born Oct. 30, 1939, Los Angeles, Calif., U.S.
U.S. scientist.
He received his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He began teaching at the University of Washington in 1968 and in 1996 joined the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, becoming president and director in 1997. Using baker's yeast, he studied how cells control their growth and division and was able to identify more than 100 genes involved in cell-cycle control, including the gene that regulates the first step of each cell cycle. Such work aided in the understanding of cancer cell development. Hartwell shared a Nobel Prize with R. Timothy Hunt and Sir Paul M. Nurse in 2001.