Groundbreaking, dedication for Salk Institute site

On June 2, 1962, groundbreaking and dedication ceremonies were held for the $14 million Salk Institute for Biological Studies on Torrey Pines Mesa.

The institute is named for Dr. Jonas Salk, developer of the first safe and effective polio vaccine. It’s main laboratory building complex was the product of a creative collaboration between Salk and architect Louis I. Kahn. Construction was completed in 1965.

The institute’s stunning travertine courtyard, flanked by twin teak-and-concrete laboratory towers and bisected by a narrow channel of water flowing toward the ocean, was the star of a Louis Vuitton fashion show held there May 12. From The San Diego Union, Saturday, June 2, 1962:

SALK REVEALS INSTITUTE’S PLANS, GAINS CITES PROGRESS IN ATTRACTING SCIENTISTS; SITE DEDICATION TODAY.

By Bryant Evans, The San Diego Union’s Science Writer “This is a moment I have been awaiting for a long time.” The speaker was Dr. Jonas Salk as he appeared before a civic dinner last night to tell of his plans for the Salk Institute of Biological Studies adjoining the University of California campus in north La Jolla.

He reported he was proud of the progress the institute has made, particularly in attracting the distinguished scientists who are to carry on research here.

The institute site is to be dedicated in ceremonies at 10 a.m. today.

Basil O’Conner, president of the National Foundation, Roy W. Moore Sr., chairman of the founders Committee of the institute, and Salk will speak. The site is in the old Camp Callan area, on Torrey Pines mesa.

ALL MANKIND

“While the citizens of San Diego can rightfully enjoy the fact that their generosity was one of the main factors in making possible this exciting undertaking, I know that you understand and want all the people of the world to realize that the benefits will be to the advantage of all mankind,” he said.

“The benefits, we hope, will be beyond your expectations.” Neither in his address, nor in an earlier press interview, would Salk define in any exact terms what the institute would attempt.

It is to concern itself with basic biology, to seek understanding of the bases of life. It has enlisted six creative scientists and will enlist more who are to be free to seek answers to whatever questions challenge them.

TO WORK IN LAB

Salk said he planned to devote full time in the laboratory as one of the investigators.

“I feel I can fulfill the capacities of director of the institute best in that way,” he said.

His own scientific interest will be a continuation of the study that perfected the Salk vaccine and has gone far to wipe out poliomyelitis. This is the study of finding ways to immunize people against virus diseases.

He recounted that an accidental observation had suggested a study which he hoped might lead to discovering how grafts of tissue from one body might be made to be better tolerated by another.

FELLOWS LISTED

Salk listed the scientists who are to become fellows of the institute with a comment on their background. Including Salk there are now 10 of these and they are to name future additional colleagues.