The Whole Side of It—An Interview with Neil Risch

Trying to track down Neil Risch is the stuff of legend. E-mails to him can bounce back with the comment line ‘‘overwhelmed by email.’’ Phone calls lead to voicemail, and faxes to a tepid response from his assistant. It’s not that he’s reclusive or off windsurfing, he’s simply a whirlwind of genetics ideas and activity. Indeed, when the University of California at San Francisco was looking for a director of the new Center for Human Genetics, Neil’s name quickly came to the top of the heap. With wideranging experience and interests, he was described by one of the field’s founding fathers as ‘‘the statistical geneticist of our time.’’ It didn’t hurt that he is a mensch. I managed to trap Neil in his bright new office on the ninth floor of the west tower off Parnassus Avenue. Still spartan, with only a computer, a phone, and a chair, the office’s view spanned Golden Gate Park, the Marin headlands, and the Pacific Ocean. The vista was interrupted only by the jarring copper-clad tower of the new museum under construction in Golden Gate Park. It was a brilliant blue, warm afternoon, and I looked forward to spending some one-on-one time with this man, with his infectious laugh and his intellectual stamina.