UT zoology professor Mark Kirkpatrick (kirkp@mail.utexas.edu) has suggested that the molecular biology building under construction at UT would more appropriately be named after Herman J. Muller than after Jim Bob Moffett.

The Encylopedia Britannica contains a substantial article about Hermann J. Muller, and explicitly states that the research that later won him the Nobel Prize (Physiology or Medicine in 1946) was performed while he was working at UT. From the Encyclopedia Britannica: "Muller in 1920 became associate professor (later professor) at the University of Texas, Austin, where he remained until 1932. The 12 years that he spent at Austin were scientifically the most productive in Muller's life. His studies of the processes and frequencies of mutations enabled Muller to form a picture of the arrangements and recombinations of genes and later led to his experimental induction of genetic mutations through the use of X rays in 1926. This highly original discovery established his international reputation as a geneticist and eventually won him the Nobel Prize."

In his book The Forty Acres Follies: An Opinionated History of the University of Texas, p. 285, former UT professor of history Joe B. Frantz notes that Muller was advised by UT President Benedict (after whom Benedict Hall is named) not to return to UT after working elsewhere. Benedict's reason was that Muller had made a contribution to an unauthorized UT student publication. (The shame of it!) According to Frantz, "Benedict informed Muller that he would probably prefer not to return to UT and that if he did, he would undoubtedly be investigated for his unauthorized publication." So in fact, Muller received the Nobel Prize while working at Indiana University. Although substantiating such a sweeping proposition is difficult because researchers move so often, the Austin American-Statesman has asserted that Muller is the only person ever to have done research at UT that subsequently resulted in the award of a Nobel Prize. Some of Muller's laboratory equipment may still be seen on exhibit in the Patterson Laboratories Building on the UT campus.

Frantz notes, reflecting upon the sad history of academic freedom at UT, "As Roy Bedichek observed, 'It's always the brilliant men who are fired first.'"

Choosing the name Muller for the new molecular biology building is especially appropriate because his work introduced conceptual and empirical foundations for the later revolution in molecular biology.

See http://www.orcbs.msu.edu/radiation/resources_links/historical_figures/muller.htm for a short biography of and a photo of Muller.