Francis Collins, the author of The Language of God, is a billionaire who gave it all away five years ago.  From 1993 until 2003 Francis worked with researchers in the United States, China, France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom in his role as the director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health.  In those ten years the team successfully mapped and sequenced all of the human DNA and then compiled all of the information stored in what he describes as the instruction book.  If it were a book it would be over one billion words long; with 5000 volumes, each 300 pages long.  The book would fit into a cell nucleus the size of a pinpoint and a copy of all 5000 volumes is stored in almost every cell of the human body – and there are between 50 and 100 trillion cells.  Francis Collins cornered the market on genetic information, billions of priceless words, and then to the astonishment of both the scientific community and capital markets he gave it all away by putting it on the internet for universal access.

Born on a farm in Staunton, Virginia.  A graduate of the University of Virginia, a Ph.D at Yale and M.D. from the University of North Carolina, his research has led to major breakthroughs in the identification and treatment of type 2 diabetes, cystic fibrosis, neurofibromatosis, Huntington’s disease and progeria – accelerated aging of children.  He has received numerous awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bush in 2007 for his revolutionary contributions to genetic research.  In fact, about the only award he has not received was the Newsweekmagazine “10 Hottest Nerds” given in 2007.  This year he resigned his position at the Institute to focus on more writing and research and, as he describes it, the “white space” of unemployment.

Francis has been a brother in Christ for many years.  He has a deep concern for the ethical implications of his own work and a heart for the possibilities it presents for the poor in developing nations.  His is not a life of grand plans and ambition but, as he has said, “touching the life of one person at a time.”  I’m not going to tell his story for him but I want him to know how pleased we are to have him with us here tonight at The Gathering.  Join me in welcoming Francis Collins.