I've just learned belatedly that a member of my UCLA masters committee, Judy Lengyel, died in 2004 of a brain tumor. I had known her since we were both undergrads there in the 60s, she was just a year ahead of me. She was a great person and a brilliant geneticist. I found this letter to the NY Times, which also demonstrates the eloquence of her social conscience.

Misconceptions About Race

Published: January 8, 2002 (NY Times)

To the Editor:

The conversation with Dr. Joseph J. Graves Jr. (''Beyond Black and White in Biology and Medicine,'' Jan. 1) provides an antidote to some misconceptions in our socially constructed view of race.

It is much easier to believe that differences are due to ''genes'' than to social and economic differences in our supposedly egalitarian society.

It would be very helpful in our public discussion of human genetic differences to begin to use the term allele rather than gene. All humans have the same genes (except in rare cases of genetic disease, where a critical gene is missing).

What may make us appear different physically, or be differently susceptible to diseases, is that we have different alleles (small differences in nucleotide sequence) of the same genes.

It is only by understanding and using the concept of the allele that we can discuss differences between members of the same species.

DR. JUDITH A. LENGYEL
Los Angeles

The writer is a biology professor at U.C.L.A.