Interview Life, the Universe, and Everything: An Interview with David Haussler Jane Gitschier* Departments of Medicine and Pediatrics and Institute for Human Genetics, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States of America Among the pantheon of computer looking at his picture, I realized he must scientists who have framed our capacity be your sibling. to interpret DNA sequences stands David Haussler: My only sibling is my Haussler of the University of California, brother. He was professor of biochemistry Santa Cruz (UCSC). Applying his prowess in University of Arizona and taught me in computer learning theory to the prob- how to do science. And he is really one of lems of protein modeling and gene the leading scientists in the world on structure prediction, Haussler emerged in vitamin D, which was the subject of that the mid-1990s as a trail-blazer in the field first paper. of computational biology. He came to Gitschier: How much older is he? wider prominence in 2000 during the Haussler: Twelve years. frenetic race to produce a draft sequence Gitschier: So he was established when of the human genome by nucleating an you were just a kid. impassioned team of coders and engineers Haussler: Right. The summer after who assembled the sequence data and my freshman year [in college], I spent time launched the UCSC Genome Browser. in his lab. Every third week, I would Fittingly, his team’s contribution made sacrifice a chick that was raised without manifest the vision of Robert Sinsheimer, vitamin D. I would take out its intestines who as Chancellor of UCSC in 1985 for receptors for the hormonal form of convened a pivotal workshop to explore vitamin D, and we used those receptors in sequencing the human genome. a radio-receptor competitive binding assay Haussler (Image 1) now plays, by my to first measure the level of the hormonal count, at least half-a-dozen leadership form of vitamin D in the human blood- roles, including co-director of the Genome Image 1. David Haussler. Photograph by stream, in both normal and diseased 10 K project, coordinating committee Ron Jones, courtesy of the Center for Biomo- humans. By the end of the summer, we member of The Cancer Genome Atlas lecular Science and Engineering, University of had a paper in Science! You know, big project, and director of the Center for California Santa Cruz. breakthrough. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1003282.g001 Biomolecular Science and Engineering at Then I went back the next summer, and UCSC. He is easily spotted by his nothing worked. I remember my brother predilection for Hawaiian shirts, whose a discussion of his growing up in the town saying to me, ‘‘Now, this is how science informality, he suggests, fosters inter- of North Hills in the San Fernando Valley. really is.’’ But I was undaunted. disciplinary collaboration. Indeed, Hauss- Haussler: My dad went to Caltech Gitschier: Let’s talk about your tran- ler’s ken for machine learning and his and because of the economic pressures of sition to science, because I know your first quest for the meaning of life are so having a young family, decided not to college experience was in art. expansive that I was tempted to title this pursue pure science, but to pursue a Haussler: I did visual art mostly. piece ‘‘Deep Thought’’, a nod to the professional position in structural engi- Acrylic painting and metal sculpture were fictional computer in Douglas Adams’ neering. He worked on mathematical probably my favorites, although I did The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, but problems as a hobbyist and had a love of stone lithography and all kinds of fabulous chose a more subdued allusion instead. pure science. Both my brother and I ended things in the San Francisco Academy of I located Haussler on the upper reaches up living out his dream to be a scientist. Art. Then, I switched schools and into of the stunning UCSC campus in the My brother is a highly accomplished psychology. engineering building, a sleek structure of biochemist. Gitschier: And that was where? glass and aluminum, tucked into a red- Gitschier: I saw that your first paper Haussler: That was actually at a crazy wood grove that was still dripping and in the early ’70s was with a Haussler and little experimental college. You have to fragrant from the morning’s rain. The had assumed it was your father, but then, understand that this was the early ’70s… anteroom to his modest office was deco- rated with handsome prints from UCSC’s Citation: Gitschier J (2013) Life, the Universe, and Everything: An Interview with David Haussler. PLoS scientific illustration program as well as Genet 9(1): e1003282. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1003282 books on the genome project, and a box Published January 31, 2013 labeled ‘‘for the intron lounge’’ was piled Copyright: ß 2013 Jane Gitschier. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative high with journals. Haussler swept in via Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, bicycle, swiftly signed a few documents, provided the original author and source are credited. and downed a cold drink as we began with * E-mail: [email protected] PLOS Genetics | www.plosgenetics.org 1 January 2013 | Volume 9 | Issue 1 | e1003282 Gitschier: I do understand! [Haussler work in computer science. That seems like Gitschier: I see. It was a tradition! and I were born the same year.] a logical transition to me. Haussler: My great grandfather, my Haussler: My mother was hoping I’d Haussler: Logical is the correct word. grandfather, my father always ran their go to UCLA, but I was a rebel and said After studying pure mathematics as an own businesses. Never had a boss. It was a ‘‘No, I want to go to a crazy place,’’ undergrad, I decided that the foundation crazy, fierce, independent kind of tradi- Immaculate Heart College [IHC] in for everything was logic. And I read tion. Hollywood. extensively before I went to graduate Gitschier: So this was instilled in you Gitschier: Immaculate Heart doesn’t school, but even after getting my under- very early. I’m now seeing the fuller sound so ‘‘crazy’’ on the surface. graduate degree in mathematics and a context! Haussler: It doesn’t, not at all, but minor in physics, I still hadn’t decided to Haussler: Right. I wasn’t going to the thought leader there was Sister pursue a life of science. play along with any institutional programs! Corita Kent, and you remember from Gitschier: What were you thinking Those were the days when you could be the ’60s, those love posters? A lot of the of—art, philosophy, psychology? anti every institution and get away with it. art movement and the philosophy that Haussler: I wanted to get at the heart Well, I look back at my writings from was expressed in art and posters in that of the meaning of life. that time and there was some very creative era actually came out of Sister Corita Gitschier: Wow. [I had to swallow the stuff but isolated from the bulk of the Kent and a number of other rebels. The answer, ‘‘42’’.] intellectual mainstream, it’s very hard to sisters at IHC were essentially kicked Haussler: Still this rebel spirit, I guess. make progress. So I was thrilled to get re- out of the Catholic Church for being I wasn’t convinced that I would find that engaged, just by taking advanced math radicals, and they had an extremely at traditional institutions. I spent about classes at Cal Poly [San Luis Obispo]. experimental college. So I, being the nine months wandering around Europe Applied mathematics was my major, contrarian I was, applied there. It was and then settled in San Luis Obispo on the but I took computer science classes as well. strong in art and music and psychology. family farm, kind of between generations. I seized on the question of what is We studied Fritz Perls and Carl Rogers My grandfather was aging and my father computable. What can be formalized by and all of these self-realization psychol- was active as an engineer, so there was no mathematics? And the answer, according ogy thinkers at the time. And I was one to take care of it. to Alan Turing, was that this is the same as extremely into that. We had intensive While I was there, I wanted to keep what can be computed on a very simple encounter groups and dug very deeply touch with my intellectual side, so my kind of machine. I was tremendously taken into personal interactions. friends and I—it was almost like a by that and by the fact that Turing and Gitschier: But you didn’t stick with commune—believed in working hard on Kurt Go¨del had established that there Immaculate Heart. the ranch during the day and then reading were things that were fundamentally Haussler: I got interested in science and discussing philosophy, history, litera- uncomputable; true but unprovable. It by working with my brother. I then ture, and psychology at night. appealed to my mystical side. I was always transferred to Connecticut College back Gitschier: Who were these people that interested in the unity of the universe and east. Again, I liked very intimate, individ- you recruited to the farm? the mystery of it. ual learning. This was part of my whole Haussler: Well, important people that Gitschier: Are you still? psychology background. I view essential I met in my life and in my travels.