Gerald Rubin, 2003-05-30

Item — Multiple Containers

Staff Only

Oral History | Gerald Rubin

Scope and Contents

Gerald Rubin, geneticist and molecular biologist, is interviewed by Mila Pollock and Kiryn Haslinger on May 30, 2003, at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, in Cold Spring Harbor, New York.

Gerald Rubin discusses the following in his interview: Scene 1. Involvement in genomics -- Scene 2. Surprises in the Human Genome Project -- Scene 3. Dangers of the Human Genome Project -- Scene 4. Competition in science -- Scene 5. Gene patenting -- Scene 6. Future of genomics -- Scene 7. Science and spirituality -- Scene 8. Nature vs. nurture -- Scene 9. Teaching science -- Scene 10. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory memories -- Scene 11. Meeting Jim Watson -- Scene 12. Jim Watson, writer -- Scene 13. Ray Gesteland -- Scene 14. Transposable elements in Drosophila -- Scene 15. Satisfaction in science -- Scene 16. "Lucky Jim" -- Scene 17. Lucky in science -- Scene 18. Sydney Brenner -- Scene 19. Barbara McClintock -- Scene 20. Alfred Hershey -- Scene 21. The Watson School of Biological Sciences -- Scene 22. Planning the new Howard Hughes campus - Scene 23. The future of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

Dates

Creation: 2003-05-30

Creator

Rubin, Gerald Mayer (Interviewee, Person)
Pollock, Ludmila (Interviewer, 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

Gerry Rubin is a geneticist, molecular and cell biologist. As Director of the Berkeley Drosophila Genome Project, he led to the sequencing of the entire fruit fly genome. Currently, as Vice President of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Executive Director of the Janelia Farm Research Campus in Ashburn, Virginia, his research focus is on developing the biological and computer tools that are capable of analyzing and displaying the vast amount of information available from the genomic DNA sequencing of the fruit fly. He uses these advanced techniques to decipher gene regulation and expression at a genome-wide level in Drosophila and determine the function of certain fruit fly genes. Gerry Rubin is also a professor of Genetics and Development at the University of California, Berkeley. He came to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory as an URP (Undergraduate Research Program) in the early 70’s working under Lionel Crawford and Ray Gesteland before moving to Cambridge to earn his Ph.D. in molecular biology. He did postdoctoral work at Stanford University School of Medicine and became an assistant professor of biological chemistry at Harvard Medical School prior to commencing his genetics professorship at Berkeley in 1983. Gerry Rubin is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine. Among the awards he has received is the American Chemical Society Eli Lilly Award in biological chemistry.