Francis Collins to Retire as NIH Director by Year’s End

Collins has announced his intent to step down after leading the National Institutes of Health for more than 12 years.

Written byChristie Wilcox, PhD

| 3 min read

NIH Director Francis Collins receiving his first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine on December 22, 2020.

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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 ...

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NIH Director Francis Collins receiving his first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine on December 2020.

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Meet the Author

Christie Wilcox, PhD
Christie was a well-established science blogger and writer when she was awarded a PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology with a specialization in ecology, evolution and conservation biology from the University of Hawai‘i in 2014 for her research on the genetics of lionfishes. A short two years later, she published her debut book Venomous: How Earth’s Deadliest Creatures Mastered Biochemistry, which received widespread acclaim, and after that, she fully left academia behind and established herself as a science writer and editor. She joined The Scientist in 2021 as newsletter editor and left as senior editor in 2023. She is a member of the Author’s Guild, the Northwest Science Writers Association, and the National Association of Science Writers.
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