ABOVE: NIH Director Francis Collins receives his first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine on December 22, 2020.
FLICKR, NIH
Francis Collins, a physician and geneticist, was appointed as the 16th director of the National Institutes of Health in 2009 by then-President Barack Obama; his appointment was unanimously confirmed by the Senate, and he continued to lead the agency under presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden. On Tuesday, the agency announced Collins will be stepping down by the end of the year.
In the NIH press release, Collins says it’s simply time: “It has been an incredible privilege to lead this great agency for more than a decade. . . . I fundamentally believe, however, that no single person should serve in the position too long, and that it’s time to bring in a new scientist to lead the NIH into the future.”
According to NPR, Collins has served longer than ...
