The science center that has put pipettes in the hands of a generation of Long Island students just saw its founder honored nationally. David Micklos, executive director of the DNA Learning Center at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, has received the 2026 Genetics Education Award from the National Association of Biology Teachers.

The world's first, and it is on Long Island

Micklos founded the DNA Learning Center in 1988 as the world's first science center devoted entirely to teaching genetics to the public. The idea behind it was simple and, at the time, untried: instead of reading about molecular biology, students would run the experiments themselves, loading gels, copying DNA and analyzing their own results in a working teaching lab.

Thirty-eight years later, that idea has scaled far past one building. More than 500,000 pre-college students across the United States take part in DNA Learning Center curricula, experiments and extended research projects every year, according to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Another 19 programs around the world, with sites in Austria, China and Nigeria among them, run the center's programming under formal partnerships or model their own on it, building out from what Micklos started on Long Island's North Shore.

From Botswana to the North Shore

Micklos began his teaching career as a Peace Corps volunteer at a public boarding school in Botswana. When he moved into molecular biology, he set out to build a simple set of experiments that would let students get their hands dirty in a real lab, and that set of experiments grew into the center he still runs. The training side of the operation has reached many thousands of the association's own member teachers over the years, which is part of what the award recognizes.

The National Association of Biology Teachers is the professional organization for biology educators in the United States, and its Genetics Education Award recognizes sustained contributions to how the subject is taught.

What the center does today

The DNA Learning Center operates as the education arm of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, the research institution whose scientists have shaped modern genetics for more than a century. The center runs hands-on lab experiences for students and training programs for teachers, with its original home in Cold Spring Harbor and a sister site, DNALC NYC, that brings the same teaching labs to New York City students.

For Long Island families, the practical meaning of the award is close to home: the field trips, lab classes and student research programs that schools across Nassau and Suffolk have used for decades are the same ones a national teaching organization just singled out as the model for the country. Details on the center's programs are on its site.

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