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Indeed, for anyone whose life and work follow the rhythm of an academic calendar, this can be a still, quiet time of year. Classrooms are empty of students, colleagues have fled to idyllic maritime laboratories to teach and think, and more leisurely pursuits beckon. Under normal circumstances, that might have been the case at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, but this has been a summer unlike any other. Fish—of the metaphorical variety, that is—are jumping everywhere.
We are in the throes of two competitions for new investigators. For starters, we are preparing to select a group of physician-scientists from among more than 240 researchers who applied during our patient-oriented research competition—the first time faculty could apply directly, without institutional nominations, in HHMI's history. Our scientific officers and advisors are also hard at work reviewing the 1,072 applications we received in the general competition for new investigators, again based on applications rather than nominations. Final decisions about this group of candidates will not be made until 2008, yet we can already see the value of the open competition model. The field is strong and diverse: it reflects a wide array of disciplines and institutions and establishes a high bar for future competitions.
Despite all this activity, summer still offers an opportunity for reflection. My colleagues and I have thought a lot about the attributes of HHMI's investigator program that optimize its impact on biomedical science. Many of the core principles established in the 1980s remain intact, even as HHMI has evolved to encompass new areas of research, more open selection of investigators, and development of the Janelia Farm Research Campus. Future initiatives—and we're hoping to have news on that front over the next year—will be judged on the basis of their fidelity to those principles.
So what are our core values? Some readers of the HHMI Bulletin are probably familiar with the most basic principle: people, not projects. That's a shorthand way of saying that HHMI seeks highly creative and energetic scientists, trusting them to overcome the challenges that arise in their research and giving them the freedom to switch into new areas of opportunity. As a corollary principle, we respect diversity in research styles. We believe that smaller research groups generally provide the best mentoring and encourage collaboration; thus, HHMI supports between five and eight research staff in each of our laboratories. But we recognize that a robust science program must encompass a variety of approaches, so our investigators may seek funds from other agencies to support a larger laboratory.
Photo: Bruce Weller
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