Renaming the New Brunswick to Highland Park Albany Street Bridge to honor Selman A. Waksman. 

We, the undersigned, are petitioning to rename the Albany Street Bridge, which connects New Brunswick and Highland Park via Route 27, to the “Selman A. Waksman Bridge” for his enormous contributions to these two communities, the state of New Jersey, and the world. Recently, Gov. Phil Murphy announced that the New Jersey Turnpike Authority would rename nine Garden State Parkway rest stops after famous New Jersey citizens.  We applaud this effort but are disappointed that not a single scientist was included in this list. 

Selman Waksman immigrated to New Jersey from present-day Ukraine in 1910 and subsequently graduated from Rutgers College with bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Following his Ph.D. studies, he returned to Rutgers University as a faculty member where he became internationally famous for his studies of microbes that live in soil. During this time he lived in Highland Park and worked on the present-day Cook Campus in New Brunswick. 

During his Rutgers tenure, Waksman discovered many microbes that produced antibiotics including the co-discovery of Streptomyces griseus with Albert Schatz and Elizabeth Bugie. S. griseus produces streptomycin, which was the first described broad-spectrum antibiotic that was effective against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. This discovery has saved millions of lives. Waksman was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1952 for the “ingenious, systematic and successful studies of the soil microbes that have led to the discovery of streptomycin, the first antibiotic remedy against tuberculosis.” He is the singular Rutgers faculty member to win a Nobel Prize while being employed by the University. The State Legislature recently named Streptomyces griseus as our official New Jersey State Microbe. In addition to antibiotics, microbes discovered by Waksman led to a treasure trove of further products that improved lives including statins, immunosuppressants, and growth stimulators.

The impact of Waksman’s work has greatly shaped the environment around the Rutgers campuses and the state. From the antibiotic patent revenue, the Waksman Institute for Microbiology was constructed in Piscataway (current Busch campus) resulting in an expansion of Rutgers campuses, which are connected by the current Albany Street bridge. Waksman collaborated with pharmaceutical companies to discover and produce antibiotics, which influenced several pharmaceutical companies to locate research and production facilities in the state that still employ many of our friends and families. Waksman encouraged women to work as members of his antibiotic discovery teams, which was uncommon at the time. During the years of World War II, the Rutgers antibiotic team employed nine women graduate researchers, five of whom were recent graduates of the New Jersey College for Women (current Douglass Residential College).

The methods and tools developed by Selman Waksman led to the co-discovery of Streptomyces griseus and its antibiotic streptomycin. Waksman's discoveries dramatically changed and enhanced the course of world health and extended the human lifespan. They influenced the trajectories of the towns of New Brunswick and Highland Park, Rutgers University, and the state of New Jersey. Honoring Waksman by renaming the Albany Street Bridge to the “Selman A. Waksman Bridge '' helps to honor the life of one the state’s greatest residents.