One of Luton's most lauded sons, Sir Alec Jeffreys, will collect an honourary degree from The University of Leicester on Tuesday, July 7.

The Luton-born inventor of DNA fingerprinting is one of three personalities who will receive a Distinguished Honorary Fellowship, the highest accolade the university can award.

Sir Alec, who grew up in Luton and was a pupil at Stopsley Infant and Junior schools and Luton Grammar School, has made many notable contributions to human genetics, but is best known for his development of genetic fingerprinting.

The geneticist studied at Oxford and in 1977 began working at the University of Leicester, where he now holds the position of Royal Society Wolfson Research Professor.

In 1984, he accidentally discovered a method for identifying individuals from their DNA and showed how these DNA fingerprints could be used - not only for biological identification but also for establishing family relationships.

Significantly, his honarary degree comes on the 25th anniversary of his landmark discovery.