Craig Venter is 'Scientist of the Year'

Craig Venter is one of the three runners-up for Time magazine's 'Person of the Year'. The "brash and impatient" Venter is honoured for cracking the human genetic code years before it might otherwise have been completed. The conflict between the publicly funded Human Genome Project and Venter's Celera Genomics has been well documented but even his fiercest critics will admit that the man's determination and innovative use of technology have dramatically accelerated the process.

Craig Venter is clearly a man who likes to win, so it's hard to know whether he'll feel flattered or aggrieved to be a runner-up in the competition. He could certainly be forgiven for feeling that if the decision had been taken six weeks ago, he might have been a shoo-in for winner — the 'Person of the Year' is George W. Bush.