Alec Jeffreys was born in January 1950 in Oxford, United Kingdom. Jeffreys is clearly a man with science in his genes: “I think I was born to be a scientist, as I was already fascinated by the subject at the age of five.” His path was further determined some three years later, when his father gave him a microscope and a large chemistry set.

His interest in experimental chemistry and biology continued to grow and he went on to study biochemistry at Merton College, Oxford, then undertook his PhD on the mitochondria of cultured mammalian cells at the Genetics Laboratory, also at Oxford. Thereafter he moved to the University of Amsterdam, where he worked as a research fellow on mammalian genes. In 1977 Jeffreys moved back to the UK to lecture in the Department of Genetics at the University of Leicester, where he invented DNA fingerprinting in 1984.

Today Jeffreys is Professor of Genetics at the University of Leicester and continues to work at the genetics laboratory. When not working, he enjoys surfboarding (not often in Leicester) and philately. He is a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association and likes to boast that he is one of the top Twister players on staff at Leicester University!

“I have to confess that I simply haven’t grown up. I think deep inside I’m still stuck at age 14 with my chemistry set; it’s just curiosity that keeps me going! The ability to keep experimenting and discovering things about the universe in which we live is a great privilege – as well as a fantastic hobby. So that’s why I love what I do.”

Read the whole story (PDF)

DNA fingerprinting in wikipedia

How to create a DNA fingerprint?

DNA evidence in HowStuffWorks