Dr. Rick Kittles, Biologist
Rick Kittles was born in Sylvania in 1976. He spent his formative years in Islip, Long Island, New York. Kittles received a bachelor’s degree in biology from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1989 before starting a career as a high school teacher, first in New York and later in Washington, D.C.
From 1995 to 1999, Kittles worked as a researcher with the New York African Burial Ground Project, gathering genetic material from the exhumed remains of more than 400 African Americans interred in an 18th-century graveyard and comparing the results to contemporary African populations to determine their ancestral origins. In doing so, Kittles became one of the earliest geneticists to trace African ancestry using DNA.
In 1998, Kittles obtained a Ph.D. in biology from George Washington University. That same year, Kittles became a faculty member at Howard University where he helped establish the National Human Genome Center. Kittles co-founded African Ancestry with Gina Paige in 2003 to offer genetic testing service specializing in tracing the ancestry of people with African lineage. Kittles is also known for his work on prostate cancer and has published on genetic variation and prostate cancer genetics of African Americans. He is currently the senior vice president for research at the Morehouse School of Medicine.
Resource: Atlanta History Center