The physician and geneticist Francis Sellers Collins was born in 1950 and grew up on a farm near Staunton, Virginia. Homeschooled until college, he earned a BA in chemistry at the University of Virginia in 1970 and a PhD in physical chemistry at Yale in 1974. Although not previously interested in biology, he grew fascinated after a course in biochemistry at Yale sparked an interest in genetics and the study of DNA. Collins became a pioneer in studying the human genome and particularly in identifying disease genes. Upon becoming director of the National Center for Human Genome Research in 1993, Collins oversaw the project to map the human genome, which was completed to great publicity in 2000. In 2008 Collins was named director of the National Institutes of Health, a position he held until 2021.

Collins has set himself apart from the scientific establishment by combining research into human genetics with an outspoken Christian faith. His 2006 book The Language of God became a best seller for its treatment of the intersection of science and faith in a way to which people on both sides of the divide could relate.