William French Anderson (born December 31, 1936) is an American physician, geneticist and molecular biologist. He is known as the "father of gene therapy". He graduated from Harvard College in 1958, Trinity College, Cambridge University (England) in 1960, and from Harvard Medical School in 1963. In 1990 he was the first person to succeed in carrying out gene therapy by treating a 4-year-old girl suffering from severe combined immunodeficiency (a disorder called "bubble boy disease"). In 2006, he was convicted of sexual abuse of a minor and in 2007 was sentenced to 14 years in prison. He was paroled on May 17, 2018, for good behavior. Early life and education Anderson was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma to his two parents. His father was a civil engineer, his mother was a journalist and writer, and he had two older sisters. His was a very happy childhood. He was recognized in high school for his scholarship, interest in science, and prowess on the track team. He won an Honorable Mention in the Westinghouse Science Talent Search for a project demonstrating how Roman numerals could be used in arithmetical procedures. He graduated in 1954 from Tulsa Central High School. Anderson went to Harvard College, where he published several papers as an undergraduate: his high school work on Roman numerals in classical philology in 1956, arithmetical operations using Minoan linear B numerals in the American Journal of Archaeology in 1958, a physical chemistry research paper in the Journal of the American Chemical Society in 1958, and a research study on the effects of irradiation on DNA in the Journal of Cellular and Comparative Physiology in 1961. In its March 19, 1956 issue, Time magazine called Anderson a "Harvard Prodigy" for his research work on ancient numerical systems. He graduated from Harvard in 1958, and spent two years at Trinity College, Cambridge University (England), where he obtained an M.A., worked in the laboratory of Francis Crick, won a Full Blue on the track team, and met, and in 1961 married Kathy, who was a fellow medical student at Cambridge. He returned to Harvard, to the medical school, and was joined there by Kathy a year later. Anderson graduated in 1963 and spent a year internship in pediatric medicine at Children's Hospital in Boston. His wife graduated in 1964 and went on to have a very distinguished career in pediatric surgery. Anderson, after his intern year,