David Galas, PhD

David J. Galas was the principal scientist for the Pacific Northwest Research Institute (PNRI) and chairman emeritus of the board of directors for the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation.

David Galas, PhD was an internationally recognized expert in molecular biology and human genetics, well known for his work in the Human Genome Project. As a senior investigator at the Pacific Northwest Research Institute (PNRI), he focused primarily on computational biology.

David held leadership positions at several of the nation’s top research institutions and earned his PhD in physics from the University of California. He served as Director for Health and Environmental Research at the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, where he headed the Human Genome Project from 1990 to 1993. Prior to that, he served as Professor and Chair of Molecular Biology at the University of Southern California. He also held research positions at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, and at the University of California’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

David served on many corporate boards, including biotechnology companies he co-founded. He also served on national advisory boards, including the Board on Life Science and the National Cancer Policy Board. He chaired the board of directors of the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation and was a lifetime National Associate of the National Academy of Sciences.

David and PNRI’s Lisa Stubbs, PhD, launched the Decoding Stress Study. It aims to answer some of the biggest questions about the role of people’s genes in determining how they respond to chronic stress.