PROCEEDINGS OF THE OKLAHOMA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE Volume 71—1991

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Mannford Kenneth "Bud" Patterson, Jr.

Oklahoma Scientist of the Year

A genuine "Okie from Muskogee"

The accomplishment during a forty-year career of research and administration at The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation in Ardmore earned this native Oklahoman the Scientist of the Year Award for 1990. Manford K. Patterson, Jr. was born August 20, 1926 in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and spent the first four years of his life in that town immortalized by Woody Guthrie's song. Bud's family moved to Ardmore, where he attended the public schools and graduated from Ardmore High School in 1944.

After two and a half years service in the U.S. Navy's Air Corps, Bud entered the University of Oklahoma. He was awarded a B.S. degree in chemistry in 1953. Starting in 1948 he began working as a summer intern at the Noble Foundation. He became a permanent employee in 1951. A leave of absence spent at the University of Oklahoma, Norman, resulted in his receiving the M.S. degree in biochemistry in 1954.

From 1957 through 1961 Bud took another leave of absence for graduate study, this time at Vanderbilt University where he worked with Jan van Eys and Oscar Touster, submitted a dissertation entitled "A Study of Neuraminic Acid Derivatives of Mammalian Liver", and was awarded a Ph.D. in biochemistry.

His professional employment has been with the Biomedical Division of The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation. The sequence of advancement was: Summer Employee, 1948-50; Research Chemist, 1951-61; Leave of absence, OU, 1954-55; Leave of absence, Vanderbilt, 1957-61; Senior Research Chemist, 1961-66; Head, Nutrition Section, 1966-; Vice-President & Director of Division, 1973- .

Bud's first scientific publication, entitled "Some Effects of Autoclaving Aqueous Solution of Glucose", was in the Proceedings of the Oklahoma Academy of Science in 1951. More than 75 scientific publications in journals and 14 chapters for books have followed. He has given more than 85 invited lectures in the U.S., France, Germany, Hungary, and Korea.

His research has focused on the use of cell cultures as cancer models: techniques of cell culture, their nutrition, particularly asparagine and asparaginase, and transglutaminase.

Bud's membership in scientific societies include: American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; American Association for the Advancement of Science; American Chemical Society; Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine; New York Academy of Science; European Tissue and Organ Culture Group; American Association of Tissue Banks; and Council of Biology Editors.

At least two other societies have benefited from his service as an officer: he has been on the Board of Directors, and in 1985 served as President, of the Southwest Section of the American Association for Cancer Research, and on the Board of Directors, the Council, as Treasurer, and Editor-in-Chief of the Tissue Culture Association. In 1973 he was President of the Central States Branch of the Tissue Culture Association. For the Oklahoma Academy of Science Bud has served as President in 1987 and he was instrumental in bringing the Junior Academy of Science and

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the State Science Fair together. He has been chairperson of the Biochemistry Section and of the Legislative Liaison Committee.

He has an extensive list of civic and state services, such as the Oklahoma Academy for State Goals, the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology, Oklahoma Hi Tech, and Crosstimbers Hospice.

Adjunct professor appointments are held at the University of Oklahoma Dental School and in the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department of the University of Oklahoma's Health Sciences Center. Patterson and Paul F. Kruse were co-editors for a timely and pivotal Academic Press book, Tissue Culture: Methods and Applications, published in 1973. Bud has been director of workshops at the Tissue Culture Association's W. Alton Jones Cell Science Center at Lake Placid, NY.

Bud's hobbies include civic services and operating a pecan orchard. His life is characterized by service at all levels: local, regional, state, national, and international. His is a hands-on, involved, leadership/servant role, which could be a role model for Oklahoma youth desiring a scientific career.

His wife, Beverly, is an elementary school teacher in Ardmore; they were married in 1953. Their daughter, Shelly, is a commercial interior designer in Oklahoma City.

Franklin R. Leach
Editor