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Dr. Francis S. Collins Begins As NIH Director


 

Dr. Francis S. Collins, former director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, become director of the National Institutes of Health on Aug. 17 after being approved unanimously by the Senate earlier in the month.

“The National Institutes of Health stands as a model when it comes to science and research,” President Obama said when he nominated Dr. Collins for the post in July. “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 oversaw the federal Human Genome Project, which finished the complete mapping of the human genome in April 2003, at about the same time as a parallel private effort. Dr. Collins' research also has led to the discovery of several genes. He is interested in the intersection of science and faith and has written two books on the topic.

Dr. Collins received a bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of Virginia, a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Yale University, and a medical degree from the University of North Carolina. Before coming to NIH in 1993, he spent 9 years on the faculty of the University of Michigan, where he was an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in November 2007.

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