NHGRI Director Green honored by Washington University at St. Louis

NHGRI Director Green honored by Washington University at St. Louis

Eric D. Green, M.D., Ph.D., director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will receive the 2010 Distinguished Alumni and Faculty Award from Washington University at St. Louis on Saturday, Nov. 6 at the St. Louis Union Station Marriott. The award is given in recognition of Dr. Green's national success and achievement in the field of genomics and his significant public service at NIH. Every year, the university honors distinguished alumni in commemoration of Washington University's founding in 1853.

A St. Louis native, Dr. Green earned his bachelor's degree in bacteriology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1981 and his M.D. and Ph.D. from Washington University in 1987. During residency training in clinical pathology, he worked in the laboratory of Dr. Maynard Olson, then professor of genome sciences and medicine. After launching his genomics research program at Dr. Olson's lab, Dr. Green was appointed assistant professor of pathology and genetics and co-investigator in the Human Genome Center at Washington University in 1992.

For more than 20 years, Dr. Green has been extensively involved in efforts to map, sequence and understand the human genome. Prior to his appointment as the NHGRI director on Dec. 1, 2009, he served as the NHGRI scientific director guiding the growth and diversification of the institute's intramural research program. Some of his notable contributions include founding and directing for more than a decade the NIH Intramural Sequencing Center; establishing the Social and Behavioral Research Branch and the NIH Center for Research on Genomics and Global Health; and helping to launch innovative programs such as the Undiagnosed Diseases Program.

Dr. Green was honored with an Alumni Achievement Award from Washington University School of Medicine in 2005. His other honors include a Helen Hay Whitney Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, appointment as a Lucille P. Markey Scholar Award in Biomedical Science, induction into the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Lillian M. Gilbreth Lectureship for Young Engineers at the National Academy of Engineering, and induction into the American Association of Physicians. He is a founding editor of the journal Genome Research, a series editor of Genome Analysis: A Laboratory Manual, and co-editor of Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics. Green has authored and co-authored more than 250 scientific publications.