National Portrait: New Royal Society fellow Bruce Weir on DNA and that OJ Simpson trial – Stuff.co.nz

Its estimated 150 million Americans 57 per cent of the country watched the verdict in the 1995 OJ Simpson trial.

The case dominated news bulletins around the world and in the stand as an expert witness was Kiwi mathematician Bruce Weir.

For three days, the world-renowned authority on biostatistics discussed the blood samples taken from Simpsons car and glove. The DNA evidence was overwhelming ... and it all pointed in the same direction, he says.

He faced a grilling from Simpsons lawyer, and at one stage conceded an error in his calculations. Having spent months working on the complex equations with a colleague, he was asked by the judge to provide additional data.

I went back to my hotel room and did them overnight. I left out one term, so the numbers were not correct. Unfortunately for me, and maybe fortunately for the defence, they spotted this. I dont think it was a crucial element.

Simpson was found not guilty, and the extensive media coverage of the trial made Weir a recognisable figure on American streets. I couldnt go anywhere without being recognised. When you are on national TV for an extended period you get known.

The 77-year-old now lives and works on Americas northwest coast, 11,000 kilometres from where he grew up in Christchurch.

Last month he became a Fellow of the Royal Society, the oldest and most prestigious national scientific institution in the world.

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Its a huge honour, he says, but he feels most proud to be one of the 50 or so New Zealanders who have been elected.

Lord Rutherford and a couple of Nobel Prize winners. I don't even think of being at that level, but it's nice to be in a group which has those.

Biostatistics is an area of expertise that has played a vital role in the fight against Covid-19.

Data analysis was used during the clinical trials for the coronavirus vaccines and to study mutations in the virus, he says.

When there's an outbreak they can see which variant and where it came from. It's the numbers which are so crucial.

And he praises New Zealands response to the pandemic, especially the sequencing, which has been world class.

Born in 1943, Weir was raised in the Christchurch suburb of Shirley with his four siblings.

Most of his family worked in the trades and his dad hoped he would become a plumber.

My father worked in a factory, he rose through the hierarchy, but he worked with his hands, Weir says.

My mother had been secretarial and that was typical for our family. My aunts and uncles all had good jobs but not what we'd call professionals.

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Shirley Boys' High School headmaster Charles Gallagher with First-Day third formers Trevor Purver, Neville Burnby, Peter Cox, Robert Clarke, Grant Webley, and Robert Dollan. Image taken around 1957.

In November 1957, Shirley Boys High School opened and Weir was one of 156 form three students, now known as First-Day Pupils.

He remembers it being an exciting time.

It was a brand new school, new building, new staff who were very enthusiastic.

I was one of the boys who got to unpack the chemistry equipment, and I'd never seen a test tube or a beaker. It was a whole new world.

Nearby Christchurch Boys' High was founded in 1881 and a healthy rivalry was quickly established between the two schools.

We were on a mission, he says. We were the second public boys' school and we had a rival. There was also the other private boys' schools, Christ's College, St Andrews, St Bedes, and we tried very hard to be part of that scene.

Weirs time at Shirley Boys was instrumental, especially the guidance he received from the amazing headmaster Charles Gallagher, who helped him launch his academic career.

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Shirley Boys' High School. Back L-R Graeme Hern, Cyril Morris, Ross Nicholas Front L-R Alex Wilson, Max Wright, Headteacher Charles Gallagher, James Barrie and Bruce Weir. Image taken in 1959.

His degree was in maths and he was personally very encouraging.

Weir was made head boy and in 1961 became the schools first dux.

But despite the plaudits, the following week he was working a summer job on the rubbish trucks.

I got all the prizes and then a week later I was on D and R dust and rubbish.

After winning a scholarship, he attended the University of Canterbury (UC), the first of his family to go to university.

It was a bit daunting. It was hard work, but that was fine.

Whilst at UC he began an internship at the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research under acclaimed statistician Brian Hayman, who worked in genetics.

I had no idea what genetics was, Weir says.

Hayman told him to read Genetics by biologist Hans Kalmus and the book sparked an interest that would shape his career.

I read that and thought wow. Who knew we had genes and they seem to obey some mathematical rules? I thought that was neat.

At that point, genetics was largely concerned with plants and animals and most statistical work was used for improving crop or milk yield, he says.

After graduating in 1965 with a first class degree in mathematics, Weir undertook a PhD in statistics with a minor in genetics at North Carolina State University, in the US.

There he met Columbus Clark Cockerham who developed the language for statistical genetic data and the pair would undertake pioneering work over the next three decades.

During his post-doctoral studies in California in the late 1960s, Weir was part of a team that studied human genes a field which was still in its infancy.

We were so excited, we had information on four genes, this was unprecedented. In the work I'm doing now, we have a billion.

He returned to New Zealand in 1970, working as a senior lecturer at Massey University.

And he could be seen driving around Palmerston North in a 1966 Ford Mustang, which he shipped back from America.

In those days you couldn't travel to the US by air, unless you were extremely rich, so everybody sailed.

Coming back, my checked luggage was my Mustang.

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Bruce and Beth Weir's wedding in August 1971. The couple drove away in his 1966 Ford Mustang.

While at Massey he met his wife Elizabeth Swainson, his American car having caught her eye.

I think it helped attract my wife. We sold it at a huge profit and it helped us buy our first house.

The couple would have two children together, Claudia and Henry, and in 1976 they moved to the States, with Weir becoming the founding director of the Bioinformatics Research Centre at North Carolina State University.

Today, he is an honorary professor at the University of Aucklands Department of Statistics but is primarily based in Seattle, where he is a professor of biostatistics, epidemiology and genome sciences at the University of Washington Schools of Public Health and Medicine.

As a lecturer, he has been prolific supervising more than 35 PhD students but he is best known for his groundbreaking research.

The book he co-wrote on interpreting DNA evidence is considered the definitive text for lawyers and judges.

And his biostatistical studies have resulted in the publication of more than 200 peer-reviewed articles.

By the early 1990s, DNA profiling was increasingly being used in criminal investigations and Weir was approached by the FBI to help ensure its calculations were rigorous.

He provided testimonies in about 20 trials, before prosecutors in Los Angeles County asked him to assist in the trial of Simpson,

the American actor and former NFL player who was arrested and charged in 1994 with the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman.

Reed Saxon/AP

OJ Simpson and defence attorney F. Lee Bailey during the double murder trial in Los Angeles on June 30, 1995.

Though he was acquitted, he would later serve nine years for a robbery-kidnapping conviction in Las Vegas.

Weir hopes his own work will one day lead to cures for a range of illnesses.

Conditions like Alzheimer's disease could be better treated with the identification of what gene causes it.

We could then maybe give the person a drug to compensate for what that person's gene was not doing. It all rests on the data.

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Bruce and Beth Weir (centre). Their daughter Claudia Weir and son Henry Weir, with his children Zoe and Spencer.

In May, Weir became a Fellow of the Royal Society, which was founded in 1660 and is made up of the most eminent scientists, engineers and technologists from throughout the Commonwealth.

He was recognised for his contributions to the theory of population and quantitative genetics and to forensic science.

Each year 52 new Fellows are elected and for the 2021 elections there were almost 700 candidates.

Current members include around 75 Nobel Prize winners, while past Fellows include Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Alan Turing.

Weir says its a huge honour but he feels most proud to be one of the 50 or so New Zealanders who have been elected.

Lord Rutherford and a couple of Nobel Prize winners. I don't even think of being at that level, but it's nice to be in a group which has those.

One of the things he is especially delighted about is that his election means Shirley Boys' High School now has a fellow of the Royal Society.

We have joined Christ's College and Christchurch Boys'. Thats a big deal.

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National Portrait: New Royal Society fellow Bruce Weir on DNA and that OJ Simpson trial - Stuff.co.nz