Francis Collins

director, National Institutes of Health; former director, Human Genome Project

Francis Collins is a physician and geneticist, most widely noted for his discoveries of disease genes and his work leading the effort to sequence the human genome. Born in Virginia, Collins received his B.A. from the University of Virginia, his Ph.D. from Yale, and his M.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Among numerous awards and recognitions, Collins has been elected to the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007 and the National Medal of Science in 2008. Collins currently serves as Director of the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. Collins is also widely known for his advocacy of the coherency of science and the Christian faith, rejecting Intelligent Design as a credible paradigm. He has debated Richard Dawkins, written on the subject in his book *The Language of God*, and founded the BioLogos Foundation to open discussion about the harmony of science and faith.