Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., is director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH.) Dr. Collins is a physician-geneticist noted for his landmark discoveries of disease genes and his leadership of the Human Genome Project, which culminated in 2003 with the completion of the first-ever finished sequence of the human DNA instruction book. 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. Dr. Collins was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007, and in 2009 he received the National Medal of Science, the highest honor bestowed on scientists by the United States government.