From lost scientist to science advocate
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) has been part of Kristin Olson Smith’s story since she and her family moved to Banbury Lane in 1990. She remembers her introduction to the Laboratory well, as it came on her first day of high school—or, to be exact, the night afterward.
“My family and I were watching a movie, and you know how dark it can get out here,” she recalled. “There are no other houses around us on Banbury Lane, but we heard banging on our back window, which startled us. Turns out it was a scientist attending a Banbury meeting who was trying to find their way back to the Robertson House.”
While the startling introduction certainly made an impression on Olson Smith and may have been the first time she realized how deeply embedded the Laboratory was in its surrounding communities, it would be more than 20 years before CSHL would once again surprise her.
“I went to Cold Spring Harbor High, so naturally I went to the DNA Learning Center and mapped my DNA, but I never really thought much about the Lab after that,” she says. After college, Olson Smith built a successful career at Goldman Sachs, eventually becoming a partner. Today, she leads the Alternative Capital Markets group.
“I moved back to Long Island in 2017 and wanted to give back close to home,” she says. “I took a tour of the Lab and saw some of the research being done in neuroscience and breast cancer. I walked out thinking, ‘Wow, this is happening right here in my backyard!?’ I want to learn more.”
That spark led her to join the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Association, which supports the Lab’s research and education programs. She later chaired the group from 2020 to 2023.
Olson Smith didn’t have a personal connection to any one disease—what drew her in was the science itself. “I was fascinated by the incredible impact that basic science was having on so many different parts of our lives and how rapidly it was advancing,” she said. “What struck me was how the scientists could explain complex research in a way that made sense. It reminded me how exciting learning can be.”
Today, she’s still involved in spreading the word and bringing friends and colleagues to lab events. And the sense of wonderment CSHL evokes in her is strong as ever: “It really is amazing there is a world-class research institution whose work in basic science is the foundation that enables the innovation we need for better health and a better planet.”