Pioneering biologist Clement L. Markert dies at age 82
Clement L. Markert, a noted scientist who is credited with the discovery of isozymes and who taught at Yale for two decades, died Oct. 1 at a hospice near his home in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Mr. Markert, 82, discovered isozymes, enzymes that vary in form to allow the development of different human organs and tissues, while he was teaching at the University of Michigan. He continued his research on the enzymes after coming to Yale in the mid-1960s.
Mr. Markert also served two terms as chair of Yale's biology department and was instrumental in starting a research program on the genetics of mice, according to Arthur Galston, the Eaton Professor Emeritus of Botany and senior research scientist in the department of molecular, cellular and developmental biology.
"Shortly after the creation of the biology department in 1962 it was determined that we needed a strong chair and a national leader in science to head the department," says Galston. "Clement Markert was just the one to do it. He was an advocate of a strong, centralized biology department and strong teaching, and he welded the department into a powerful unit."
Mr. Markert continued to teach and conduct research at Yale until his retirement in the mid-1980s.
Raised in Pueblo, Colorado, Mr. Markert was a student at the University of Colorado in Boulder when he decided to leave school in 1937 to fight fascism in the Spanish Civil War. Because the U.S. government was not allowing travel to Spain, Mr. Markert stowed away on a freighter bound for Europe. In Spain, he joined the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, a group of 2,800 American volunteers who tried unsuccessfully to prevent Generalissimo Francisco Franco from overthrowing the country's democratically elected government.
After the war, Mr. Markert returned to the United States, earning his bachelor's degree at the University of Colorado in 1940. During World War II, he tried to enlist in the Army Air Force, but was turned away because of his involvement in the war in Spain. Instead, Mr. Markert enlisted in the Merchant Marine.
Following the war, Mr. Markert earned his doctorate from Johns Hopkins University in 1948 and taught at the University of Michigan. He was suspended from teaching at the school when he, along with two colleagues, refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1954 during the McCarthy era. He was later reinstated, and in 1991 an annual lecture series on intellectual freedom was named for the three men. Mr. Markert's other honors include being named to the American Academy of Sciences.
While a Yale professor, Mr. Markert lectured frequently around the country about biological research and genetics, including genetic and embryo engineering. In 1984, during a lecture at the University of Illinois, he predicted there will come a day when technological advances in embryo engineering will mean that men will no longer be needed for reproduction.
"I don't think males need to worry too much about being dispensed with genetically," a UPI story on the lecture quotes Mr. Markert as saying. "I have faith that the females tolerant and friendly as they are will keep us around for entertainment purposes, if for nothing else."
When he retired from Yale, Mr. Markert took a position at North Carolina State University, where he focused on animal husbandry research. He and his wife, Margaret, later returned to Colorado.
In addition to his wife, Mr. Markert is survived by three children, Alan Markert of Maine, and Robert Markert and Samantha Schreck, both of California.
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