We write in support of Dr. Jesse Wright for the position of Assistant Professor at Indianna University. Due to the recent death of Jesse’s Ph.D. mentor, Dr. Robert Kadner, we include a copy of a letter that Dr. Kadner wrote for Jesse a year ago in which he clearly indicates the extremely high opinion he held for him. We agree completely with Dr. Kadner and add our strong and enthusiastic support, without reservation for Jesse’s application. As members of his thesis committee, we had the opportunity to follow his work throughout his graduate career. By the time Jesse completed his thesis, he had developed into a mature scientist who was extremely well trained, highly motivated and an excellent communicator. All the indications were that Jesse was well suited to pursue a career in academics and his continued progress and productivity confirms our assessment.

Jesse was quite independent in designing and carrying out the experiments that made up his thesis project. He aggressively carried out a systematic and thorough investigation of a bacterial two-component signaling system involved in regulation of organophosphate transport. He used well-designed and clever genetic approaches and a broad range of biochemical techniques to dissect the specificity of the uhp system. Furthermore, he did an excellent job in comparing this system to other known two-component systems, which provided a very interesting and informative contrast. His work made significant contributions to the field resulting in two solid papers in the Journal of Bacteriology and provided a much deeper understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved. His thesis was very well written and among the best we have read at UVa.

Jesse posses the tools required for a successful independent career in science and we firmly believe that he will be a wonderful colleague and collaborator for your department. Please feel free to contact us if you require any further information.

Sincerely yours,

Timothy P. Bender, Ph.D.

Professor of Microbiology

Robert K. Nakamoto, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Physiology