page_title: Francis Collins
section_title: Nomination and confirmation
hierarchical_section_title: Francis Collins / NIH director / Nomination and confirmation
caption_attribution_description: NIH Director Francis Collins with United States Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, after Collins' swearing-in ceremony.
context_page_description: Francis Sellers Collins is an American physician-geneticist who discovered the genes associated with a number of diseases and led the Human Genome Project. He is director of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, United States.
  Before being appointed director of the NIH, Collins led the Human Genome Project and other genomics research initiatives as director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, one of the 27 institutes and centers at NIH. Before joining NHGRI, he earned a reputation as a gene hunter at the University of Michigan. He has been elected to the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences, and has received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the National Medal of Science.
  Collins also has written a number of books on science, medicine, and religion, including the New York Times bestseller, The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief.
context_section_description: On July 8, 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Collins as director of the National Institutes of Health, and the Senate unanimously confirmed him for the post. He was sworn in by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on August 17, 2009.
  Science writer Jocelyn Kaiser opined that Collins was "known as a skilled administrator and excellent communicator," that Obama's nomination "did not come as a big surprise" and that the appointment "ignited a volley of flattering remarks from researchers and biomedical groups."  Yet, she wrote, Collins "does have his critics," some of them who were concerned with the new director's "outspoken Christian faith."
  Washington Post staffer David Brown wrote, however, that Collins' status as a "born-again Christian . . . may help him build bridges with those who view some gene-based research as a potential threat to religious values." Collins' appointment was welcomed by the chief executive officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and by Bernadine Healy, the former head of the National Institutes of Health.
  In October 2009, shortly after his nomination as NIH director, Collins stated in an interview in The New York Times: "I have made it clear that I have no religious agenda for the N.I.H., and I think the vast majority of scientists have been reassured by that and have moved on."
  On October 1, 2009, in the second of his four appearances on The Colbert Report, Collins discussed his leadership at the NIH and other topics such as personalized medicine and stem cell research. And, in November 2011, Collins was included on The New Republic's list of Washington's most powerful, least famous people.  Collins appeared on the series finale of The Colbert Report, participating in a chorus with several other famous people singing "We'll Meet Again".
  On June 6, 2017, President Donald Trump announced his selection of Collins to continue to serve as the NIH Director.
caption: Collins with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius after swearing-in ceremony
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