Richard Myers, 2003-05-29

Item — Multiple Containers

Staff Only

Oral History | Richard Myers

Scope and Contents

Richard Myers, a leading researcher in the Human Genome Project, is interviewed by Mila Pollock and Kiryn Haslinger on May 29, 2003, at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, in Cold Spring Harbor, New York.

Richard Myers discusses the following in his interview: Scene 1. Becoming a scientist – Scene 2. Undergraduate research at the University of Alabama – Scene 3. Finding disease genes – Scene 4. Early involvement in genomics – Scene 5. Genome meetings at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory: plans for a large-scale sequencing of the human genome – Scene 6. Jim Watson: involvement in the Human Genome Project – Scene 7. The Human Genome Project: changes over time – Scene 8. Wally Gilbert: Early discussions of a large-scale sequencing project at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 1988 – Scene 9. Involvement in Genomics: the Human Genome Project – Scene 10. Surprises in the Human Genome Project – Scene 11. Competition in science – Scene 12. Gene patenting – Scene 13. The future of genomic research – Scene 14. Dangers of genomic research – Scene 15. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory – Scene 16. Cold Spring Harbor Symposia – Scene 17. Bruce Stillman – Scene 18. Joseph Sambrook – Scene 19. Adrian Krainer – Scene 20. Ray Gesteland – Scene 21. Tom Maniatis – Scene 22. Terri Grodzicker – Scene 23. Meeting Jim Watson – Scene 24. Jim Watson, writer – Scene 25. Nature vs. nurture – Scene 26. Science and spirituality – Scene 27. Advice to young scientists.

Dates

Creation: 2003-05-29

Creator

Myers, Richard (Richard M.) (Interviewee, Person)
Haslinger, Kiryn (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

Richard Myers received his B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Alabama (1977) and received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of California at Berkeley (1982), after which he performed postdoctoral work at Harvard University with Tom Maniatis. He joined the faculty of the University of California at San Francisco in 1986, and moved to Stanford University School of Medicine in 1993. While he was at Stanford University School of Medicine, he was the Director of the Stanford Human Genome Center (1993-2008), Associate Professor of Genetics (1993-1996), Professor and Co-Chair of Genetics(1996-2002), and Stanford W. Ascherman Professor and Chairman, Department of Genetics (2002-2008).

Dr. Myers is a member of numerous committees concerned with human genetic diseases and the Human Genome Project including the Genome Resources and Sequencing Prioritization Panel (GRASPP) and is Chair of the Genome Research Review Committee of the National Human Genome Research Institute of the National Institutes of Health. He is also a member of the Biology and Biotechnology Program Advisory Committee of the U.S. Department of Energy. Dr. Myers has received numerous awards including the Pritzker Foundation Award (2002), the Darden Lecture Award from the University of Alabama (2002), the Wills Foundation Award (1986-2001) and was a Searle Scholar (1987-1990). Myers was involved in every human genome meeting at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and has attended CSHL symposia since 1986.

Since 2008, he has held the positions of Adjunct Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, Adjunct Faculty Member in the Department of Genetics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Medical Center, and President, Science Director and Faculty Investigator of the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology in Huntsville, Alabama.