Dr. Francis Collins is a physician-geneticist whose research has played a pivotal role in the both the discovery, and developing an understanding of, genes responsible for numerous diseases. Some of these diseases include cystic fibrosis, neurofibromatosis, Huntington's disease, and type 2 diabetes. Apart from his lab research Collins served as one of the major leaders of the international Human Genome Project, which was one of the largest scientific collaborations in history. Completed in 2003, the project produced the first sequence of the human genome and gave remarkable insights into the blueprint for Humans. In 2009 Collins was appointed as the Director of the National Institutes of Health. He served in this position for twelve years, which is the longest of anyone in the past fifty years. He made enormous strides in gaining funding for a variety of public health and scientific initiatives aimed at improving the health of the entire nation.
Link: https://irp.nih.gov/pi/francis-collins
-Caroline