NIH Director Francis S. Collins to lecture at UF April 2, 2018

W. Kent Fuchs, President

Dr. Francis Collins will speak at UF on Monday, April 2 from 10:30-11:45am. The lecture will be held at the Harrell Medical Education Building, North Learning Studio Room 125, on the University of Florida campus. There will be time after the lecture for Q&A.

Collins was appointed the 16th director of the National Institutes of Health by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate. He was sworn in on August 17, 2009. On June 6, 2017, President Donald Trump announced his selection of Collins to continue to serve as the NIH director. In this role, Collins oversees the work of the largest supporter of biomedical research in the world, spanning the spectrum from basic to clinical research. 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 NIH from 1993 to 2008.

Collins comes to the University along with U.S. Representative Ted Yoho. Yoho represents North Central Florida’s 3rd Congressional District. He was elected to the 113th Congress in November 2012, and won re-election for his third term in the 115th Congress. Prior to serving in Congress, he was a small-business owner who operated several large animal veterinary practices for 30 years. He holds two degrees from UF, bachelor’s degree in animal science and doctorate of veterinary medicine in 1983.

If you have any questions regarding this visit, please contact University Relations Melissa Orth at maorth@ufl.edu or 352-392-4574.