Office of the NIH Director

National Institutes of Health, Building 1.

As you stroll toward Building 1 with the other interns, you see several people on a stage. Your supervisor waves your group over and explains that Building 1 is where the Office of the Director of NIH is located. On stage are several NIH leaders, including Dr. Monica Bertagnolli, who became the new director of NIH in November 2023.

As part of the ceremony, Dr. Francis Collins, who served as director of NIH from 2009 to 2021, is singing on stage. He is a physician-geneticist who is known for his landmark discoveries of disease genes and his leadership of the Human Genome Project, which culminated in April 2003 with the completion of a finished sequence of the human DNA instruction book.

Along with all of his scientific accomplishments, Dr. Collins is well known around campus for his love of music.

Watch the video below to see Dr. Collins’ performance of “It Takes You, HHS.” (HHS stands for U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.)