Paul Berg, Stanford Professor of Cancer Research Emeritus and 1980 winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, spoke about: his arrival at Stanford in 1959, along with six colleagues from Washington Univ. in St. Louis, who created the open, sharing environment of the new Biochemistry Department; research on genetic processes and a search to understand cancer; work developing novel tools for manipulating DNA; and his role in organizing the important, public Asilomar Conference on Recombinant DNA in 1975 where scientists evaluated risks and policy issues and agreed to voluntary limitations and guidelines.