Howard Gest joined the Manhattan Project in 1943 in the Chemistry Divison of the Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago. Between 1943 and 1946, he continued research on uranium fission products at the Clinton Laboratories in Oak Ridge. Following completion of graduate work in microbiology in 1949 at Washington University (St. Louis), Gest was a faculty member at Western Reserve University School of Medicine (1949-1959), Washington University (1959-1966), and Indiana University [Bloomington], (1966--), where he is now Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Microbiology and Adjunct Professor of History and Philosophy of Science. He is widely know for his research on photosynthetic bacteria, and has written extensively on the history of research in biochemistry and microbiology. Gest has held two Guggenheim Fellowships, and has served on committees of the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council. He was elected an Honorary Member of the American Society of Microbiology, is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

H. Gest: "The July 1945 Szilard Petition on the Atomic Bomb: Memoir by a signer in Oak Ridge" is available as a web page or a downloadable pdf file. For further information on Leo Szilard and the decision to use atomic bombs, go to http://www.dannen.com/decision/index.html and http://www.dannen.com/szilard.html

H. Gest: "The 'astrobiology' fantasy of NASA (The term 'astrobiology' is an oxymoron that has become a buzzword in the Age of Space Hype)" is available as a web page or a pdf file.

H. Gest: "The 2006 Astrobiology Follies: Return of the Phantom Martian Microbes," which presents a retrospective analysis of attempts to find evidence of extraterrestrial microbial life and discusses the significance of the buzzword "astrobiology," is available as a web page or a pdf file.

H. Gest and J. Favinger: " Identity of Rhodospirillum centenum, a unique photosynthetic bacterium," is available as a web page or pdf file.

Permission to use these articles for non-commercial use is granted. Any use for profit publishing without my permission is prohibited. Dr. Gest can be contacted at the following email address: gest@indiana.edu

Please visit Dr. Gest's research page on the Department of Biology website for more information about his research and publications.