Dr. Collins is best known for discoveries of disease genes and his role in the Human Genome Project.
President Barack Obama intends to nominate Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., as director of the National Institutes of Health at the Department of Health and Human Services.
“The National Institutes of Health stands as a model when it comes to science and research,” says the President. “My administration is committed to promoting scientific integrity and pioneering scientific research, and I am confident that Dr. Francis Collins will lead the NIH to achieve these goals.
“Dr. Collins is one of the top scientists in the world, and his groundbreaking work has changed the very ways we consider our health and examine disease. I look forward to working with him in the months and years ahead.”
Dr. Collins is a physician-geneticist best known for his discoveries of disease genes and his leadership of the Human Genome Project. He served as director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) at the NIH from 1993 to 2008.
Dr. Collins received a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Virginia, a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Yale University, and an M.D. with Honors from the University of North Carolina.
Prior to coming to NIH he spent nine years on the faculty of the University of Michigan, where he was an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He has been elected to the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in November 2007.
