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NIH Director Collins will step down at end of 2021

September/October 2021 Volume 20 Number 5

Dr. Roger Glass (left) and Dr. Francis Collins (right)

Dr. Francis S. Collins has announced he will end his tenure as NIH director by the end of the year. Collins is the longest serving presidentially appointed NIH director, having served in three administrations. During his 12-year leadership, NIH’s budget grew by 38%, from $30 billion in 2009 to $41.3 billion in 2021.

A physician-geneticist, Collins previously served as the director of the National Human Genome Research Institute from 1993-2008, where he led the international Human Genome Project, which culminated in a finished sequence of the human DNA instruction book. 

As NIH Director, Collins travelled widely and supported a number of significant global health research and training initiatives, including the Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa) program, the Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI), the Health-Professional Education Partnership Initiative (HEPI) and the new Data Science in Africa (DS-I Africa) program.

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