Eric Lander Interview (page: 9 / 9) Founding Director, Broad Institute	Print Interview

What effect do you think your dad's illness and early death had on you?

Eric Lander: Hard to say. As a scientist, I'm inclined to say, 'We don't have the control." I don't know. We don't have the alternative of what would have happened. Certainly it meant that I was raised by a mother who worked extraordinarily hard, and threw herself into myself and my brother, and it was a different sort of a family because of it, but I don't know. You know, I sometimes wonder, as a father now, what the effect is of a father or a mother per se, and you know, it's something I'll just never know.

How did your mother react when you were going in the direction of math and science?

Eric Lander: She was super about things like this. She never took this terribly seriously, in a wonderful way.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. When I was a high school senior, I won the Westinghouse Science Talent Search -- now the Intel Science Talent Search -- and she was excited for me. She was pleased for me. I called her from Washington to say it had happened and it was great. I flew back to Brooklyn, came in the door with my coat on, and she said, "Oh, before you take off your coat, could you take out the garbage?" And to me that was -- we've always joked about it -- but that was exactly what my mother was about. It was, "Oh, wonderful," I'd won a national science contest, but could I also take out the garbage. I mean, she always made sure that I remembered who I was and where I came from, and I think that was a wonderful thing.

Was she supportive of your going into science?

Eric Lander: I was barely going in science, more math. Yes, in a teasing sort of way.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. She was never a mother who checked our homework or pushed anything. She left us largely to our own responsibility. She always teased us, when my brother and I would talk about math or science she would always say, "Don't talk dirty at the table about using all these highfalutin words." Of course she went to college and she was well-trained and all that. So in a certain sense she left us our own space to do those things. She clearly tremendously cared about our education, took us to museums and did things, but left a tremendous amount of space for us to find out what we wanted to do, and I think that actually had a huge impact, rather than having a parent who was right on top of you doing those things, and it is a lesson I try to think about a lot with my own kids now.

What did she mean by saying that? Was it because she didn't know what you were talking about?

Eric Lander: Yep. Yep. There was a certain sense of "I don't know what you're talking about, but I'm glad you're happy about it," but it also meant, "I'm not going to be overly impressed by it per se," which sent a message of, "You're not supposed to impress me. That's not what it's about."

Not putting you in your place, but giving you a perspective.

Eric Lander: Reminding you that you have a place in the world, and it's being a kid from Brooklyn, and that's a wonderful thing to be, but whatever becomes of you, you're still that person. It's a certain sense of rootedness that's pretty important.

What book did you read when you were growing up that was really important to you?

Eric Lander: I would say none. I wasn't a great reader when I was young. I did lots of things. Having a wife who loves to read, and loved to read from when I met her, I'm struck at how much books mattered to her early on. They didn't matter to me then. Somewhere around 30 or 35 I became incredibly engrossed as a reader, and now I'm an inveterate reader, but books per se didn't have a huge influence on me then.

Okay. What books had an influence on you at 30? We don't give up until we have an answer!

Eric Lander: Oh, my goodness. I think at 30 it's too late to have spectacularly influential books on your life. I have wonderful books that I'm tremendously fond of but I wasn't shaped by them.

Okay. But what books?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Eric Lander: I'm a tremendous fan of Jared Diamond's recent book, Guns, Germs and Steel. I think it's a brilliant book. One of the best books I've read ever, and it's just brilliant because he tries to take on really big questions, really important questions, and teaches about historical contingency. What might have happened "but for..." And I think it reminds us that the world is a pretty complicated place, and that simplistic explanations about why some peoples turned out the way they did are unlikely to be true, but it's a complicated set of contingencies, and we oughtn't to be too prideful about how any particular group turned out. I just think it's a brilliant book that will have great, great impact. I'm delighted to see that -- now that it's in paperback -- it's on the bestseller list, and lots of people are reading it, because I think when it first came out -- but I know Jared, in fact, from a number of events and things, and he's just a brilliant writer. So I've got to say that's my top book at the moment.

What people inspired you or were role models when you were growing up?

Eric Lander: They were local. They tended to be the math teacher at junior high school, Jack Druckman, the math teacher in high school, Irene Finkel, who ran and supported the math team. They tended to be very local heroes. I was never one at those times for distant heroes and truly heroic legendary heroes. They were the local teachers who really made a huge difference in my life.

What does the American Dream mean to you in your life?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Eric Lander: The American Dream to me means that anything is possible. I think that's something that's so uniquely American. I tremendously enjoyed going to graduate school in England, but one thing that struck me was that my fellow graduate students imagined when they were in graduate school that they knew what their lives were about. They knew that they were mathematicians or scientists or English majors. They felt that, early in schooling, they had been channeled in a certain way, and perhaps in some ways, still, in England, through class in certain ways. None of my fellow graduate students -- English graduate students -- felt that they could do anything with their lives, and it was really puzzling to them that I wasn't at all clear that I wanted to be a mathematician, but I was still in graduate school and that I had this -- I think -- uniquely American sense that you could always do whatever you wanted. You could reinvent yourself in some ways. Now that's not to say it's easy. It's not to say it's not a struggle. It's not to say it will always work. But to me, what America is about, is a statement that the individual can continue to learn, continue to change, and that we all help each other to do that. I think that's a tremendously strong aspect of America. Something that I very much want to make sure we never lose.

[ Key to Success ] The American Dream

Thank you.

Eric Lander: Good. Well, this was fun.

It was great that you had this much energy after your long day.

Eric Lander: It was nice and relaxing sitting here with you guys.

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