James M. Curran and Bruce S. Weir

At 9:05 a.m. on Monday, September 10, 1984, Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys had a “eureka moment” in his lab when he realized that he had discovered genetic fingerprinting. Approximately 14 months later, he, with Peter Gill and David Werrett of the United Kingdom’s Forensic Science Service (FSS), published a paper in Nature detailing the forensic application of DNA fingerprinting. Approximately 18 months after that, it was used to link two rape/murder cases and secure the conviction of Colin Pitchfork.

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