 [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] "for their discoveries concerning the replication mechanism and the genetic structure of viruses".<ref name=Nobel>[https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1969 "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1969"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180627062510/https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1969/ |date=June 27, 2018 }}, Nobel Media AB 2013, ''Nobelprize.org'', Web access November 6, 2013.</ref> He was the first physicist to predict what is now called [[Delbrück scattering]].<ref>{{cite journal
 | title = The controversy between John H. Northrop and Max Delbrück on the formation of bacteriophage: Bacterial synthesis or autonomous multiplication?
 | author = Ton van Helvoort
 | journal = Annals of Science
 | volume = 49
 | issue =  6
 | pages = 545–575
 | year = 1992
 | doi = 10.1080/00033799200200451
 | pmid = 11616207 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal
 | title = Conceptual models and analytical tools: The biology of physicist Max Delbrück
 | author = Lily E. Kay
 | journal =  Journal of the History of Biology
 | volume = 18
 | issue = 2
 | pages = 207–246
 | year = 1985
 | doi = 10.1007/BF00120110
 | pmid = 11611706| s2cid = 13630670
 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal
 | title = The Influence of Niels Bohr on Max Delbrück
 | author = Daniel J. McKaughan
 | journal = Isis
 | volume = 96
 | issue =  4
 | pages = 507–529
 | year = 2005
 | doi = 10.1086/498591
 | pmid = 16536153| s2cid = 12282400
 }}</ref>

==Early and personal life==
[[File:Max Delbruck.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Delbrück in the early 1940s]]
Delbrück was born in [[Berlin]], [[German Empire]]. His mother was granddaughter of [[Justus von Liebig]], an eminent [[chemist]], while his father [[Hans Delbrück]] was a [[history]] professor at the [[University of Berlin]]. In 1937, Delbrück left Nazi Germany for America—first California, then Tennessee—becoming a [[Citizenship in the United States|US citizen]] in 1945.<ref name=brittanica-x1/> In 1941, he married Mary Bruce. They had four children.

Delbrück's brother Justus, a lawyer, as well as his sister [[Emmi Bonhoeffer]] were active along with his brothers-in-law [[Klaus Bonhoeffer]] and [[Dietrich Bonhoeffer]] in [[German Resistance to Nazism|resistance to Nazism]]. Found guilty by the [[People's Court (Germany)|People's Court]] for roles in the [[20 July plot|July 20, 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler]], Dietrich and Klaus were executed in 1945 by the [[SS-Reichssicherheitshauptamt|RSHA]]. Justus died in Soviet custody that same year. His son, Tobias Delbruck is a professor at the Institute of Neuroinformatics at the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich.<ref>"https://www.ini.uzh.ch/~tobi/ {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230110002401/https://www.ini.uzh.ch/~tobi/ |date=January 10, 2023 }}"</ref> Professor Tobias Delbruck is also one of the pioneers in the domain of event cameras,<ref>"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8050295 [https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8050295/]"</ref> now increasingly being deployed in dynamic vision systems.

==Education==
Delbrück studied [[astrophysics]], shifting towards [[theoretical physics]], at the [[University of Göttingen]]. After completing his [[Doctor of Philosophy|Ph.D.]] there in 1930,<ref>"[https://www.britannica.com/biography/Max-Delbruck Max Delbrück] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190127153607/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Max-Delbruck |date=January 27, 2019 }}". ''Encyclopaedia Britannica''. britannica.com. Retrieved January 27, 2019.</ref> he traveled through [[England]], [[Denmark]], and [[Switzerland]]. He met [[Wolfgang Pauli]] and [[Niels Bohr]], who interested him in [[biology]].

==Career and research==
[[File:Freie Universitaet Berlin Otto-Hahn-Bau im Winter 01-2005.jpg|thumb|Delbrück's workplace in Berlin: Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry, now the [[Free University of Berlin]].]]

Delbrück returned to Berlin in 1932 as an assistant to [[Lise Meitner]], who was collaborating with [[Otto Hahn]] on irradiation of [[uranium]] with [[neutrons]].  Delbrück wrote a few papers, including one in 1933 on [[gamma rays]]' scattering by a [[Coulomb]] field's polarization of a vacuum.  Though theoretically tenable, his conclusion was misplaced, whereas [[Hans Bethe]] some 20 years later confirmed the phenomenon and named it "[[Delbrück scattering]]".<ref name=NAS>{{cite journal|pmid=11639973|url=http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=2201&page=67|year=1992|author1=W. Hayes|title=Max Ludwig Henning Delbrück – September 4, 1906 – March 10, 1981|journal=Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences|volume=62|pages=67–117|access-date=July 22, 2012|archive-date=October 15, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121015224202/http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=2201&page=67|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1935, Delbrück published a collaboration with [[Nikolay Timofeev-Ressovsky]] and [[Karl Zimmer]] the major work, ''Über die Natur der Genmutation und der Genstruktur''. It was considered to be a major advance in understanding the nature of gene mutation and gene structure.<ref>Timofeeff-Ressovky, N. W.,  K. G. Zimmer, and M. Delbrück "Über die Natur der Genmutation und der Genstruktur" ([[Weidmannsche Buchhandlung]], 1935). [http://www.ini.uzh.ch/~tobi/fun/max/timofeeffZimmerDelbruck1935.pdf Nachrichten Göttingen] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220303004033/http://www.ini.uzh.ch/~tobi/fun/max/timofeeffZimmerDelbruck1935.pdf |date=March 3, 2022 }} - "Über die Natur der Genmutation und der Genstruktur" (1935).</ref> The work was a keystone in the formation of molecular genetics.<ref>{{cite journal | pmc=5499177 | date=2017 | last1=Strauss | first1=B. S. | title=A Physicist's Quest in Biology: Max Delbrück and "Complementarity" | journal=Genetics | volume=206 | issue=2 | pages=641–650 | doi=10.1534/genetics.117.201517 | pmid=28592501 }}</ref> It was also an inspirational starting point for [[Erwin Schrödinger| Erwin Schrödinger's]] thinking, a course of lectures in 1943,  and the eventual writing of the book ''What Is Life? The Physical Aspect of the Living Cell''.<ref>Erwin Schrödinger ''What Is Life? The Physical Aspect of the Living Cell'' (Cambridge University Press, 1944).</ref>

In 1937, he attained a fellowship from [[Rockefeller Foundation]]—which was launching the [[molecular biology]] [[research program]]—to research [[genetics]] of the fruit fly, ''[[Drosophila melanogaster]]'', in [[California Institute of Technology]]'s biology department,<ref name=MDC>[https://archive.today/20120804081324/http://www.mdc-berlin.de/en/news/archive/2006/20060904-mdc_celebrates_centennial_of_max_delbr_ck/index.html "MDC celebrates centennial of Max Delbrück"]. Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine Berli-Buch. September 4, 2006.</ref> where Delbrück could blend interests in biochemistry and genetics.<ref>{{cite web|author=Stefanie Tapke|title=Max Delbrück – Biographical|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1969/delbruck-bio.html|work=Biographical article|publisher=Nobel Media|access-date=September 13, 2013|archive-date=June 12, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612144035/https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1969/delbruck-bio.html|url-status=live}}</ref>  While at [[Caltech]], Delbrück researched [[bacteria]] and their viruses ([[bacteriophages]] or ''phages''). In 1939, with [[Emory Ellis|Emory L. Ellis]],<ref>Ellis E. L., Delbrück M. The growth of bacteriophage. J Gen Physiol. 1939 Jan 20;22(3):365-84. {{PMID|19873108}}</ref><ref>Ellis E.L. "Bacteriophage: One-step growth curve" in Phage and the Origins of Molecular Biology (2007) Edited by John Cairns, Gunther S. Stent, and James D. Watson, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory of Quantitative Biology, Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, New York {{ISBN|978-0-87969-800-3}}</ref> he coauthored "The growth of bacteriophage",  a paper reporting that the [[virus]]es reproduce in ''one step'', not exponentially as do [[cell (biology)|cellular]] organisms.

[[File:Plaque in Buttrick Hall.png|thumb|right|Drawing of a plaque in Buttrick Hall, Vanderbilt University commemorating the work of Max Delbrück.<ref>[http://www.vanderbilt.edu/delbruck/Delbruck_Centenary_Celebration.html Max Delbrück and the Next 100 Years of Biology: The Max Delbrück Vanderbilt Centenary Celebration, The Inaugural Vanderbilt Discovery Lecture] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121119140031/http://www.vanderbilt.edu/delbruck/Delbruck_Centenary_Celebration.html |date=November 19, 2012 }}, Held September 14, 2006</ref>]]

Although Delbrück's [[Rockefeller Foundation]] fellowship expired in 1939, the Foundation matched him up with [[Vanderbilt University]] in [[Nashville, Tennessee]], where from 1940 to 1947 he taught [[physics]], yet had his laboratory in the biology department.<ref name=Vanderbilt>[http://www.vanderbilt.edu/delbruck "Max Delbrück at Vanderbilt, 1940–1947"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121011134613/http://www.vanderbilt.edu/delbruck/ |date=October 11, 2012 }}, Vanderbilt University, Web access November 6, 2013.</ref>  In 1941, Delbrück met [[Salvador Luria]] of [[Indiana University]] who began visiting Vanderbilt.<ref name=Vanderbilt/>  In 1942, [[Luria–Delbrück experiment|Delbrück and Luria published]] on [[bacteria]]l resistance to [[virus]] infection mediated by random [[mutation]].<ref name=Vanderbilt/>  [[Alfred Hershey]] of [[Washington University in St. Louis]] began visiting in 1943.<ref name=Vanderbilt/> The Luria–Delbrück experiment, also called the Fluctuation Test, demonstrated that Darwin's theory of natural selection acting on random mutations applies to bacteria as well as to more complex organisms. The 1969 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to both scientists in part for this work. To put this work in its historical perspective, Lamarck in 1801 first presented his theory of Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics, which stated that if an organism changes during life in order to adapt to its environment (for example stretches its neck to reach for tall trees), those changes are passed on to its offspring. He also said that evolution happens according to a predetermined plan. Darwin published his theory of evolution in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species with compelling evidence contradicting Lamarck. Darwin said that evolution is not predetermined but that there are inherent variations in all organisms, and that those variations that confer increased fitness are selected by the environment and passed on to the offspring. In the feud between Lamarck and Darwin, Darwin talked of pre-existing changes, but the nature of these changes was not known and had to await the science of genetics by Gregor Mendel's experiments on pea plants published in 1866. Support for Darwin's theory was provided when Thomas Hunt Morgan discovered that a mutated white-eyed fruit fly among red-eyed flies was able to reproduce true white-eyed offspring. The most elegant and convincing support for Darwin's ideas, however, was provided by the Luria-Delbruck experiment,<ref>{{cite journal | pmc=1209226 | date=1943 | last1=Luria | first1=S. E. | last2=Delbrück | first2=M. | title=Mutations of Bacteria from Virus Sensitivity to Virus Resistance | journal=Genetics | volume=28 | issue=6 | pages=491–511 | doi=10.1093/genetics/28.6.491 | pmid=17247100 }}</ref><ref>Luria SE "Mutations of bacteria and bacteriophage" in Phage and the Origins of Molecular Biology (2007) Edited by John Cairns, Gunther S. Stent, and James D. Watson, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory of Quantitative Biology, Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, New York, pgs. 173-179. {{ISBN|978-0-87969-800-3}}</ref><ref>Luria SE. A Slot Machine, a Broken Test Tube.  An Autobiography. Harper and Row, New York, 1984. Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Series</ref> which showed that mutations conferring resistance of the bacterium E. coli to T1 bacteriophage (virus) existed in the population prior to exposure to T1 and were not induced by adding T1. In other words, mutations are random events that occur whether or not they prove to be useful, while selection (for T1 resistance upon challenge with T1 in this case) provides the direction in evolution by retaining those mutations that are advantageous, discarding those that are harmful (T1 sensitivity in this case). This experiment dealt a blow to Lamarckian inheritance and set the stage for tremendous advances in genetics and molecular biology, launching a tsunami of research that eventually led to the discovery of DNA as the hereditary material and to cracking the genetic code.  Of course, by then Avery, along with McCloud (and earlier, McCarty) was well on the way to showing the genetic capability of DNA.

In 1945, Delbrück, Luria, and Hershey set up a course in [[bacteriophage]] genetics at [[Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory]] on [[Long Island, New York]].<ref name=Vanderbilt/>  This [[Phage Group]] spurred [[molecular biology]]'s early development.<ref>J.D. Watson (2012). [http://www.cshl.edu/gradschool/Non-Research-Faculty/james-d-watson "James D Watson: Chancellor emeritus"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131211150032/http://www.cshl.edu/gradschool/Non-Research-Faculty/james-d-watson |date=December 11, 2013 }}, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.</ref>  Delbrück received the 1969 [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]], shared with Luria and Hershey "for their discoveries concerning the replication mechanism and the genetic structure of viruses".<ref name=Nobel/><ref name=Vanderbilt/><ref name=FischerLipson>{{cite book |author=Peter Fischer Ernst and Carol Lipson |date=1988 |title=Thinking about science : Max Delbrück and the origins of molecular biology |url=https://archive.org/details/thinkingaboutsci00fisc |location=New York |publisher=Norton |isbn=978-0-393-02508-8 |url-access=registration }}</ref> The committee also noted that "The honour in the first place goes to Delbrück who transformed bacteriophage research from vague empiricism to an exact science. He analyzed and defined the conditions for precise measurement of the biological effects. Together with Luria he elaborated the quantitative methods and established the statistical criteria for evaluation which made the subsequent penetrating studies possible. Delbrück's and Luria's forte is perhaps mainly theoretical analysis, whereas Hershey above all is an eminently skillful experimenter. The three of them supplement each other well also in these respects." That year, Delbrück and [[Salvador Luria|Luria]] were also awarded by [[Columbia University]] the [[Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize]].  In late 1947, as Vanderbilt lacked the resources to keep him, Delbrück had returned to Caltech as a professor of biology, and remained there for the rest of his career.<ref name=Vanderbilt/>  Meanwhile, he set up [[University of Cologne]]'s institute for [[molecular genetics]].

==Awards and honours==
In addition to the Nobel Prize, Delbrück was elected a [[List of Fellows of the Royal Society elected in 1967|Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1967]].<ref name=frs>{{Cite journal | author = William Hayes | author-link = William Hayes (geneticist)| doi = 10.1098/rsbm.1982.0003 | title = Max Ludwig Henning Delbruck. 4 September 1906-10 March 1981 | journal = [[Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society]] | publisher=[[Royal Society]]|location=London|volume = 28 | pages = 58–90| year = 1982 | jstor = 769892 | doi-access = free }}</ref> He was elected an [[EMBO Member]] in 1970.<ref name=membo>{{cite web|url=http://people.embo.org/profile/maxt-delbruck|title=Max Delbrück EMBO profile|publisher=[[European Molecular Biology Organization]]|location=Heidelberg|website=people.embo.org}}{{Dead link|date=August 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> The [[Max Delbruck Prize]], formerly known as the biological physics prize, is awarded by the [[American Physical Society]] and named in his honour. The [[Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association|Max Delbrück Center]], in Berlin, Germany, national research center for molecular medicine of the [[Helmholtz Association]] also bears his name.

==Later life and legacy==
Delbrück helped spur [[physical science|physical scientist]]s' interest in biology.  His inferences on genes' susceptibility to mutation was relied on by physicist [[Erwin Schrödinger]] in his 1944 book ''[[What is Life? (Schrödinger)|What Is Life?]]'',<ref>{{cite journal | author = K. R. Dronamraju | date = Nov 1999 | title = Erwin Schrödinger and the origins of molecular biology | url = http://www.genetics.org/content/153/3/1071.full | journal = Genetics | volume = 153 | issue = 3 | pages = 1071–6 | doi = 10.1093/genetics/153.3.1071 | pmid = 10545442 | pmc = 1460808 | access-date = July 22, 2012 | archive-date = April 28, 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120428155705/http://www.genetics.org/content/153/3/1071.full | url-status = live }}</ref> which conjectured genes were an "aperiodic crystal" storing codescript and influenced crystallographer [[Rosalind Franklin]] and biologists [[Francis Crick]] and [[James D. Watson]] in their 1953 identification of cellular DNA's molecular structure as a double helix.<ref>M. P. Murphy and L. A. J.  O'Neill (1997). ''What Is Life? the Next Fifty Years: Speculations on the Future of Biology''. Cambridge University Press. [https://books.google.com/books?id=B1Ejn6ravj8C&pg=PA2 p 2]. {{ISBN|0-521-59939-3}}</ref><ref name="Judson">[[Horace Freeland Judson]] (1996) ''The Eighth Day of Creation: Makers of the Revolution in Biology''. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. {{ISBN|0-87969-478-5}}.</ref> In 1977, he retired from [[Caltech]], remaining a Professor of Biology emeritus. He became interested in the behavioral sciences and spent some unfruitful effort on mold behavior in the 1960s.

Max Delbrück died, at age 74, on the evening of Monday, March 9, 1981, at [[Huntington Memorial Hospital]] in [[Pasadena, California]].  On August 26 to 27, 2006—the year Delbrück would have turned 100—family and friends gathered at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory to reminisce on his life and work.<ref>Kiryn Haslinger. [http://www.cshl.edu/images/stories/about_us/harbor_transcript/2007/07_winter/07_winter_Delbruck100.pdf ''Max Delbruck 100.''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923211708/http://www.cshl.edu/images/stories/about_us/harbor_transcript/2007/07_winter/07_winter_Delbruck100.pdf |date=September 23, 2015 }} HT Winter 2007.</ref>  Although Delbrück held some anti-[[reductionism|reductionist]] views; he conjectured that ultimately a paradox—akin perhaps to the [[waveparticle duality]] of [[physics]]—would be revealed about life. His view however, was later refuted upon the discovery of the [[Nucleic acid double helix|double helix structure of DNA]].<ref>{{cite journal|pmc=1275794 |year=1994 |author1=N. H. Horowitz |title=Review of kay, the Molecular Vision of Life: Caltech, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Rise of the New Biology |journal=Biophysical Journal |volume=66 |issue=3 Pt 1 |pages=929–930 |doi=10.1016/S0006-3495(94)80873-2|bibcode=1994BpJ....66..929H }}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Max Delbrück}}
{{wikiquote}}
* {{Nobelprize}}
* [http://www.cshl.edu/History/delbruck.html Delbrück page] at [[Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory]] website.
* [http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/specialcollections/coll/pauling/dna/corr/corr432.1-watson-delbruck-19530312.html Letter from Jim Watson] – Delbrück was instrumental in getting fellowship support for Watson so that he could stay in Cambridge, play tennis, and discover the rules of nucleotide base pairing in DNA. This is a letter from Watson to Delbrück that describes the discovery.
* [http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/16/ Interview with Max Delbrück] Oral History Project, California Institute of Technology Archives, Pasadena, California.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060911044153/http://archives.caltech.edu/search_catalog.cfm?search_field=Delbruck&entry_type=photo Caltech Photo Archives of Max Delbrück]
* [http://www.cumc.columbia.edu/horwitz/ The Official Site of Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize]
* [http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/specialcollections/coll/pauling/dna/people/delbruck.html Key Participants: Max Delbrück] – ''Linus Pauling and the Race for DNA: A Documentary History''
* [http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/delbruck-max.pdf National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir]

{{Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Laureates 1951-1975}}
{{1969 Nobel Prize winners}}

{{Authority control}}

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[[Category:American biophysicists]]
[[Category:American Nobel laureates]]
[[Category:California Institute of Technology faculty]]
[[Category:Foreign members of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Members of the European Molecular Biology Organization]]
[[Category:German biophysicists]]
[[Category:Emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States]]
[[Category:German Nobel laureates]]
[[Category:German molecular biologists]]
[[Category:History of genetics]]
[[Category:Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]
[[Category:Members of the French Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Scientists from Berlin]]
[[Category:Phage workers]]
[[Category:University of Göttingen alumni]]
[[Category:Vanderbilt University faculty]]
[[Category:American molecular biologists]]
[[Category:Academic staff of ETH Zurich]]