Ask microbiologist and clinical researcher George Counts why he left the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle last year and took a newly created position as chief of the AIDS clinical research management branch at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and his answer touches on the close relationship he sees between race and duty. "I knew that there were no blacks at decision-making levels in the AIDS program," he says. "That was one factor in my decision to take this job.
Another was the realization that I was probably the senior black infectious disease person in the country and I wasn't doing anything to combat this epidemic, which is having such a devastating effect on minorities. That made me uncomfortable."
Ask biochemist Ida Owens about her nearly 20 years as a research scientist in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), and ...
