Dr. Haines is a genetic epidemiologist who has been active in identifying the underlying genetic causes of common and complex genetic diseases since his graduate work at the University of Minnesota in the early 1980s and his postdoctoral work at Indiana University in the mid-1980s. In 1987 Dr. Haines joined the faculty of Harvard Medical School where he started working on understanding the genetic causes of common diseases and on developing and applying computational methods to analyze genetic data. He was an early leader in the Human Genome Project, helping to develop and apply the first comprehensive genetic maps. He joined the faculty of Vanderbilt University in 1997 specifically to develop a Center for Human Genetics Research. He has published over 300 peer-reviewed papers and 40 book chapters. He is co-editor of the book "Approaches to Gene Mapping in Complex Human Diseases" and the reference text "Current Protocols in Human Genetics." He is also co-founder of the NIH-funded short course "Genetic Analysis of Complex Human Diseases" that is taught every year to professionals from around the world. Dr. Haines has received numerous honors including the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Indiana University and a Zenith award from the Alzheimer Association. His current research focuses on the dissection of the genetic architecture of neurological and ophthalmological diseases, and developing and applying computational methods to analyze the resulting data.