Big Four accounting firms and Francis Collins: Difference between pages

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The '''Big 4''', sometimes written as the '''Big Four''', are the four largest international [[accountancy]] and [[professional services]] firms, which handle the vast majority of [[Financial audit|audits]] for [[Public company|publicly traded companies]] as well as many [[Private company|private companies]]. The Big Four firms are shown below, with their latest publicly available data:


|name = Francis S. Collins
{| class="wikitable"
|image = Francis Collins.jpg
|-
|imagesize =
! Firm
|caption = Francis Collins at the National Human Genome Research Institute
! Revenues
|birth_date = {{birth date and age|1950|4|14|mf=y}}
! Employees
|birth_place = [[Staunton, Virginia]], [[United States]]
! Fiscal Year
|alma_mater = [[University of Virginia]]<br/>[[Yale University]] <br/>[[University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill]]|work_institution = [[University of Michigan]]<br/>[[National Human Genome Research Institute]]
|-
|known_for = [[positional cloning]]<br/>[[Human Genome Project]]
| [[PricewaterhouseCoopers]] [http://www.pwc.com/extweb/ncpressrelease.nsf/docid/31479FE5AF3412CF852574D4005641AA]
|religion = Christian
| $28.2bn
}}
| 146,700
'''Francis S. Collins''' (born [[April 14]], [[1950]]), [[Medical Doctor|M.D.]], [[Doctor of Philosophy|Ph.D.]], is an [[United States|American]] [[physician]]-[[geneticist]], noted for his landmark discoveries of disease genes, and his leadership of the [[Human Genome Project]] (HGP). He was director of the [[National Human Genome Research Institute]] (NHGRI), one of the 27 institutes and centers that make up the [[National Institutes of Health]] in [[Bethesda, Maryland]] until August 1, 2008.
| 2008
|-
| [[Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu]] [http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/section_node/0,1042,sid%253D147431,00.html]
| $27.4bn
| 165,000
| 2008
|-
| [[Ernst & Young]] [http://www.ey.com/global/content.nsf/International/About_EY]
| $24.5bn
| 130,000
| 2008
|-
| [[KPMG]] [http://www.kpmg.com/Press/11.28.2007.htm]
| $19.8bn
| 123,000
| 2007
|}


Collins announced his resignation on May 28, 2008. Although he would leave the helm of NIH with no firm employment destination ('' . . Collins decided to leave NHGRI to explore other professional opportunities . . . Collins has now technically entered what he calls the "white space" of unemployment. .''), he will continue at NIH for a limited period. He will continue to lead an intramural research laboratory as a "volunteer"; this will allow several graduate and postdoctoral students to complete projects undertaken under his tenure.<ref>[[Chemical & Engineering News]], Vol. 86 No. 31, Aug. 04, 2008, p. 33, "Francis Collins leaves NIH"</ref>
This group was once known as the "Big Eight", and was reduced to the "Big Five" by a series of [[merger]]s. The Big Five became the Big Four after the near-demise of [[Arthur Andersen]] in 2002, following its involvement in the [[Enron Scandal]].


== Legal structure ==


With Collins at the helm, the HGP has attained several milestones, while running ahead of schedule and under budget. A working draft of the [[human genome]] was announced in June 2000, and Collins was joined by [[President of the United States|US President]] [[Bill Clinton]] and rival biologist [[Craig Venter]] in making the announcement.<ref>Jamie Shreeve, "[http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/051031/31genome.htm The Blueprint of Life]," ''[[U.S. News and World Report]]'', 10/31/05, URL accessed 30 January 2007.</ref> Venter and Collins thus shared the "Biography of the Year" title from [[A&E Network]].<ref>"[http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/mc/news/press/00-463.html Montgomery County, Maryland, Press Releases]," December 19, 2000, URL accessed 30 January 2007.</ref> An initial analysis was published in February 2001. HGP scientists continued to work toward finishing the sequence of all three billion base pairs by 2003, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of [[James D. Watson|Watson]] and [[Francis Crick|Crick's]] seminal publication of the structure of [[DNA]]. In 2005 Collins and Venter were also honored as two of "America's Best Leaders" by U.S. News & World Report and the Harvard Center for Public Leadership <ref>"[http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/leadership/usnews/genome.html U.S. News & World Report]," 2005, URL accessed 4 February 2008.</ref> Collins's commitment to free, rapid access to genomic information helped to make all data immediately available to the worldwide scientific community. With these data sets of DNA sequence and variation in hand, researchers around the globe work on the process of understanding the connection between genes and disease. Collins envisions as a new era of individualized, prevention-oriented medicine.
None of the Big Four accounting firms is a single firm. Each is a network of firms, owned and managed independently, which have entered into agreements with other member firms in the network to share a common name, brand and quality standards. Each network has established an entity to co-ordinate the activities of the network. In two cases (KPMG and Deloitte Touche Tomatsu), the co-ordinating entity is Swiss, and in two cases (PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young) the co-ordinating entity is a UK [[limited company]]. Those entities do not themselves practise accountancy, and do not own or control the member firms.


==Early years==
In most cases each member firm practises in a single country, and is structured to comply with the regulatory environment in that country. However, in 2007 KPMG announced a merger of four member firms (in the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein) to form a single firm.
Raised on a small farm in Virginia's [[Shenandoah Valley]], Francis Sellers Collins was home-schooled by his mother until the sixth grade. He is the youngest of four sons, which includes his brother, Dr. Fletcher Collins, who currently holds the title of "Assistant Head of Middle School" and "Director of Curriculum" at Collegiate School in [[Richmond, Virginia]]. Throughout most of Francis's high school and college years, the aspiring chemist had little interest in what he then considered the "messy" field of biology. What he refers to as his "formative education" was received at the [[University of Virginia]], where he earned a [[Bachelor of Science|B.S.]] in Chemistry in 1970. He went on to attain a [[Doctor of Philosophy|Ph.D.]] in physical chemistry at [[Yale University]] in 1974. While at Yale, however, a course in biochemistry sparked his interest in the molecules that hold the blueprint for life: [[DNA]] and [[RNA]]. Collins recognized that a revolution was on the horizon in [[molecular biology]] and [[genetics]]. After consulting with his old mentor from the University of Virginia, Carl Trindle, he changed fields and enrolled in medical school at the [[University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill]], earning there an [[Doctor of Medicine|M.D.]] in 1977.


From 1978 to 1981, Collins served a residency and chief residency in internal medicine at [[North Carolina Memorial Hospital]] in [[Chapel Hill, North Carolina|Chapel Hill]]. He then returned to Yale, where he was named a Fellow in Human Genetics at the medical school from 1981 to 1984. During that time, he developed innovative methods of crossing large stretches of DNA to identify disease genes.
The figures in this article refer to the combined revenues of each network of firms.


After joining the [[University of Michigan]] in 1984 in a position that would eventually lead to a Professorship of Internal Medicine and Human Genetics, Collins heightened his reputation as a relentless gene hunter. That gene-hunting approach, which he named "[[positional cloning]]," has developed into a powerful component of modern molecular genetics.
== 2007 Performance Analysis ==


In contrast to previous methods for finding genes, positional cloning enabled scientists to identify disease genes without knowing in advance what the functional abnormality underlying the disease might be. Collins' team, together with collaborators, applied the new approach in 1989 in their successful quest for the long-sought gene responsible for [[cystic fibrosis]]. Other major discoveries soon followed, including isolation of the genes for [[Huntington's disease]], [[neurofibromatosis]], [[multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1]], and the M4 type of adult acute [[leukemia]].
The Big Four accounting firms had a banner year in 2007 with double-digit revenue growth following strong performance in 2006 and 2005. KPMG had the highest annual growth rate among the firms with 17.4%, followed by Deloitte at 15.5%, Ernst and Young at 15% and PricewaterhouseCoopers at 14.4%. Despite relatively slow growth, PwC remains the world's largest accounting firm with 2007 revenues of $25.2 billion, ahead of Deloitte at $23.1 billion, E&Y at $21.1 billion and KPMG at $19.8 billion.


==Leadership at NHGRI==
Combined, the Big Four firms had a total revenue of $89.2 billion. If the firms were to continue this level of performance, the combined total would exceed a hundred billion dollars in 2008.
Tapped to take on the leadership of the HGP, Collins accepted an invitation in 1993 to succeed James Watson and become director of the National Center for Human Genome Research, which became NHGRI in 1997. As director, he oversees the [[International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium]] and many other aspects of what he has called "an adventure that beats going to the moon or splitting the atom."


In 1994, Collins founded NHGRI's Division of Intramural Research (DIR), a collection of investigator-directed laboratories that conduct genome research on the NIH campus and that has developed into one of the nation's premier research centers in human genetics.
The depreciating US dollar in 2007 was also a key contributor to this performance, as all the Big Four firms report in US$ but earn much of their revenues in Europe and Asia, where local currencies appreciated strongly against the dollar. In terms of local currencies, growth was a little subdued. Combined Big Four revenues grew 11.7% from $77.1 billion in 2006 to $86.1 billion in 2007. Thus foreign exchange effects contributed a full 4% points or $3 billion to the combined firms revenue.


With new tools arising from the human genome project and technology development studies supported by the genome institute, Collins is optimistic about the chances of uncovering hereditary contributors to common diseases, such as [[heart disease]], [[cancer]] and [[mental illness]]. In the overall research agenda of NHGRI, this interest is reflected in the highly ambitious effort to construct a [[haplotype map]] of the human genome. The now-completed "hap map" project produced a catalog of genetic variations - called [[single nucleotide polymorphisms]] (SNPs) - which is now being widely used to discover genetic variations correlate with disease risk. There was a dramatic increase of published scientific papers linking genetic variations to common illnesses in 2007. Collins's work in his highly active lab demonstrates that research emphasis, which is devoted to finding the genes that contribute to adult-onset, [[Type 2 diabetes]].
These spectacular growth patterns are seen usually in much smaller companies, and that huge $20 billion professional service companies are able to achieve double-digit back-to-back growth rates is testimony to their global reach and ability to capitalize on the need for financial services by all of the world’s economies. Big Four firms leveraged well global mega trends of stringent financial reporting (Sarbanes Oxley, internal audit), strong IPO listings (and subsequent audit work), complex M&A deals (due diligence, assurance), growing tax complexity, emerging economies, globalization, private equity buyouts, and risk management.


In addition to his long list of contributions to basic genetic research and scientific leadership, Collins is known for his close attention to ethical and legal issues in genetics. He has been a strong advocate for protecting the privacy of genetic information and has served as a national leader in efforts to prohibit gene-based insurance discrimination. Building on his own experiences as a physician volunteer in a rural missionary hospital in [[Nigeria]], Collins is also very interested in opening avenues for genome research to benefit the health of people living in developing nations.
'''Service Line Performance'''


Collins' accomplishments have been recognized by numerous awards and honors, including election to the [[Institute of Medicine]] and the [[United States National Academy of Sciences|National Academy of Sciences]]. On Monday, [[November 5]], [[2007]], he received the [[Presidential Medal of Freedom]] from U.S. President [[George W. Bush]]. He was also present at the bill signing for the [[Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act]] in the Oval Office, in recognition of his work in genetics, and his early papers and commentary on the need for such protections.<ref>[http://www.genome.gov/27026050 genome.gov | President Bush Signs the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
In terms of service lines, Advisory and Consulting services for all four firms combined grew the fastest at 21.7% from $18.0 billion to $21.9 billion. Ernst and Young reported a terrific 29% growth in this service line. All other firms grew close to 20% in 2007.
The Tax service line services for all four firms combined grew at 18.4% from $17.6 billion to $20.8 billion. KPMG’s Tax service line grew the fastest at 20%, and Deloitte grew the slowest at 16.5%.


On May 28, 2008, Collins announced his intention to step down from his post as NHGRI director on August 1, 2008 to explore writing projects and other professional opportunities.<ref>[http://www.genome.gov/27026551 genome.gov | 2008 Release: Francis S. Collins to Step Down as Director of National Human Genome Research Institute<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
Audit or Assurance service line grew at the slowest relative pace. For all four firms combined, revenues grew 12.9% from $42.1 billion to $47.5 billion. This service line is the largest contributor to revenue and was likely held back by the sheer size of the practice. Ernst and Young again was the winner in this category with a revenue growth of 16%. PwC’s Assurance service line grew only 10.2%, the slowest in this category, and the lowest growth rate among all service lines and across all firms.


==Religious views==
Owing to its high growth the Advisory service line became a larger contributor of total revenues to the Big Four firms. For all Big Four firms combined, the share of the Advisory service line of the total revenue grew from 23.1% in 2006 to 24.3% in 2007. This share gain of 1.2% came at the expense of Tax and Audit. Advisory services now contribute almost one-quarter of Big Four firm revenues, though there is disparity among the firms. In Deloitte and Touche, Advisory and Deloitte Consulting were 31% of total revenues in 2007, and in KPMG Advisory Services were 32% of total revenues. For E&Y, Advisory services were only 12% of total revenues in 2007.
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[Image:Franciscollins.jpg|thumb|185px|Appearing on ''[[The Colbert Report]]'']] -->


Collins has described his parents as "only nominally Christian" and by graduate school he considered himself an [[atheism|atheist]]. However, dealing with dying patients led him to question his religious views, and he investigated various faiths. He became an evangelical [[Christian]] after observing the faith of his critically ill patients and reading ''[[Mere Christianity]]'' by [[C. S. Lewis]].<ref>[http://www.salon.com/books/int/2006/08/07/collins/index.html The believer] Aug. 7, 2006</ref>
Tax service line also marginally improved its contribution share. For all Big Four firms combined, the share of the Tax service line of the total revenue grew from 22.6% in 2006 to 22.9% in 2007.


In his 2006 book ''[[The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief]]'', Collins considers scientific discoveries an "opportunity to worship." In his book Collins examines and subsequently rejects [[creationism]] and [[Intelligent Design]]. His own belief system is [[Theistic Evolution]] (TE) which he prefers to term ''[[BioLogos]]''. BioLogos rests on the following premises:
Audit, owing to its slower growth, lost a lot of its contribution to the total. For all Big Four firms combined, the share of the Audit service line of the total revenue actually dropped from 54.3% to 52.8%, a share decrease of 1.5%. If such growth patterns were to continue in the service lines, Audit could well drop to less than 50% of total revenues in just a couple of years. Already in KPMG and Deloitte, Audit is less than 50% of total revenues.
# The universe came into being out of nothingness, approximately 14 billion years ago.
# Despite massive improbabilities, the properties of the universe appear to have been precisely tuned for life.
# While the precise mechanism of the origin of life on earth remains unknown, once life arose, the process of evolution and natural selection permitted the development of biological diversity and complexity over very long periods of time.
# Once evolution got under way no special supernatural intervention was required.
# Humans are part of this process, sharing a common ancestor with the great apes.
# But humans are also unique in ways that defy evolutionary explanation and point to our spiritual nature. This includes the existence of the Moral Law (the knowledge of right and wrong) and the search for God that characterizes all human cultures throughout history.


In an interview with National Geographic published in February 2007, interviewer John Horgan, an agnostic journalist, criticized Collins' description of agnosticism as "a cop-out". In response, Collins clarified his position on agnosticism so as not to include "''earnest agnostics who have considered the evidence and still don't find an answer. I was reacting to the agnosticism I see in the scientific community, which has not been arrived at by a careful examination of the evidence. I went through a phase when I was a casual agnostic, and I am perhaps too quick to assume that others have no more depth than I did.''"<ref>[http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0702/voices.html Francis Collins: The Scientist as Believer] Feb. 2007</ref>
'''Geographical Performance'''


During a debate with [[Richard Dawkins]], Collins stated that God is the object of the unanswered questions about the universe that science does not ask, and that God himself does not need an explanation since he is beyond the universe. Dawkins called this "the mother and father of all cop-outs" and "an incredible evasion of the responsibility to explain." To which Collins responded "I do object to the assumption that anything that might be outside of nature is ruled out of the conversation. That's an impoverished view of the kinds of questions we humans can ask, such as "Why am I here?", "What happens after we die?" <ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1555132-5,00.html TIME Magazine: God vs. Science pg 5]</ref>
As in previous years, the Big Four firms reported the strongest growth in Asia, helped by underlying strength in China, India and Southeast Asia. Europe turned in surprisingly good numbers while the mature market of the Americas had the slowest growth rate.


In reviewing ''[[The Dawkins Delusion?|The Dawkins Delusion?: Atheist Fundamentalism and the Denial of the Divine]]'' by [[Alister McGrath]], Collins says "'Addressing the conclusions of The God Delusion point by point with the devastating insight of a molecular biologist turned theologian, Alister McGrath dismantles the argument that science should lead to atheism, and demonstrates instead that Dawkins has abandoned his much-cherished rationality to embrace an embittered manifesto of dogmatic atheist fundamentalism."<ref>{{Cite book | autho=Alister McGrath | authorlink= | coauthors= | title=The Dawkins Delusion?: Atheist Fundamentalism and the Denial of the Divine (Paperback) | date=2007 | publisher=SPCK Publishing | location= | isbn=978-0-281-05927-0 | pages=Back cover}}</ref>
While Asia remains the smallest geographical segment, it grew by 22.2% from 2006 to 2007. Ernst and Young’s Asia segment grew by a spectacular 27%. Even Deloitte, with the slowest growth among the firms reported a 17.2% growth rate. Owing to its high growth rate, Asia’s share of total revenues for all the firms improved by 1% from 12% in 2006 to 13% in 2007, at the expense of the Americas.


Dr. Collins remains firm in his rejection of Intelligent Design, and for this reason was not asked to participate in the 2008 [[Documentary film|documentary]] ''[[Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed]]'', which tries, among other things, to draw a direct link between evolution and atheism. Walt Ruloff, a producer for the film, claimed that Dr. Collins was "toeing the party line" by rejecting Intelligent Design, which Collins called "just ludicrous." <ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/27/science/27expelled.html?_r=3&pagewanted=1&oref=slogin Scientists Feel Miscast in Film on Life’s Origin - New York Times<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
Many firms reported more than 30% annual growth in the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) economies, reflecting the strong economic momentum in these countries.


==Quotations==
Europe is the largest region by far for all the firms. On a combined basis, Europe had strong growth of 19.2% from $34.7 billion in 2006 to $41.4 billion in 2007. KPMG grew by 20.9% in Europe, while the slowest grower Deloitte reported a 12.6% growth rate. The combined Big Four European revenues in 2007 was $41.4 billion, a full 46% of the total combined revenue and increasing from 45% in 2006. For KPMG, Europe is already 54% of total revenues, contributing to more than half its total revenues. Surprisingly, the European region in 2007 raced ahead of Americas on a combined basis, widening its lead to almost $5 billion. By contrast, in 2006, combined European revenues was only $1.4 billion more than the Americas.
* "Evolution is God's way of giving upgrades" (Stephen Colbert Interview, December 7, 2006)
* "I concluded at the age of 15 or 16 that I had no interest in biology, or medicine, or any of those aspects of science that dealt with this messy thing called life. It just wasn't organized, and I wanted to stick with the nice pristine sciences of chemistry and physics, where everything made sense."
* "I wish I had learned sooner that biology could be fun as well."
* (''When asked, "What do you say to your fellow Christians who say, 'Evolution is just a theory, and I can't put that together with my idea of a creator God'?"'') "Well, evolution is a theory. It's a very compelling one. As somebody who studies DNA, the fact that we are 98.4 percent identical at the DNA level to a chimpanzee, it's pretty hard to ignore the fact that when I am studying a particular gene, I can go to the mouse and find it's the similar gene, and it's 90 percent the same. It's certainly compatible with the theory of evolution, although it will always be a theory that we cannot actually prove. I'm a theistic evolutionist. I take the view that God, in His wisdom, used evolution as His creative scheme. I don't see why that's such a bad idea. That's pretty amazingly creative on His part. And what is wrong with that as a way of putting together in a synthetic way the view of God who is interested in creating a group of individuals that He can have fellowship with -- us? Why is evolution not an appropriate way to get to that goal? I don't see a problem with that."<ref>[http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/transcripts/collins.html Bob Abernethy's interview with Dr. Francis Collins] 2000</ref>


* "Yes, evolution by descent from a common ancestor is clearly true. If there was any lingering doubt about the evidence from the fossil record, the study of DNA provides the strongest possible proof of our relatedness to all other living things."
For all the Big Four firms the Americas grew the slowest and also lost its leading share in terms of revenues. On a combined basis, Americas had only moderate growth of 10.3% from $33.3 billion in 2006 to $36.7 billion in 2007. Deloitte grew by 11.9% in Americas, while the slowest grower PwC did not even make the 10% mark, reporting only a 9.1% growth rate. The combined Big Four American revenues fell a full 2% points from 43% of the total combined revenue in 2006 to 41%. KPMG, which is heavily Europe-based, only produced 33% of its total revenues from the Americas. Even the PwC behemoth had only 38% of total revenues from Americas.

On a combined basis, the Americas are nearly $5 billion in revenue behind the biggest region, Europe, and this gap appears to be widening rather quickly. This geographic size and growth disparity, especially in the Americas, is sure to pose some interesting questions to the currently-US-centric Big Four firms about their future center-point and constitution of their top leadership.

== Mergers and the Big Auditors ==

Since 1989, [[merger]]s and one major scandal involving Arthur Andersen have reduced the number of major accountancy firms from eight to four.

=== Big 8 (until 1989) ===
The firms were called the '''Big 8''' for most of the 20th century, reflecting the international dominance of the eight largest accountancy firms:
#[[Arthur Andersen]]
#[[Arthur Young & Company]]
#[[Coopers & Lybrand]]
#[[Ernst & Young|Ernst & Whinney]] (until 1979 Ernst & Ernst in the US and Whinney Murray in the UK)
#[[Deloitte Haskins & Sells]] (until 1978 Haskins & Sells in the US and Deloitte Plender Griffiths in the UK)
#[[KPMG|Peat Marwick Mitchell]], later Peat Marwick
#[[Price Waterhouse]]
#[[Touche Ross]]

Most of the Big 8 originated in alliances formed between British and US accountancy firms in the 19th or early 20th centuries. Price Waterhouse was a UK firm which opened a US office in 1890 and subsequently established a separate US partnership. The UK and US Peat Marwick Mitchell firms adopted a common name in 1925. Other firms used separate names for domestic business, and did not adopt common names until much later: Touche Ross in 1960, Arthur Young (at first Arthur Young, McLelland Moores) in 1968, Coopers & Lybrand in 1973, Deloitte Haskins & Sells in 1978 and Ernst & Whinney in 1979.<ref>[http://www.icaew.com/index.cfm?route=155661 Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales: Firms' family trees]</ref>

The firms' initial international expansion was driven by the needs of British and US based [[Multinational corporation|multinationals]] for worldwide service. They expanded by forming local partnerships or by forming alliances with local firms.

Arthur Andersen had a different history. The firm originated in the United States, and expanded internationally by establishing its own offices in other markets, including the United Kingdom.

In the 1980s the Big 8, each now with global branding, adopted modern marketing and grew rapidly. They merged with many smaller firms. One of the largest of these mergers was in 1987, when Peat Marwick merged with the [[KMG Group]] to become KPMG Peat Marwick, later known simply as KPMG.

=== Big 6 (1989-1998) ===
Competition among these public accountancy firms intensified and the Big 8 became the '''Big 6''' in 1989 when Ernst & Whinney merged with Arthur Young to form [[Ernst & Young]] in June, and Deloitte, Haskins & Sells merged with Touche Ross to form [[Deloitte & Touche]] in August.

Confusingly, in the [[United Kingdom]] the local firm of Deloitte, Haskins & Sells merged instead with Coopers & Lybrand. For some years after the merger, the merged firm was called Coopers & Lybrand Deloitte and the local firm of Touche Ross kept its original name. In the mid 1990s however, both UK firms changed their names to match those of their respective international organizations. On the other hand, in [[Australia]] the local firm of Touche Ross merged instead with KPMG[http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/article/0,1002,cid%253D12279,00.html][http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE7DD103BF936A35751C1A96F948260]. It is for these reasons that the Deloitte & Touche international organization was known as DRT International (later DTT International), to avoid use of names which would have been ambiguous (as well as contested) in certain markets.

=== Big 5 (1998-2002) ===
The Big 6 became the '''Big 5''' in July 1998 when Price Waterhouse merged with Coopers & Lybrand to form [[PricewaterhouseCoopers]].

=== Big 4 (2002-) ===
The [[Enron]] collapse and ensuing investigation prompted scrutiny of their financial reporting, which was audited by [[Arthur Andersen]], which eventually was indicted for obstruction of justice for shredding documents related to the audit in the [[Timeline of the Enron scandal|2001 Enron scandal]]. The resulting conviction, since overturned, still effectively meant the end for Arthur Andersen. Most of its country practices around the world have sold to members of what is now the Big Four, notably [[Ernst & Young]] globally and [[Deloitte & Touche]] in the UK.

Big 4 are sometimes referred as "Final Four"[http://news.google.co.uk/archivesearch?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&hs=tnM&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tab=wn&q=%22final+four%22+accounting] due to widely held perception that authority is unlikely to allow further concentration of accounting industry and that the fifth biggest accounting firm, [[BDO International]], is too small compared to the Big Four. Another widely held belief is that, if something similar to Enron/Arthur-Andersen occurs, the authority is unlikely to punish the remaining Big 4 in a manner which destroy the firm itself like U.S. authority did with Arthur Andersen.{{Who?}}

2002 also saw the passage of the [[Sarbanes-Oxley]] Act into law, providing strict compliance rules to both businesses and the auditors.

===Mergers and developments===
*'''Arthur Andersen'''
**Developed from '''Andersen, Delany'''
*'''Ernst & Young'''
**'''Arthur Young'''
**'''Ernst & Whinney'''
***'''Ernst & Ernst (US)'''
***'''Whinney Murray (UK)'''
***'''Whinney, Smith & Whinney'''
*'''PricewaterhouseCoopers'''
**'''Coopers & Lybrand'''
***'''Cooper Brothers (UK)'''
***'''Lybrand, Ross Bros, Montgomery (US)'''
**'''Price Waterhouse'''
*'''Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu'''
**'''Deloitte & Touche'''
***'''Deloitte Haskins & Sells'''
****'''Deloitte Plender Griffiths (UK)'''
****'''Haskins & Sells (US)'''
***'''Touche Ross'''
****'''Touche, Ross, Bailey & Smart'''
*****'''Ross, Touche (Canada)'''
*****'''George A. Touche (UK)'''
*****'''Touche, Niven, Bailey & Smart (US)'''
******'''Touche Niven'''
******'''Bailey'''
******'''A. R. Smart'''
**'''Tohmatsu & Co. (Japan)'''
*'''KPMG'''
**'''Peat Marwick Mitchell'''
***'''William Barclay Peat (UK)'''
***'''Marwick Mitchell (US)'''
**'''KMG'''
***'''Klynveld Main Goerdeler'''
****'''Klynveld Kraayenhof (Netherlands)'''
****'''Thomson McLintock (UK)'''
****'''Main Lafrentz (US)'''
***'''Deutsche Treuhand Gesellschaft (Germany)'''

== Policy issues concerning industry concentration ==

In the wake of industry concentration and individual firm failure, the issue of a credible alternative industry structure has been raised.<ref>[http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=928482 Lawrence A. Cunningham, Too Big to Fail: Moral Hazard in Auditing and the Need to Restructure the Industry Before It Fails, Columbia University Law Review]</ref> The limiting factor on the growth of additional firms is that although some of the firms in the next tier have become quite substantial, and have formed international networks, effectively all very large public companies insist on having a "Big Four" audit, so the smaller firms have no way to grow into the top end of the market.

==Other countries==

===India===
In India, the affiliate firms of the Big Four are:

*., S. B. Billimoria Co,C. C. Chokshi & Co., A. F. Ferguson & Co, Fraser & Ross, MCA & Co P. C. Hansotia and Deloitte Haskins & Sells - affiliates of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu
*Bharat S. Raut & Co (BSR & Co) - affiliate of KPMG
*Price Waterhouse, Price Waterhouse & Co, Lovelock & Lewes & RSM & Co.,Dalal & Shah - affiliates of PricewaterhouseCoopers
*S.R. Batliboi & Co, S.R. Batliboi & Associates - affiliate of Ernst & Young
* Walker Chandiok & Co - affiliate and member firm of Grant Thornton LLP

In India, foreign accountancy firms are prohibited from entering the audit and assurance sectors. The Big Four therefore service clients through affiliate firms.

===Egypt===
In [[Egypt]], the "Big Four auditors" are local affiliates of the Big Four international firms:

# Hazem hassan KPMG
# Mansour & co. - member of PricewaterhouseCoopers
# Saleh, Barsoum, Abdel Aziz & Co. - member of Deloitte & Touche <!-- http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/home/0,1044,sid%253D21886,00.html -->
# Hafez Rageb - member of Ernst & Young

===Republic of Korea===
The following domestic accountancy firms have joined the membership of international Big Four firms.

# Hanyoung LLC - member of Ernst & Young
# Samjong LLC - member of KPMG
# Samil LLC - member of PricewaterhouseCoopers
# Ahnjin LLC - member of Deloitte & Touche

===Turkey===
In [[Turkey]], the "Big Four auditors" are local affiliates of the Big Four international firms;

# Güney Bagimsiz Denetim ve S.M.M. A.S. - member of Ernst & Young,
# Akis Bagimsiz Denetim ve S.M.M. A.S. - affiliate of KPMG,
# Basaran Nas Bagimsiz Denetim ve S.M.M. A.S. - affiliate of PwC
# DRT Bagimsiz Denetim ve S.M.M. A.S. - affiliate of Deloitte

In addition to the big four, there are other affiliate companies which have weaker affiliate relations compared to affiliates of big four.

===Israel===
In [[Israel]], there are five large auditors, four of whom are affiliates of the Big Four:

# Kost, Forer, Gabbay & Kasierer (Ernst & Young Israel)
# KPMG Somekh Chaikin
# Deloitte Brightman Almagor
# Kesselman & Kesselman, PwC Israel
# BDO Ziv Haft (affiliate of [[BDO International]])

===Indonesia===
In [[Indonesia]], there are four large auditors, all are affiliates of the Big Four:

# KAP Purwantono, Sarwoko, Sandjaja - affiliate of Ernst & Young
# KAP Osman Bing Satrio - affiliate of Deloitte
# KAP Sidharta, Sidharta, Widjaja - affiliate of KPMG
# KAP Haryanto Sahari - affiliate of PwC

===Japan===
In [[Japan]], the “Big Four auditors” are local affiliates of the Big Four international firms:

* ShinNihon - affiliate of Ernst & Young
* AZSA & Co. - affiliate of KPMG
* PricewaterhouseCoopers Aarata - affiliate of PricewaterhouseCoopers
* Tohmatsu - affiliate of Deloitte Touche

Following the discovery of the accounting fraud at [[Kanebo]], the [[Financial Services Agency]] in Japan suspended ChuoAoyama from conducting audit work for inadequate internal controls, for two months from [[July 1]], [[2006]] onwards. On [[July 1]] [[2006]], PwC started a new accountancy firm in Japan, called PricewaterhouseCoopers Aarata. Unlike ChuoAoyama, which is a network firm of PwC, PricewaterhouseCoopers Aarata is a member firm of the PwC global network and will adopt its internal controls and methodologies.[http://www.pwc.com/extweb/ncpressrelease.nsf/docid/0F5DAE3C47C4A4798025718C0030FC36] Misuzu dissolved in 2007.

===The Philippines===
In [[the Philippines]], the affiliate firms of the Big Four are:

*Isla Lipana & Co. (formerly Joaquin Cunanan & Co.) - affiliate of PwC
*Manabat Delgado Amper & Co. (formerly C.L. Manabat & Co.) - affiliate of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu
*Sycip Gorres Velayo & Co. ([[SGV & Co.]]) - affiliate of Ernst & Young
*Manabat Sanagustin & Co. (formerly Laya Mananghaya & Co.) - affiliate of KPMG

===Pakistan===
In [[Pakistan]], the Big Four are affiliates of the following local audit firms, which are the prominent firms of Pakistan:

# A.F. Fergusons - Member of PricewaterhouseCoopers<ref>[http://www.pwc.com/extweb/pwclocations.nsf/(ViewLocByCityDisplay2005)/Pakistan~GX~ENG~CY PWC website]</ref>
# Ford Rhodes Sidat Hyder & Co. - member of Ernst and Young<ref>[http://www.ey.com/global/content.nsf/Pakistan/Home E&Y website]</ref>
# Taseer Hadi & Co. - member of KPMG International<ref>[http://www.kpmg.com.pk/ KPMG website]</ref>
# M. Yousuf Adil Salim & Co - member of Deloitte & Touche<ref>[http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/home/0,1044,sid%253D75423,00.html Deloitte website]</ref>
# Anjum Asim Shahid Rahman - member of Grant Thornton International<ref>[http://www.gti.org Grant Thornton website]</ref>

===Sri Lanka===
In Sri Lanka the afiliated firms of the big four are:
* Ernst & Young Sri Lanka - Ernst & Young
* Ford Rhodes & Thornton - KPMG
* Price Waterhouse Coopers Sri Lanka - Price Waterhouse Coopers
* Someswaran & Jayawickrama, Manoharan & Sangakkara (SJMS) Associates - Deloitte Touche Tomatsu


==References==
==References==
{{reflist}}
<references />



== External links ==
==External links==
{{wikiquote2|Francis Collins|Francis Collins}}
* [http://raw.rutgers.edu/raw/internet/big5.htm A table of links to the Big 4 accountancy firms], from a [[Rutgers University]] website
* [http://ilovebig4.com/ ILoveBig4.com] - Weblog with news about Big Four auditors
* [http://www.jobs-for-accountants.co.uk/ Big 4 Jobs] - Bespoke Recruitment Agency Website for Big Four auditors


*[http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/health/4634.html Breaking the Code: Francis Collins' take on God and DNA]
*[http://www.genome.gov/10001018 Director Francis Collins' Biography] from genome.gov
*[http://www.virginia.edu/majorevents/speeches/01speech.html Commencement Address], [[University of Virginia]], May 20, 2001
*[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2220484,00.html "I’ve found God, says man who cracked the genome"], [[The Times]], June 11, 2006
*[http://www.salon.com/books/int/2006/08/07/collins/index_np.html The believer], [[Salon.com]] article on his religious beliefs
*[[Science Friday]]: [http://www.sciencefriday.com/pages/2006/Aug/hour2_080406.html Science and Religion, with Collins]
*[[Religion & Ethics Newsweekly]]: [http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/transcripts/collins.html Interview transcript]
*[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9900E1DD1339F933A05753C1A960958260 "Falsified Data Found in Gene Studies"], [[NY Times]] article on scientific misconduct by a graduate student in Collins's NIH laboratory
*On-line video of a lecture entitled [http://www.asa3.org/movies/ASA2006Collins720x480100k.ram ''The Language of God: A Believer Looks at the Human Genome''] given at the 2006 meeting of the [[American Scientific Affiliation]]
*Interview on [[CNN]] on [[Anderson Cooper]]'s [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml0FqyFYfrU "What is a Christian?"] on [[Youtube]]
*[[Sam Harris (author)|Sam Harris]]: [http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20060815_sam_harris_language_ignorance/ The Language of Ignorance], His review of "[[The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief|The Language of God]]", [[Truthdig]], Aug 15, 2006
*[http://www1.salvationarmy.org.uk/uki/www_uki.nsf/vw-issue/BEDDDACBC3DA17CF802572B3003C3CE9?opendocument&id=1738959EDC36980D802572B3003A3290 Francis Collins talks to Nigel Bovey of The War Cry (part1)]
*[http://www1.salvationarmy.org.uk/uki/www_uki.nsf/vw-issue/9A1461A3F88B2DAA802572AC00357977?opendocument&id=71ADEB96A0A2981C802572AC0031BAE4 Francis Collins talks to Nigel Bovey of The War Cry (part2)]


{{Big4}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Collins, Francis}}
[[Category:Accountancy firms]]
[[Category:Financial services companies]]
[[Category:1950 births]]
[[Category:Numeric epithets|4 auditors]]
[[Category:Members of the National Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:American Christians]]
[[Category:American geneticists]]
[[Category:Converts to Christianity]]
[[Category:University of Virginia]]
[[Category:Yale University alumni]]
[[Category:University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni]]
[[Category:University of Virginia alumni]]
[[Category:Christian apologetics]]
[[Category:Members of the International Society for Science and Religion]]
[[Category:Former atheists and agnostics]]
[[Category:National Institutes of Health]]
[[category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients]]
[[Category:Religion and science]]


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Revision as of 00:14, 13 October 2008

|name = Francis S. Collins |image = Francis Collins.jpg |imagesize = |caption = Francis Collins at the National Human Genome Research Institute |birth_date = (1950-04-14) April 14, 1950 (age 74) |birth_place = Staunton, Virginia, United States |alma_mater = University of Virginia
Yale University
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill|work_institution = University of Michigan
National Human Genome Research Institute |known_for = positional cloning
Human Genome Project |religion = Christian }} Francis S. Collins (born April 14, 1950), M.D., Ph.D., is an American physician-geneticist, noted for his landmark discoveries of disease genes, and his leadership of the Human Genome Project (HGP). He was director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), one of the 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland until August 1, 2008.

Collins announced his resignation on May 28, 2008. Although he would leave the helm of NIH with no firm employment destination ( . . Collins decided to leave NHGRI to explore other professional opportunities . . . Collins has now technically entered what he calls the "white space" of unemployment. .), he will continue at NIH for a limited period. He will continue to lead an intramural research laboratory as a "volunteer"; this will allow several graduate and postdoctoral students to complete projects undertaken under his tenure.[1]


With Collins at the helm, the HGP has attained several milestones, while running ahead of schedule and under budget. A working draft of the human genome was announced in June 2000, and Collins was joined by US President Bill Clinton and rival biologist Craig Venter in making the announcement.[2] Venter and Collins thus shared the "Biography of the Year" title from A&E Network.[3] An initial analysis was published in February 2001. HGP scientists continued to work toward finishing the sequence of all three billion base pairs by 2003, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Watson and Crick's seminal publication of the structure of DNA. In 2005 Collins and Venter were also honored as two of "America's Best Leaders" by U.S. News & World Report and the Harvard Center for Public Leadership [4] Collins's commitment to free, rapid access to genomic information helped to make all data immediately available to the worldwide scientific community. With these data sets of DNA sequence and variation in hand, researchers around the globe work on the process of understanding the connection between genes and disease. Collins envisions as a new era of individualized, prevention-oriented medicine.

Early years

Raised on a small farm in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, Francis Sellers Collins was home-schooled by his mother until the sixth grade. He is the youngest of four sons, which includes his brother, Dr. Fletcher Collins, who currently holds the title of "Assistant Head of Middle School" and "Director of Curriculum" at Collegiate School in Richmond, Virginia. Throughout most of Francis's high school and college years, the aspiring chemist had little interest in what he then considered the "messy" field of biology. What he refers to as his "formative education" was received at the University of Virginia, where he earned a B.S. in Chemistry in 1970. He went on to attain a Ph.D. in physical chemistry at Yale University in 1974. While at Yale, however, a course in biochemistry sparked his interest in the molecules that hold the blueprint for life: DNA and RNA. Collins recognized that a revolution was on the horizon in molecular biology and genetics. After consulting with his old mentor from the University of Virginia, Carl Trindle, he changed fields and enrolled in medical school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, earning there an M.D. in 1977.

From 1978 to 1981, Collins served a residency and chief residency in internal medicine at North Carolina Memorial Hospital in Chapel Hill. He then returned to Yale, where he was named a Fellow in Human Genetics at the medical school from 1981 to 1984. During that time, he developed innovative methods of crossing large stretches of DNA to identify disease genes.

After joining the University of Michigan in 1984 in a position that would eventually lead to a Professorship of Internal Medicine and Human Genetics, Collins heightened his reputation as a relentless gene hunter. That gene-hunting approach, which he named "positional cloning," has developed into a powerful component of modern molecular genetics.

In contrast to previous methods for finding genes, positional cloning enabled scientists to identify disease genes without knowing in advance what the functional abnormality underlying the disease might be. Collins' team, together with collaborators, applied the new approach in 1989 in their successful quest for the long-sought gene responsible for cystic fibrosis. Other major discoveries soon followed, including isolation of the genes for Huntington's disease, neurofibromatosis, multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1, and the M4 type of adult acute leukemia.

Leadership at NHGRI

Tapped to take on the leadership of the HGP, Collins accepted an invitation in 1993 to succeed James Watson and become director of the National Center for Human Genome Research, which became NHGRI in 1997. As director, he oversees the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium and many other aspects of what he has called "an adventure that beats going to the moon or splitting the atom."

In 1994, Collins founded NHGRI's Division of Intramural Research (DIR), a collection of investigator-directed laboratories that conduct genome research on the NIH campus and that has developed into one of the nation's premier research centers in human genetics.

With new tools arising from the human genome project and technology development studies supported by the genome institute, Collins is optimistic about the chances of uncovering hereditary contributors to common diseases, such as heart disease, cancer and mental illness. In the overall research agenda of NHGRI, this interest is reflected in the highly ambitious effort to construct a haplotype map of the human genome. The now-completed "hap map" project produced a catalog of genetic variations - called single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) - which is now being widely used to discover genetic variations correlate with disease risk. There was a dramatic increase of published scientific papers linking genetic variations to common illnesses in 2007. Collins's work in his highly active lab demonstrates that research emphasis, which is devoted to finding the genes that contribute to adult-onset, Type 2 diabetes.

In addition to his long list of contributions to basic genetic research and scientific leadership, Collins is known for his close attention to ethical and legal issues in genetics. He has been a strong advocate for protecting the privacy of genetic information and has served as a national leader in efforts to prohibit gene-based insurance discrimination. Building on his own experiences as a physician volunteer in a rural missionary hospital in Nigeria, Collins is also very interested in opening avenues for genome research to benefit the health of people living in developing nations.

Collins' accomplishments have been recognized by numerous awards and honors, including election to the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences. On Monday, November 5, 2007, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from U.S. President George W. Bush. He was also present at the bill signing for the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act in the Oval Office, in recognition of his work in genetics, and his early papers and commentary on the need for such protections.[5]

On May 28, 2008, Collins announced his intention to step down from his post as NHGRI director on August 1, 2008 to explore writing projects and other professional opportunities.[6]

Religious views

Collins has described his parents as "only nominally Christian" and by graduate school he considered himself an atheist. However, dealing with dying patients led him to question his religious views, and he investigated various faiths. He became an evangelical Christian after observing the faith of his critically ill patients and reading Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis.[7]

In his 2006 book The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief, Collins considers scientific discoveries an "opportunity to worship." In his book Collins examines and subsequently rejects creationism and Intelligent Design. His own belief system is Theistic Evolution (TE) which he prefers to term BioLogos. BioLogos rests on the following premises:

  1. The universe came into being out of nothingness, approximately 14 billion years ago.
  2. Despite massive improbabilities, the properties of the universe appear to have been precisely tuned for life.
  3. While the precise mechanism of the origin of life on earth remains unknown, once life arose, the process of evolution and natural selection permitted the development of biological diversity and complexity over very long periods of time.
  4. Once evolution got under way no special supernatural intervention was required.
  5. Humans are part of this process, sharing a common ancestor with the great apes.
  6. But humans are also unique in ways that defy evolutionary explanation and point to our spiritual nature. This includes the existence of the Moral Law (the knowledge of right and wrong) and the search for God that characterizes all human cultures throughout history.

In an interview with National Geographic published in February 2007, interviewer John Horgan, an agnostic journalist, criticized Collins' description of agnosticism as "a cop-out". In response, Collins clarified his position on agnosticism so as not to include "earnest agnostics who have considered the evidence and still don't find an answer. I was reacting to the agnosticism I see in the scientific community, which has not been arrived at by a careful examination of the evidence. I went through a phase when I was a casual agnostic, and I am perhaps too quick to assume that others have no more depth than I did."[8]

During a debate with Richard Dawkins, Collins stated that God is the object of the unanswered questions about the universe that science does not ask, and that God himself does not need an explanation since he is beyond the universe. Dawkins called this "the mother and father of all cop-outs" and "an incredible evasion of the responsibility to explain." To which Collins responded "I do object to the assumption that anything that might be outside of nature is ruled out of the conversation. That's an impoverished view of the kinds of questions we humans can ask, such as "Why am I here?", "What happens after we die?" [9]

In reviewing The Dawkins Delusion?: Atheist Fundamentalism and the Denial of the Divine by Alister McGrath, Collins says "'Addressing the conclusions of The God Delusion point by point with the devastating insight of a molecular biologist turned theologian, Alister McGrath dismantles the argument that science should lead to atheism, and demonstrates instead that Dawkins has abandoned his much-cherished rationality to embrace an embittered manifesto of dogmatic atheist fundamentalism."[10]

Dr. Collins remains firm in his rejection of Intelligent Design, and for this reason was not asked to participate in the 2008 documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, which tries, among other things, to draw a direct link between evolution and atheism. Walt Ruloff, a producer for the film, claimed that Dr. Collins was "toeing the party line" by rejecting Intelligent Design, which Collins called "just ludicrous." [11]

Quotations

  • "Evolution is God's way of giving upgrades" (Stephen Colbert Interview, December 7, 2006)
  • "I concluded at the age of 15 or 16 that I had no interest in biology, or medicine, or any of those aspects of science that dealt with this messy thing called life. It just wasn't organized, and I wanted to stick with the nice pristine sciences of chemistry and physics, where everything made sense."
  • "I wish I had learned sooner that biology could be fun as well."
  • (When asked, "What do you say to your fellow Christians who say, 'Evolution is just a theory, and I can't put that together with my idea of a creator God'?") "Well, evolution is a theory. It's a very compelling one. As somebody who studies DNA, the fact that we are 98.4 percent identical at the DNA level to a chimpanzee, it's pretty hard to ignore the fact that when I am studying a particular gene, I can go to the mouse and find it's the similar gene, and it's 90 percent the same. It's certainly compatible with the theory of evolution, although it will always be a theory that we cannot actually prove. I'm a theistic evolutionist. I take the view that God, in His wisdom, used evolution as His creative scheme. I don't see why that's such a bad idea. That's pretty amazingly creative on His part. And what is wrong with that as a way of putting together in a synthetic way the view of God who is interested in creating a group of individuals that He can have fellowship with -- us? Why is evolution not an appropriate way to get to that goal? I don't see a problem with that."[12]
  • "Yes, evolution by descent from a common ancestor is clearly true. If there was any lingering doubt about the evidence from the fossil record, the study of DNA provides the strongest possible proof of our relatedness to all other living things."

References

  1. ^ Chemical & Engineering News, Vol. 86 No. 31, Aug. 04, 2008, p. 33, "Francis Collins leaves NIH"
  2. ^ Jamie Shreeve, "The Blueprint of Life," U.S. News and World Report, 10/31/05, URL accessed 30 January 2007.
  3. ^ "Montgomery County, Maryland, Press Releases," December 19, 2000, URL accessed 30 January 2007.
  4. ^ "U.S. News & World Report," 2005, URL accessed 4 February 2008.
  5. ^ genome.gov | President Bush Signs the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008
  6. ^ genome.gov | 2008 Release: Francis S. Collins to Step Down as Director of National Human Genome Research Institute
  7. ^ The believer Aug. 7, 2006
  8. ^ Francis Collins: The Scientist as Believer Feb. 2007
  9. ^ TIME Magazine: God vs. Science pg 5
  10. ^ The Dawkins Delusion?: Atheist Fundamentalism and the Denial of the Divine (Paperback). SPCK Publishing. 2007. pp. Back cover. ISBN 978-0-281-05927-0. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Unknown parameter |autho= ignored (help)
  11. ^ Scientists Feel Miscast in Film on Life’s Origin - New York Times
  12. ^ Bob Abernethy's interview with Dr. Francis Collins 2000

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Francis Collins.
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