National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) director David Schwartz, who officially linkurl:resigned;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/54296/ from the agency last Friday, told __The Scientist__ that NIEHS "could do better" and will "be more successful" under new leadership. Schwartz also said that the environmental health community misunderstood his goals as director of NIEHS. "There was a belief that I was creating a clinical institute," he said, "when I had no intention of creating a clinical institute." Schwartz was criticized by legislators, and scientists both inside and outside NIEHS for steering the agency away from its traditional focus on research into the prevention of environmentally mediated disease and towards more clinical aspects of these diseases. "We wanted to attract more physician/scientists to the institute," Schwartz said. "For some reason, that was misinterpreted as funding only physician/scientists." "I was also promoting the idea that environmental science had a unique opportunity to use exposures to uniquely understand...
Interested in reading more?
Become a Member of
Receive full access to more than 35 years of archives, as well as TS Digest, digital editions of The Scientist, feature stories, and much more!