J. Craig Venter
| Craig Venter | |
|---|---|
Venter in 2007
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| Born | John Craig Venter October 14, 1946 Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S. |
| Institutions |
State University of New York at Buffalo National Institutes of Health J. Craig Venter Institute |
| Alma mater | University of California, San Diego |
| Known for |
DNA Human genome Metagenomics Synthetic genomics Shotgun approach to genome sequencing |
| Notable awards |
Gairdner Award (2002) Nierenberg Prize (2007) Kistler Prize (2008) ENI award (2008) Medal of Science (2008) Dickson Prize (2011) Leeuwenhoek Medal (2015) |
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Website J. Craig Venter Institute |
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John Craig Venter (born October 14, 1946) is an American biotechnologist, biochemist, geneticist, and businessman. He is known for being one of the first to sequence the human genome and the first to transfect a cell with a synthetic genome. Venter founded Celera Genomics, The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) and the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI). He was the co-founder of Human Longevity Inc., served as its CEO until 2017, and is executive chairman of the board of directors. He was listed on Time magazine's 2007 and 2008 Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world. In 2010, the British magazine New Statesman listed Craig Venter at 14th in the list of "The World's 50 Most Influential Figures 2010". He is a member of the USA Science and Engineering Festival's Advisory Board.
Venter was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, the son of Elizabeth and John Venter. In his youth, he did not take his education seriously, preferring to spend his time on the water in boats or surfing. According to his biography, A Life Decoded, he was said to never be a terribly engaged student, having Cs and Ds on his eighth-grade report cards. He graduated from Mills High School in Millbrae, California.
Although he was against the Vietnam War, Venter was drafted and enlisted in the United States Navy where he worked in the intensive-care ward of a field hospital. While in Vietnam, he attempted suicide by swimming out to sea, but as he got deeper into the sea and was approaching the circling of a shark, he changed his mind more than a mile out. Being confronted with wounded, maimed, and dying [marines] on a daily basis instilled in him a desire to study medicine — although he later switched to biomedical research.
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