Following is an introduction to US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama:

Candidate status:?Democratic presidential nominee

Filed a statement of candidacy with the FEC on February 12, 2007.

Current job: US senator from Illinois

Birth date: August 4, 1961; Honolulu, Hawaii

Family: Married Michelle Robinson (1992-present); Children: Natasha (2001) and Malia Ann (1999)

Religion: Christian; attends Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago

Education: Columbia University, B.A., 1983; Harvard University, J.D., 1991

Career:

1990s: Practiced civil rights law and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School.

1997-2005: Illinois state senator, representing the 13th District.

2000: Ran for a US House seat but lost primary to former Black Panther Bobby Rush.

July 27, 2004: Delivered keynote address at the Democratic National Convention.

November 2004: Won the US Senate seat in Illinois, defeating Alan Keyes. It was the first time in history a Senate general election race was between two African-American candidates.

Other Facts:

He is author of "Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance" (1995); "The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream" (2006) and "It Takes a Nation: How Strangers Became Family in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina" (2006).

Obama won a Grammy Award in 2006 for best spoken album for his reading of "Dreams From My Father". In his 1995 autobiography, Obama confessed to experimenting with marijuana and cocaine as a teenager.

In 2006, he toured five African countries, including a visit to Nyangoma-Kogelo, Kenya, his late father's hometown.

He was the first African American to be president of the Harvard Law Review.??

(Agencies via Xinhua News Agency September 10, 2008)