[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 58 (Monday, April 23, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E610]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                IN RECOGNITION OF MICHAEL W. HUNKAPILLAR

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JACKIE SPEIER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, April 23, 2012

  Ms. SPEIER. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor Michael W. Hunkapillar who 
today is receiving BayBio's prestigious Lifetime Achievement DiNA Award 
in San Francisco.
  Mike is one of the brilliant minds in biotechnology. He has been 
instrumental in expanding the frontiers of genomics and proteomics. His 
extraordinary accomplishments include the invention of the first DNA 
sequencer and the realization of the Human Genome Mapping Project.
  I had the great honor and pleasure to work with him while I was in 
the California Senate. I introduced legislation that established a 
missing person DNA database. Mike happened to hear me talk about it on 
the radio, called me and donated DNA testing equipment to make the 
program a reality. This important program helps solve thousands of 
rapes, homicides and missing person cases.
  Mike has had a hugely successful and expansive career as a scientist, 
entrepreneur and life science industry executive. He is currently a 
general partner at AlloyVentures, a venture capital firm that invests 
in the next generation of information technology, life sciences and 
clean tech.
  Before joining Alloy, he spent 21 years at Applied Biosystems which 
he co-founded. He turned it from a start-up into a $2 billion a year 
company that supplies instruments and reagent systems to life science 
research. Mike also founded ABI's sister company Celera Genomics, now 
owned by Quest Diagnostics.
  Prior to ABI, Mike was a senior research fellow in the Division of 
Biology at the California Institute of Technology. While at Caltech he 
authored over 100 scientific publications, served on the editorial 
boards of several scientific journals and received patents for more 
than two dozen inventions.
  Among his most influential inventions was the automated Gene and 
Protein Sequencer that was used to sequence the human genome in 2003. 
The project identified all 20,000 25,000 genes in the human DNA, 
determined the sequences of 3 billion chemical base pairs that make up 
human DNA, stored the information in a database, improved tools for 
data analysis and--for the first time in a large scientific project--
addressed ethical, legal and social issues.
  The National Academy of Engineering recently elected Mike for his 
life-long dedication to the human genome mapping project and the field 
of comparative genetics.
  Mike was born in Paris, Texas in 1948. He received his B.S. in 
Chemistry from Oklahoma Baptist University in 1970 and his Ph.D. in 
Chemical Biology at Caltech in 1974.
  Just last week he was appointed Executive Chairman of the board of 
directors of Pacific Biosciences, and he also serves on the boards of 
NuGEN, Verinata Health and RainDance Technologies.
  Mike and his wife Beth have two children, Kathryn Keho and Nathan 
Hunkapillar, and two grandchildren, Christopher and Patrick Keho. In 
his spare time, Mike is an avid soccer player.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask this body to rise with me to honor Mike 
Hunkapillar, for his historic contributions to science and humanity.

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