A DEI Success Story

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/27/science/william-j-rutter-dead.html

William J. Rutter, Biotech Pioneer of Gene-Based Medicine, Dies at 97

His company, the Chiron Corporation, contributed important scientific discoveries toward treatments for H.I.V., hepatitis B, diabetes and more.

Dr. Rutter was born on Aug. 28, 1927, in Malad City, Idaho, in the southeast corner of the state. His father, William Henry Rutter, ran a grocery store, and his mother, Eliza (Dredge) Rutter, was a bookkeeper.

At 15, Bill, as he was known, left his local high school to enroll in college in Utah. While there, he was identified and recruited by Harvard University through a program aimed at finding promising students from underrepresented regions. He graduated from Harvard with a B.S. in biochemistry in 1949. He earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Illinois in 1952 and taught chemistry there for a decade. He left to teach biochemistry and genetics at the University of Washington.