Craig Venter
The Institute for Genomic Research
Washington, DC USA
"I've never been influenced that much by other people's comments or goals; I work hard to make up my own mind with as much information as I can get."
Career Roadmap
Craig's work combines: Science, Technology, and Problem Solving
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Day In The Life
Skills &
Education
Here's the path I took:
High School
Bachelor's Degree
Chemistry, General
University of California-San Diego
Graduate Degree
Physiology, General
University of California-San Diego
Graduate Degree
Pharmacology
University of California-San Diego
Life & Career Milestones
My path in life has been direct
1.
Got in trouble in elementary school for refusing to take spelling tests; was about half of a grade away from not graduating high school.
2.
Originally didn't like school, says it was unrewarding, but he needed to support himself.
3.
Worked nights at Sears so that he could surf all day.
4.
After returning from his deployment to Vietnam, decided to go back to school to study biology, pharmacology, and physiology.
5.
Eventually got his Ph.D. and went to work with the National Institutes of Health.
6.
Started his own biomedical companies; in 1998, one of these companies decoded the genome of a fruit fly.
7.
Three years later, he and his team had decoded and sequenced the entire human genome.
8.
Says before you make career decisions, decide what you want to accomplish in life, then build your path.