July 8 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama is nominating Francis Collins, a former director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, as the director of the National Institutes of Health, the White House announced today. Obama, in a statement, called Collins “one of the top scientists in the world” and cited his work on the Human Genome Project.

To contact the reporter on this story: Edwin Chen in Washington at echen32@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: July 8, 2009 15:33 EDT