Maynard V. Olson is professor of genome sciences and medicine at the University of Washington. He is a specialist in the genetics of cystic fibrosis, and one of the founders of the Human Genome Project.
Originally a chemist, he received his undergraduate degree from California Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from Stanford University in 1970. From 1970-75, he was at Dartmouth College, and then became a molecular biologist, first at the University of Washington, then at Washington University in St. Louis, and , from 1992 on, again at the University of Washington.