[3] His father, Maurice Green, was a virologist at St. Louis University School of Medicine, where he directed the Institute for Molecular Virology for over five decades.

His brother, Michael Green, was a molecular biologist at UMass Chan Medical School, where he chaired the Department of Molecular, Cell, and Cancer Biology and was an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute until he passed away in 2023.

In 1992, Green was appointed Assistant Professor of Pathology and Genetics as well as a co-investigator in the Human Genome Center at Washington University.

[8] While directing an independent research program for almost two decades, Green worked to map, sequence and understand eukaryotic genomes.

[citation needed] As NHGRI director, Green leads the Institute's research programs and other initiatives, and it has completed two major cycles of strategic planning.