James Collins#
| Membership Number: | 7297 |
| Membership type: | FOREIGN |
| Section: | BIOCHEMISTRY & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY |
| Affiliated section(s): | PHYSICS |
| Elected: | 2025 |
| Main Country of Residence: | UNITED STATES |
| Homepage(s): | https://collinslab.mit.edu |
| ORCID: | 0000-0002-5560-8246 |
Present and Previous Positions
- 2014 - present Termeer Professor of Medical Engineering & Science, MIT
- 2014 - present Professor, Dept of Biological Engineering, MIT
- 2014 - present Professor, Harvard-MIT Health Sciences & Technology Program
- 2014 - present Faculty Member, Biophysics Program, MIT
- 2014 - present Faculty Member, Synthetic Biology Center, MIT
- 2014 - present Faculty Member, Microbiology Graduate Program, MIT
- 2014 - present Faculty Member, Computational & Systems Biology Initiative, MIT
- 2014 - present Faculty Member, Ctr Microbiome Informatics & Therapeutics, MIT
- 2024 - present Member, Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, MIT
- 2023 - present Visiting Professor in Engineering Science, University of Oxford
- 2014 - present Institute Member, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
- 2008 - present Founding Core Faculty Member, Wyss Institute, Harvard University
- 2008 - present Visiting Professor of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School
- 2013 - 2014 Director and Founder, Ctr of Synthetic Biology, Boston University (BU)
- 2009 - 2014 William F. Warren Distinguished Professor, BU
- 2008 - 2014 Professor, Dept of Medicine, BU School of Medicine
- 1999 - 2014 University Professor, BU
- 1998 - 2014 Faculty Member, Graduate Program in Mol Cell Bio & Biochem, BU
- 1998 - 2014 Faculty Member, Graduate Program in Bioinformatics, BU
- 1998 - 2010 Lecturer, Dept of Physical Med & Rehab, Harvard Medical School
- 1997 - 2014 Professor, Dept of Biomedical Engineering, BU
- 1997 - 2012 Co-Director and Co-Founder, Center for BioDynamics, BU
- 1996 - 1997 Associate Professor, Dept of Biomedical Engineering, BU
- 1994 - 1996 Research Associate Professor, Dept of Biomedical Engineering, BU
- 1990 - 1994 Research Assistant Professor, Dept of Biomedical Engineering, BU
Fields of Scholarship
- Antibiotics research
- Synthetic biology
- Systems biology
Honours and Awards
- National Academies:
- 2014 Elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences
- 2012 Elected to the U.S. National Academy of Medicine
- 2011 Elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering
- Honorary Societies:
- 2013 Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
- 2012 Elected Charter Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors
- 2012 Elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences
- 2002 Elected Fellow of the Institute of Physics, United Kingdom
- 2000 Elected Fellow of the American Institute for Medical & Biological Engineering
- 1999 Elected Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS)
- Selected Academic Awards:
- 2023 Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology, Foresight Institute
- 2023 Clarivate Citation Laureate in Chemistry
- 2020 Dickson Prize in Medicine, University of Pittsburgh
- 2020 Max Delbruck Prize in Biological Physics, APS
- 2017 Gabbay Award in Biotechnology and Medicine, Brandeis University
- 2015 HFSP Nakasone Award, Human Frontier Science Program
- 2012 Sanofi–Institut Pasteur Award
- 2010 Lagrange Prize, CRT Foundation
- 2007 NIH Director’s Pioneer Award
- 2003 MacArthur Fellow
- 1987 Rhodes Scholar




