New NIEHS leader looks ahead

Researchers at NIH's long-beleaguered National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) are hopeful that the institute's new head, toxicologist linkurl:Linda Birnbaum;http://www.f1000biology.com/about/biography/3056654395292771, will be able to right the ship after the rocky tenure of ex-NIEHS director David Schwartz. linkurl:Chris Portier,;http://www.niehs.nih.gov/about/od/orar/index.cfm associate director of NIEHS, said that there are key differences between Schwartz and Birnbaum. "I'm much more optimistic that she's got management experience of a large group, which David [Schwartz} didn't have," he told __The Scientist__. "She's got governmental experience, which David didn't have. It will be a completely different person that steps into that office." Amid allegations of mismanagement -- including stocking his disproportionately large lab full of former Duke University colleagues -- Schwartz resigned from his post earlier this year. One of his most provocative moves was to suggest privatizing and cutting funding for linkurl:__Environmental Health Perspectives__,;http://www.ehponline.org/ NIEHS's open-access, peer-reviewed journal. The proposition raised hackles in Washington, DC and...