Francis Collins

Francis Sellers Collins (born April 14, 1950; currently 76 years old) is an American physician-geneticist renowned for landmark discoveries in genomics and his prolonged leadership in public health. Born in Staunton, Virginia, Collins earned a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Yale University followed by an M.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He made major scientific breakthroughs in the identification of disease-associated genes—including those responsible for cystic fibrosis, Huntington's disease, and neurofibromatosis—before serving as director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, where he successfully spearheaded the international Human Genome Project to sequence human DNA by 2003. Collins later served as director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from 2009 to 2021 under three U.S. presidential administrations, guiding national medical research through the COVID-19 pandemic. Beyond his scientific governance, he is an outspoken Christian who founded the BioLogos Foundation to foster harmony between evolutionary science and faith, authored the bestselling 2006 book The Language of God, and was awarded both the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Templeton Prize. He is currently alive and active in research and public advocacy.