Uploaded January 2024 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
Ever wish you could get candid answers from the NHGRI Director about fun and interesting questions? To celebrate NHGRI Director Eric Green’s 64th birthday, NHGRI staff joined him at the office and asked him 64 fun questions about his favorite things, his career, the Human Genome Project and the field of genomics!
Learn more about Eric Green: genome.gov/About-NHGRI/Director
Follow Eric Green on Instagram: instagram.com/nhgri_director
Follow Eric Green on Twitter: twitter.com/NHGRI_Director
Ever wish you could get candid answers from the NHGRI Director about fun and interesting questions? To celebrate NHGRI Director Eric Green’s 64th birthday, NHGRI staff joined him at the office and asked him 64 fun questions about his favorite things, his career, the Human Genome Project and the field of genomics!
Learn more about Eric Green: genome.gov/About-NHGRI/Director
Follow Eric Green on Instagram: instagram.com/nhgri_director
Follow Eric Green on Twitter: twitter.com/NHGRI_Director


![NHGRIs Oral History Collection: Interview with Sarah Tishkoff
Sarah Tishkoff, Ph.D., is the David and Lyn Silfen Professor in the Department of Biology and Genetics at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Tishkoff is a recipient of the National Institutes of Health Director’s Pioneer Award, and she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2017. She is a leading expert in researching human genetic diversity in African populations. In this oral history interview, recorded in 2016, Dr. Tishkoff recounts her early work in anthropology with Allan Wilson at the University of California, Berkeley. She also discusses in depth her groundbreaking work in studying human genetic variation across Africa.
The National Human Genome Research Institute’s (NHGRI) Oral History Collection features discussions with influential figures in the field of genomics and the history of institute. Intended for researchers and scholars, each oral history contains extensive conversation about science and medicine, biographical details and insights into the inner workings of institutions and initiatives. For more information, visit NHGRI’s History of Genomics Program at: https://www.genome.gov/leadership-initiatives/History-of-Genomics-Program
Credits:
Executive Producer/Historian: Christopher Donohue, Ph.D.
Interviewer: Christopher Donohue, Ph.D.
Assistant Producers: Kris Wetterstrand, M.S., Britny Kish, Mukul Nerurkar
Producer/Videographer/Editor: Alvaro Encinas
Voiceover (Interview Questions): Zachary Utz, M.A.
Chapters:
00:00 - Intro Music
00:21 - How did you first become interested in science?
09:06 - How did the Human Genome Diversity Project and the International Haplotype Map Project influence your work?
22:17 - Can you talk a bit more about the planning and logistics that went into the study you did with the Marshfield Institute?
31:10 - How has the H3Africa Initiative changed how this kind of field work is being done?
34:25 - If you could design a project that addressed the issues that you mentioned, what would it look like?
36:20 - How have improvements in sequencing technologies affected this kind of work?
39:22 - How do we talk about [natural] selection in African populations in a way that is responsible and scientifically correct?
41:27 - How do you separate the genomic component of complex disease from the environmental component? NHGRIs Oral History Collection: Interview with Sarah Tishkoff](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/5fLcsl3360Y/mqdefault.jpg)







