Francis Collins

Francis Sellers Collins ( born April 14, 1950 in Staunton, Virginia) is an American geneticist and director of the National Institutes of Health.

Life

Collins, who taught at the University of Michigan, among others, made ​​numerous important contributions to the study of genetic defects and localization of the genes that cause the inherited diseases cystic fibrosis (1989 ), Huntington (1993) and neurofibromatosis (1990). Since 1993, he led the Human Genome Project worked ( as head of the National Human Genome Research Institute, NHGRI, in Washington DC), in which hundreds of scientists at the complete decoding of the human genome. On 8 July 2009 he was appointed by President Obama as Director of the National Institutes of Health. As a former atheist, Collins is now a devout Christian and is considered one of the most prominent advocate of the concept of theistic evolution. In his view, the Christian faith and evolutionary theory are completely compatible with each other. Concepts of creationists like Intelligent Design, Collins has decided against it back.

Awards

1990 Collins received a Gairdner Foundation International Award. He was awarded in the presence of the Spanish heir to the throne, endowed with 50,000 euros Prince of Asturias Award in 2001. 2005 Collins was awarded the ASCI Award and the William Allan Award. 2007, he was the Presidential Medal of Freedom awarded the highest civilian honor of the United States. In 2010 he was awarded the Albany Medical Center Prize, the highest prize medicine price of the United States.

Publications

• God and the genes. A scientist explains his faith. 1st edition, Gütersloh 2007.
• My genes - my life. On the way to personalized medicine. 1st edition, Oxford University Press, 2011.