Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD
Director, National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Dr. Collins was appointed Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by President Barack Obama and was asked to continue in this position by Presidents Donald Trump and Joseph Biden. In this role, he oversees the work of the world’s largest supporter of biomedical research.
Dr. Collins is a physician-geneticist noted for his landmark discoveries of disease genes and his leadership of the international Human Genome Project, which culminated in April 2003 with the completion of a finished sequence of the human DNA instruction book. He served as director of NIH’s National Human Genome Research Institute from 1993–2008.
An elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Collins was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007 and received the National Medal of Science in 2009. In 2020, he was named the 50th winner of the Templeton Prize.