Sir Francis Galton developed medical genetics, founded eugenics, and introduced biostatistical methods to the study of inheritance.

Born into a life of leisure as the son of a wealthy banker in Birmingham, England, Galton never completed a postbaccalaureate degree or held an academic job. He studied mathematics at Cambridge and medicine at King's College, London, receiving his B.A. from Cambridge in January 1844. The death of his father in October 1844 left him a rich man. He quit medicine and spent the next eight years traveling in Africa, gaining a solid reputation as an explorer and field scientist. Thereafter, Galton lived in England, was knighted in 1909, and died of bronchitis at his estate in Haslemere, Surrey. His will provided funds to endow a professorship of eugenics at the University of London.

Galton lent his scientific genius to many domains of inquiry, including physics, astronomy, geography, cognitive psychology, anthropology, evolutionary...