NHGRI Director Francis Collins Named as One of Industry Week Magazine's 'Technology Leaders of the Year'

NHGRI Director Francis Collins Named as One of Industry Week Magazine's 'Technology Leaders of the Year'

December 2000

BETHESDA, Md. - Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, and Dr. J. Craig Venter, president and chief scientific officer of Celera Genomics, have been selected as Industry Week magazine's 'Technology Leaders of the Year' for demonstrating extraordinary leadership and success in managing complementary efforts to decipher the human genetic code. This is the first time the award has been given to a leader in the public sector.

"I am honored to accept this award from Industry Week magazine and its readers," said Dr. Collins. "The completion of the human genome sequence will have a profound effect on understanding genetic contributions to human disease and the development of strategies for minimizing and preventing disease altogether."

The Human Genome Project (HGP) is the international research effort to chart and characterize the human genome - the entire package of genetic instructions for a human being. This involves sequencing or laying out - in order - the 3 billion DNA letters (or base pairs) of the complete human genetic code. In June, the HGP announced it had assembled a "working draft" of the sequence of the human genome which contained sequence for approximately 85 percent of the genome. The working draft sequence is available in public databases and the analyses of the sequence will be published in the scientific literature in early 2001.

Industry Week magazine, a publication of Penton Media Inc., is dedicated to covering the complexities of managing a manufacturing company in today's new economy. Since 1993, Industry Week's 'Technological Leader(s) of the Year' award has been given to individual(s) to honor their leadership and achievements in technology and innovation. Awardees are nominated by readers and judged by Industry Week's editors. Past recipients of the award have been Bill Gates, Microsoft Corporation; Andrew S. Grove, Intel Corporation; and Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., IBM Corporation.

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