J. Craig Venter, highly regarded for his numerous invaluable contributions to genomic research, is best known for sequencing the human genome a decade before most predicted it could be done. Author of A Life Decoded: My Genome: My Life, he is founder, chairman, and CEO of the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI), a not-for-profit research organization dedicated to genomic research. He is also founder and CEO of Synthetic Genomics Inc (SGI), a privately held company commercializing genomic advances, including those in synthetic genomics. Venter is the recipient of numerous awards and honorary degrees, including the 2008 United States National Medal of Science.