Inside Out At NIH
In their quest for the authority to pay higher salaries to attract top scientific talent, NIH officials are quick to claim that, since James Wyngaarden came from Duke University to become NIH director in 1982, they have been unable to fill any top administrative positions with outsiders. That streak came to an end in January with the appointment of James Snow, chairman of the department of otorhinolaryngology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, as the first director of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communications Disorders. But Snow's appointment hasn't stopped NIH officials - most recently at last month's annual appropriations hearing in the House - from continuing to repeat their claim.
Meanwhile, as of March 23, NIH Acting Director William Raub had another vacancy to fill, that of deputy director for extramural research, resulting from the departure of neurologist Katherine Bick. Bick,...