Francis Collins, Part 2
Former Director, National Institutes of Health
Author, The Road to Wisdom: On Truth, Science, Faith, and Trust
As a scientist, I can tell you that the progress we make is often because we bring people together from different disciplines who don’t agree about the hypothesis or what we already know about the topic... that’s been the whole theme of my life.
Summary
This week on Leadership Matters, Alan was joined again by former director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Francis Collins. During his second appearance on the show. Alan and Francis explore the distinguished physician-geneticist’s life, career, and new book, The Road to Wisdom: On Truth, Science, Faith, and Trust.
Over the course their fascinating second hour together, Alan dives into Francis’s storied career in public health and his breakthroughs while leading the human genome project. Leaning on his deeply personal experiences with education, religion, and even music, Francis walks Alan through the essential pillars of judgement and decision-making that he’s learned over the years.
Mentions & Resources in this Episode
Guest Bio
Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., is the former director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). As the longest serving director of NIH — spanning 12 years and three presidencies — he oversaw the work of the largest supporter of biomedical research in the world, from basic to clinical research.
Dr. Collins is a physician-geneticist noted for his landmark discoveries of disease genes and his leadership of the international Human Genome Project, which culminated in April 2003 with the completion of a finished sequence of the human DNA instruction book. He served as director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the NIH from 1993-2008.
Dr. Collins' research laboratory has discovered a number of important genes, including those responsible for cystic fibrosis, neurofibromatosis, Huntington's disease, a familial endocrine cancer syndrome, and most recently, genes for type 2 diabetes, and the gene that causes Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome, a rare condition that causes premature aging.
Dr. Collins received a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Virginia, a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Yale University, and an M.D. with honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to coming to the NIH in 1993, he spent nine years on the faculty of the University of Michigan, where he was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. He is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Collins was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in November 2007 and the National Medal of Science in 2009.