Research Emeritus Professor Robert W. Briggs died on March 4, 1983 after 27 years at Indiana University. Professor Briggs will be remembered by the international scientific community as one of a handful of "innovators" who left a permanent imprint on a broad range of biology. During the 1950s, Professor Briggs and his collaborator, Thomas King, pioneered and perfected the procedures for nuclear transplantation to answer a fundamental question in embryology. He was a dedicated and demanding teacher at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

He was an undergraduate at Boston University (BS, 1934) and a graduate of Harvard (PhD, 1938). his first position was at McGill University, followed by the Institute for Cancer Research. He came to Indiana University in 1956 and was an active member of a number of scientific societies. He was elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Science. In 1973 he was awarded the prestigious Charles-Leopold Mayer Prize of the Academy of Sciences, Institute of France.