Steve Jones is a professor of genetics at Galton laboratory of University College London. He is also a television presenter and a prize-winning author on the subject of biology, especially evolution. In 1996 his writing won him the Royal Society Michael Faraday prize "for his numerous, wide ranging contributions to the public understanding of science in areas such as human evolution and variation, race, sex, inherited disease and genetic manipulation through his many broadcasts on radio and television, his lectures, popular science books, and his regular science column in The Daily Telegraph and contributions to other newspaper media". Jones was born in Aberystwyth, Wales, and has degrees from the University of Edinburgh and University of Chicago. Much of his research has been concerned with snails and the light their anatomy can shed on biodiversity and genetics. His book In the Blood explores, confirms and debunks some commonly held beliefs about inheritance and genetics. Steve Jones is a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association. He was awarded the second Irwin Prize for Secularist of the Year by the National Secular Society on 7 October 2006.