John Craig Venter, who until January 2002 was the President and Chief Executive Officer of Celera Genomics, is one of the central figures in the Human Genome Project. Venter co-founded Celera in 1998, and he directed its research and operations while he and the company's other scientists completed a draft of the human genome. Using a fast sequencing technique, Venter and his colleagues were able to sequence the human genome, and the genomes of other organisms, including the bacterium Haemophilus infuenzae,.

Venter was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. After high school he seemed destined for a career as a surfer rather than as a molecular biologist. But a tour of duty in Vietnam as a hospital corpsman precipitated a change in the direction of his life. He returned from Vietnam and entered university, earning a doctorate in physiology and pharmacology from the University of California at San Diego. After...