[13][14] Fotis Kafatos graduated from the Lyceum Korais in Heraklion in 1958 and from Cornell University in 1961, where he was mentored by Thomas Eisner[citation needed] and assisted by the Fulbright Program[citation needed] and a scholarship from Anne Gruner Schlumberger.

[2] Fotis Kafatos was an influential Greek biologist, having had a pivotal role in triggering the interest of the Greek government for Science, with the establishment of the Faculty of Biology in the University of Athens, the Faculty of Biology in the University of Crete and the IMBB in Heraklion.

[4] At the beginning of his career, he contributed to the development of the complementary DNA (cDNA) cloning technology and worked on the mechanisms of cellular differentiation leading to the formation of the eggs in insects.

[citation needed] He was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society[25] (ForMemRS) in 2003 and was also a member of the French Académie des Sciences, the Pontifical Academy and the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO).

[citation needed] He married Sarah Niles in 1967 and they had two daughters, Helen and Zoe Myrto, and four grandchildren.