J. Craig Venter

J. Craig Venter
J. Craig Venter
	Venter in 2007
Born	John Craig Venter; October 14, 1946; Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.
Died	April 29, 2026 (aged 79); San Diego, California, U.S.
Education	University of California, San Diego
Occupation	Biologist
Spouses	; Barbara Rae (m. 1968; sep. 1980) Claire M. Fraser (div. 2005); ; Heather Kowalski (m. 2008)
Children	1
Awards	Gairdner Award (2002); Nierenberg Prize (2007); Kistler Prize (2008); ENI award (2008); Medal of Science (2008); Dickson Prize (2011); Leeuwenhoek Medal (2015); Edogawa NICHE Prize (2020);
	Scientific career
Fields	DNA; Human genome; Metagenomics; Synthetic genomics; Shotgun approach to genome sequencing;
Workplaces	State University of New York at Buffalo; National Institutes of Health; J. Craig Venter Institute;
Thesis	Immobilized and insolubilized drugs, hormones and enzymes: characterizations and applications to physiology and medicine (1975)
Doctoral advisor	Nathan O. Kaplan
Doctoral students	Claire M. Fraser
Website	www.jcvi.org

John Craig Venter (October 14, 1946 – April 29, 2026) was an American geneticist and businessman. He is known for having led one of the first draft sequences of the human genome and led the first team to transfect a cell with a synthetic chromosome. 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., and Synthetic Genomics.

Venter was listed on Time magazine's 2007 and 2008 Time 100 lists of the most influential people in the world. In 2010, the British magazine New Statesman listed him as 14th in the list of "The World's 50 Most Influential Figures 2010". In 2012, Venter was honored with the Dan David Prize for his contribution to genome research. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2013. He was a member of the USA Science and Engineering Festival's advisory board.