Evelyn M. Witkin, whose discovery of the process by which DNA repairs itself opened the door to significant advances in the treatment of cancer and genetic defects, died on July 8 in Plainsboro Township, NJ. She was 102.

In a career that began in the late 1940’s, early in the field of genetic research, Dr. Witkin explored the ways in which radiation both damaged DNA and generated a repair mechanism, what she came to call the SOS response. Her insight into the SOS response shed new light on how solar radiation and chemicals in the environment affect humans’ genetic makeup.

In 1983, she became the director of the Waksman Institute of Microbiology at Rutgers University, where she stayed util retiring. In 2021, on her 100th birthday, the Waksman Institute renamed one of its premier research laboratories for her.