NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Francis Collins has been sworn in as director of the National Institutes of Health, NIH said today.
Collins began his tenure with a late-morning meeting at the NIH campus in Bethesda, Md., where he discussed agency priorities, NIH said.
Collins was nominated to the post by President Barack Obama in July, and his nomination passed in the Senate on Aug 7.
He will report to Department of Health and Human Services’ Director Kathleen Sebelius.
Collins, who formerly was director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, will take over the post from acting director Raynard Kington, who will return to his role as NIH principal deputy director.
As director of the NIH, Collins will bear responsibility for more than 19,000 employees and a fiscal year 2009 budget of $30.6 billion. NIH supports more than 325,000 researchers at more than 3,100 institutions in the US and worldwide.