Gessner Harrison "Hatch" Echols Jr. (May 1, 1933 – April 11, 1993)[1] was an American molecular biologist, biochemist, and geneticist, whose work on the lambda phage advanced the understanding of viral infections and gene regulation inside the cell.
[3] In 1959, Echols was first introduced to genetics as a postdoctoral student at Cyrus Levinthal's lab at MIT, where he uncovered the mechanism of regulation of the bacterial enzyme alkaline phosphatase.
In contrast to Francois Jacob and Jacques Monod's 1960 operon theory that prescribed a single repressor model for regulation, Echols discovered that there were two separate genes acting on the enzyme: one positively (to promote) and one negatively (to repress).
[7] He spent a sabbatical year in 1981–1982 in Arthur Kornberg's group at Stanford University, where he gained experience with the then-novel approaches of enzymology and electron microscopy.
[9] Mark Ptashne recounts a tennis match against Echols: "Hatch presented himself as the archetypal Californian: tie-dyed shirt, hair in a ponytail, hesitant of speech—in short, way laid-back.
– Mark Ptashne[8]The Hatch Echols Memorial Tennis Tournament is held in his honor every year at the Molecular Genetics of Bacteria and Phages Meeting at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.