Stefano Di Talia

Laurea, University of Naples Federico II
Cell Size Control and Asymmetric Cell Fates in Start of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae Cell Cycle
presented by Frederick R. Cross (on behalf of himself and Eric D.  Siggia)

Stefano Di Talia came to Rockefeller with a strong background in physics. He chose to work on some classical questions in cell cycle control, jointly advised by me and by Eric Siggia. Stefano started out knowing very little biology, but he had great curiosity and an ability to apply a physical way of thinking to biological problems. Despite a rather self-deprecating demeanor and a somewhat slow start dealing with the vagaries of biological materials, he carried out an incisive series of experiments on the long-standing problem of cell size control. His standards for the quality and reliability of his biological work became highly rigorous, and he was absolutely persistent in learning whatever methods might be needed to take the next step. In the course of his Ph.D. work, he started as a person with good physics training and a general if unformed interest in biology, and came out as a committed and highly effective experimental cell biologist. Fortunately, he retained his physical way of thinking, which is quite different from most of what goes on in biology; this gave his experiments a valuable quantitative flavor and an interesting philosophical twist. Interdisciplinary scientists of Stefano’s style will be very well equipped for 21st-century science. He has now taken his interests and approaches to the study of another long-standing classical problem, the interrelationship of cell cycle control and development, working in the laboratory of Eric Wieschaus at Princeton University, a Nobel Prize-winning fruit fly developmental geneticist.