NHGRI's Oral History Collection: Interview with Maynard Olson

Maynard Olson, Ph.D., professor of Genome Sciences and Medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle, is a major figure in genomics research, and his research involving large-scale genome analysis – with emphases on both technology development and applications – made him an invaluable participant in the Human Genome Project. Dr. Olson’s oral history explores his early years growing up near the National Institutes of Health, his efforts to map the yeast genome in 1987, and his role as mentor to Eric Green, M.D., Ph.D., the current director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI).

NHGRI’s Oral History Collection features discussions with influential figures in the field of genomics and about the history of institute. Intended for researchers and scholars, each oral history contains information about science and medicine, biographical details and insights into the inner workings of the institution and its initiatives.

Questions asked in this interview:

00:41 - Early life
02:34 - What led you to Caltech?
29:59 - How did the first physical map of yeast come about?
41:21 - Who funded it?
01:03:07 - When did you first hear about the Human Genome Project?
01:22:49 - What were the contributions of Robert Langer and David Botstein?
01:41:46 - How have you viewed Eric Green's development?

[meltolentin]

fascinating subject, but the people that
05:42
are good at it develop a tremendous amount of highly structured, kind of, pre-existing
05:47
knowledge and then they attack a new problem from that reference point. I’ve never been
05:53
-- never been good at that -- I like to stay closer to things that I’ve just had to sort