David Haussler
David Haussler researches statistical and algorithmic methods for genomics. He joined UCSC in 1986 and applied learning methods to biological sequences. His team helped publish a computational human-genome assembly in July 2000 and later developed the UCSC Genome Browser. The assembly program was written by Jim Kent, with wider scientific collaboration. Haussler received the ACM/AAAI Allen Newell Award in 2003 and co-founded Treehouse with Olena Vaske in 2014. His work links AI methods with shared biological research resources.
- Works
- 706
- Citations
- 238,041
- h-index
- 171
Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 14 October 2026.
Timeline
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1986 and early research
Computing joins biology
Haussler joined UCSC in 1986 after doctoral study at Colorado Boulder. His research applies hidden Markov models, stochastic grammars and kernel methods to DNA, RNA and protein sequences. These are computational methods for finding structure in biological data.
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2000
A shared human-genome assembly
Haussler’s team made a public posting of a computational human-genome assembly on 7 July 2000. Jim Kent wrote the assembly program, and Haussler’s team collaborated with molecular biologists and sequencing laboratories. The achievement was a team contribution to the international Human Genome Project.
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After 2000–2003
Tools for working with genomes
His team then worked on the development of the UCSC Genome Browser. The resource integrates genome sequences with genes, variation and other biological information. Haussler received the ACM/AAAI Allen Newell Award in 2003.
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2014
Comparing childhood cancer genomes
Haussler co-founded the Treehouse Childhood Cancer Project with Olena Vaske in 2014. The project enables international comparison of childhood cancer genomes. His work also includes broader genomics and conservation collaborations.
Sources and credits
Photo: University of California, Santa Cruz, via Wikimedia Commons. License: CC BY-SA 3.0. Source: commons.wikimedia.org. Cropped to a square and resized. Ask us to remove or replace this photo.
