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September
10, 2003
Francis
Collins and Ari Patrinos Receive Energy Secretary's
Gold Award for Human Genome Project Leadership
WASHINGTON, DC -- Secretary of Energy Spencer
Abraham today presented Francis Collins and Aristides
Patrinos with the Secretary’s Gold Award
for their leadership of the government’s
Human Genome Project. Francis Collins is the director
of the National Human Genome Research Institute
at the National Institutes of Health, Department
of Health and Human Services. Ari Patrinos heads
the Office of Biological and Environmental Research
at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office
of Science.
The award is the Energy Department's highest honorary
award and includes a plaque with citation, a medallion
and a rosette. Secretary Abraham presented Drs.
Collins and Patrinos with the award in a ceremony
at DOE headquarters. Director of the National
Institutes of Health Elias Zerhouni represented
the Department of Health and Human Services at
the ceremony.
“These awards are in recognition of your
vision and sustained leadership of the international
human genome project, which culminated in the
completion of the human DNA sequence in April
2003,” Secretary Abraham said. “The
project’s success was largely due to your
ability to join the efforts of two agencies: the
Department of Health and Human Services’
National Institutes of Health and the Department
of Energy’s Office of Science. This outstanding
scientific and management accomplishment has opened
the door to the biotechnology revolution that
now offers such promise for human health, clean
energy and a cleaner environment.”
Francis Collins, a physician-geneticist, practiced
medicine at North Carolina Memorial Hospital.
Following a fellowship in human genetics at the
Yale Medical School, he joined the faculty at
the University of Michigan. His research there
led to the identification of genes responsible
for cystic fibrosis, neurofibromatosis, Huntington's
disease and, this year, the gene that causes Hutchinson-Gilford
progeria syndrome, a disorder that causes the
most dramatic form of premature aging. Collins
joined NIH in 1993 to become director of the National
Center for Human Genome Research which became
NHGRI in 1997. As director, Collins founded the
Division of Intramural Research and oversees the
International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium.
He is a member of the Institute of Medicine and
the National Academy of Sciences.
Aristides Patrinos, PhD., has been a researcher
at the department’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory
and Brookhaven National Laboratory and worked
at the Environmental Protection Agency prior to
joining DOE in 1986. He has headed the Office
of Biological and Environmental Research since
1993. Patrinos oversees research activities including
the Genomes to Life program, structural biology,
nuclear medicine and health effects, global environmental
change and basic research underpinning DOE's environmental
restoration effort. He is a member of the American
Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American
Geophysical Union, the American Meteorological
Society and the Greek Technical Society.
Secretary Abraham most recently gave the Gold
Award in 2002 to Dr. Edward Teller, director emeritus
of the department’s Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory.
Media Contact(s):
Jeff Sherwood, 202/586-5806
Number: R-03-203
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