Zakaria Erzinçlioğlu was a forensic entomologist. He used his expertise in insect biology in criminal investigations and solved more than 200 murders.
He was born in Hungary to parents of Turkish origin. He was brought up in Egypt, Sudan and England. He earned a degree in applied zoology from Wolverhampton Polytechnic in 1975, and then began working for the Zoological Society of London as Compiler for the Zoological Record. He then studied for his doctorate at Durham University. In 1984 he moved to Cambridge University where he wrote about blowflies for The Naturalists' Handbook series, as well as writing for other publications. He received funding to do research in forensic entomology and later was appointed director of a new Forensic Research Center at Durham University.