Alex B. Novikoff
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
February 28, 1913 - January 9, 1987
|
Scientific Discipline: Cellular and Developmental Biology Membership Type:
Member
(elected 1974)
|
Alex B. Novikoff made major contributions to the identification of organelles in cells. He developed new techniques for cell fractionation and used these techniques to analyze and identify a number of organelles, which Christian de Duve named lysosomes in reference to their ability to break down molecules. He also discovered the phenomenon of autophagy, naming it cytolysome formation. Lastly, he developed the Novikoff hepatoma of rats, which was important in cancer research.
He received a B.S. degree in 1931, a M.A. degree in 1933, and his Ph.D. in zoology in 1938 from Columbia University. He was a professor of zoology at Brooklyn College from 1940 to 1947 before becoming a professor of experimental pathology at the University of Vermont. In 1955, he joined the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where he taught for twenty-eight years. Novikoff was a member of the Histochemical Society where he was president from 1958 to 1959, and the American Society of Cell Biology, where he was the president from 1962 to 1963. He received the Distinguished Service Award from Columbia University for his research on cellular structure in 1960.
Novikoff was a Jewish Russian immigrant who, as a young man in depression-era New York City, had been a member of the US communist party. At the height of the McCarthy era, Novikoff was subpoenaed by the U. S. Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security. Novikoff refused to give any information about the political affiliation of his colleagues from Brooklyn College, citing the 5th Amendment of the Constitution. His refusal to testify led to his dismissal, on the grounds of “moral turpitude,” from the University of Vermont in 1953. In 1985, the University of Vermont presented Novikoff with an honorary degree to make amends for the school’s cold war actions.
