Ronald W. Davis

Who is Ronald W. Davis?

Ronald Wayne "Ron" Davis is Professor of Biochemistry & Genetics, and Director of the Stanford Genome Technology Center at Stanford University. Davis is a researcher in biotechnology and molecular genetics, particularly active in human and yeast genomics and the development of new technologies in genomics, with over 30 biotechnology patents.

After completing his PhD at Caltech and a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University, Davis joined the faculty of Stanford's Department of Biochemistry in 1972, becoming Associate Professor in 1980, full Professor in 1980, and joined the Department of Genetics as a professor in 1990. He became director of the Stanford Genome Technology Center in 1994. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1983.

Davis developed the R-loop technique of electron microscopy for mapping coding RNAs which led to the discovery of RNA splicing. With Janet Mertz, Davis was the first to demonstrate the use of restriction endonucleases for joining DNA fragments. Davis collaborated in the development of the first DNA microarray for gene expression profiling with Patrick O.