H. Robert Horvitz, 2001-04-09

Item — Box: AV06, Hi8: CSHL1260

Staff Only

Oral History | H. Robert Horvitz

Scope and Contents

H. Robert Horvitz, Nobel prize winning biologist, is interviewed by Mila Pollock and Danielle Kovacs, on March 9, 2001, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

H. Robert Horvitz discusses the following in his interview: Scene 1. Becoming a scientist -- Scene 2. Jim Watson: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Harvard University -- Scene 3. Jim Watson's Harvard Laboratory -- Scene 4. Jim Watson: professor -- Scene 5. The Harvard years: Horvitz's graduate research -- Scene 6. Jim Watson: mentor -- Scene 7. Jim Watson: personality and influence -- Scene 8. Jim Watson, advisor and colleague -- Scene 9. Jim Watson -- Scene 10. "Lucky Jim" -- Scene 11. Jim Watson: Director of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory -- Scene 12. The Human Genome Project -- Scene 13. Sydney Brenner -- Scene 14. Introduction to modern biology -- Scene 15. Cold Spring Harbor Symposia past and present -- Scene 16. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory -- Scene 17. The future of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory -- Scene 18. Greatest scientific accomplishment -- Scene 19. Scientific career influence from Harvard -- Scene 20. Harvard University and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

Dates

Creation: 2001-04-09

Creator

Horvitz, H. Robert (Interviewee, Person)
Kovacs, Danielle (Interviewer, Person)
Pollock, Ludmila (Interviewer, Person)
Clark, Clare (Transcriber, Person)
Viteri, Carlos (Videographer, Person)
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Library and Archives (Publisher, Organization)

Conditions Governing Access

Portions of this collection have been digitized and are available online: https://library.cshl.edu/oralhistory/. Select tapes have been digitized thanks to support from CLIR Recordings at Risk Grant awarded in 2021, these tapes are available for research online via our Oral History Website and in person at CSHL Archives. Please contact CSHL Archives archives@cshl.edu with any questions regarding availability.

Biographical / Historical

H. Robert Horvitz received his Ph.D. in 1974 from Harvard University, under the tutelage of Jim Watson. He joined the MIT Department of Biology faculty in 1978, and was named David Koch Professor of Biology in 2000. He is also Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and was appointed Investigator at the McGovern Institute in 2001. Horvitz is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and a recipient of the Gairdner Foundation International Award, the Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. Prize from the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation and the Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Neuroscience. In 2002, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine with Sydney Brenner and John Sulston “for their discoveries concerning 'genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death'." Horvitz currently studies how genes control the development of the nervous system and how the nervous system controls behavior. He has elucidated a molecular genetic pathway for programmed cell death (apoptosis), which is fundamental to nervous system development in all animals.

Extent

1 Cassettes (Camcorder footage) : Hi-8 - CSHL1260

4 VHS (Working copy) : VHS: 2022 HORVITZ_ROBERT_2001_01 [0:49:46] edited; 2022E HORVITZ_ROBERT_2001_02 [0:49:40] edited; 2022 HORVITZ_ROBERT_2001_03 [1:02:06] unedited; 2022E HORVITZ_ROBERT_2001_04 [0:49:46] edited

1 Optical Disks (Talking science with H. Robert Horvitz) : DVD ; 48 min.