Dr. Francis Collins, noted for his leadership of the Human Genome Project, has been confirmed as the new director of the National Institutes of Health.
His confirmation by the U.S. Senate was unanimous.
“Dr. Collins is one of our generation’s great scientific leaders,” said U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. “Today is an exciting day for NIH and for science in this country.”
HHS oversees the NIH, which is the federal government’s lead medical research agency.
The NIH is headquartered in Bethesda, Md. It employs more than 18,000 people.
This year it will spend about $29 billion on basic and applied medical research. Most of that will be distributed as grants to some 325,000 scientists.
The agency could play a lead role in a new push for comparative effectiveness research that could be passed by Congress this year as part of its health reform effort.
Collins, 59, is author of the 2006 , “The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief.”
He also founded the Biologos Foundation, which, according to the organization’s Website, “promotes the search for truth in both the natural and spiritual realms seeking harmony between these different perspectives.”
He was director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the NIH from 1993-2008.
He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007.