Starting this month, a former physician took on the unenviable task of serving as the interim-director of the National Institutes of Health, assuming the reins from linkurl:Elias Zerhouni.;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/13166/ linkurl:Raynard Kington,;http://www.nih.gov/about/director/index.htm who will be acting NIH director until President-elect linkurl:Barack Obama;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/21033/ appoints a new director, served as Zerhouni's linkurl:deputy director;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/55167/ since 2003, and before that, as associate director of NIH for behavioral and social sciences research. __The Scientist__ spoke with Kington about the challenges of running NIH in an economic downturn and what he expects as we enter the Obama presidency. __The Scientist__ - What do you think can be done at this point to get the linkurl:NIH's budget;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/49077/ back to where a lot of scientists say it should be? __Raynard Kington__ - I think [Zerhouni] made a good point that science isn't one of these things where you can just turn off the spigot and everything will just wait until...

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