Commencement - The University of Alabama

Richard M. Myers
Commencement Speaker
Honorary Degree Recipient
Today’s speaker is world-renowned geneticist Dr. Richard M. Myers. He is professor
and chair of the Department of Genetics at Stanford University School of Medicine
as well as the director of the Stanford Human Genome Center.
A native of Tuscaloosa, Dr. Myers received his bachelor of science in biochemistry
from The University of Alabama in 1977 and his doctor of philosophy in biochemistry
from the University of California at Berkeley in 1982. He did his postdoctoral work
at Harvard University and then began his first faculty position in 1986.
Myers’s research is in the areas of the Human Genome Project and human genetics—
areas of inquiry concerned with understanding our entire genetic blueprint and how variation in genes between
people leads to disease and resistance to disease. His laboratory was one of the major contributors to sequencing
the human genome, helping to produce the sequences of three of the human chromosomes. In their work
on diseases, Myers and his group have contributed to discoveries of genes that cause epilepsy, skin cancer,
and hemochromatosis. They currently work on Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, bipolar disorder,
hypertension, and atherosclerosis. Dr. Myers is particularly interested in genes and the human brain.
Dr. Myers is heavily involved in science education, both in training the next generation of scientists and helping
to increase public understanding of the impact of scientific research on our everyday lives. He is a codirector of
a science education partnership between Stanford and the San Jose Tech Museum, which has more than 750,000
visitors each year. He speaks about genetics and gives frequent workshops and laboratory tours to young students
and adult groups.
Dr. Myers is a member of numerous national committees that are concerned with science policy and advocacy.
These include serving on several review groups for the National Institutes of Health and the Department of
Energy and serving as an editor on the monthly journal Genome Research. He is a member of the Scientific
Advisory Board for the new Hudson Alpha Institute for Biotechnology in Huntsville, Alabama.
He has received numerous awards including the Pritzker Foundation Award, the Darden Lecture Award from
The University of Alabama, and the Wills Foundation Award, and he was a Searle Scholar.
Dr. Myers is married to Wendy Yang of Dayton, Ohio, and they have a son Zachary, 5, and a daughter Susannah,
11. His extensive family, including his parents and five brothers and sisters, live either in Tuscaloosa or elsewhere
in the Southeast. His hobbies are woodworking, spending time with his family, and visiting Alabama every
chance he gets.
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