Francis Collins
Francis Sellers Collins ForMemRS (born April 14, 1950) is an American physician-scientist who discovered the genes associated with a number of diseases and led the Human Genome Project. He served as director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, from 17 August 2009 to 19 December 2021, serving under three presidents.
Francis Collins | |
|---|---|
Official portrait, 2017 | |
| Science Advisor to the President | |
Acting | |
| In office February 18, 2022 – October 3, 2022 | |
| President | Joe Biden |
| Preceded by | Eric Lander |
| Succeeded by | Arati Prabhakar |
| 16th Director of the National Institutes of Health | |
| In office August 17, 2009 – December 19, 2021 | |
| President | Barack Obama Donald Trump Joe Biden |
| Deputy | Lawrence A. Tabak |
| Preceded by | Raynard S. Kington (acting) |
| Succeeded by | Lawrence A. Tabak (acting) |
| 2nd Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute | |
| In office April 1993 – August 1, 2008 | |
| President | Bill Clinton George W. Bush |
| Preceded by | Michael M. Gottesman (acting) |
| Succeeded by | Alan Edward Guttmacher (acting) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Francis Sellers Collins April 14, 1950 Staunton, Virginia, U.S. |
| Spouse | Diane Baker |
| Education | University of Virginia (BS) Yale University (MS, PhD) University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (MD) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Molecular genetics |
| Institutions |
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| Thesis | Semiclassical theory of vibrationally inelastic scattering, with application to H+ + Hâ‚‚ (1974) |
| Doctoral advisor | James Cross |
Before being appointed director of the NIH, Collins led the Human Genome Project and other genomics research initiatives as director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), one of the 27 institutes and centers at NIH. Before joining NHGRI, he earned a reputation as a gene hunter at the University of Michigan. He has been elected to the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences, and has received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the National Medal of Science.
Collins also has written books on science, medicine, and religion, including the New York Times bestseller, The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief. After leaving the directorship of NHGRI and before becoming director of the NIH, he founded and served as president of The BioLogos Foundation, which promotes discourse on the relationship between science and religion and advocates the perspective that belief in Christianity can be reconciled with acceptance of evolution and science, especially through the idea that the Creator brought about his plan through the processes of evolution. In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Collins to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.
On October 5, 2021, Collins announced that he would resign as NIH director by the end of the year. Four months later in February 2022, he joined the Cabinet of Joe Biden as Acting Science Advisor to the President, replacing Eric Lander.