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Arrayed to the right, in all their diaphanous glory, the pale pink blossoms of cherry trees rim the oval pond. Out another window, I glimpse the spreading forms of flowering crab apples with blooms of deep rose. It's a season of change here at HHMI, and that change is not restricted to the surrounding landscape.
For example, the Institute has just announced a major new program for highly talented, early career scientists. It's an initiative we hope will inject some much-needed optimism into a research community dispirited by the dim prospects of being funded by the National Institutes of Health. The scientists we are targeting—those within two to six years of their first appointment as an assistant professor or equivalent position—are often at a high point of their creativity but face daunting odds in winning stable funding for their research. As we move into year five of flat budgets at the NIH, our colleagues there are concerned about the issue and are trying to address it but lack the flexibility we enjoy.
The HHMI initiative comes at a critical moment for the nation, and we're fortunate to be able to respond in a meaningful way. Having said that, we're mindful that nonprofit organizations face a surfeit of opportunities to respond to gaps in federal funding. They must exercise care in deciding when to intervene, or they risk dissipating that flexibility. We balanced that appropriate caution against the views of scientists who believe the situation is dire—in other words, if someone seems to be drowning, you throw that person a life preserver and debate the finer points about whether the sea is rising due to global warming at a later date.
The opportunity to act decisively to stimulate biomedical research and science education makes being president of HHMI a unique position in scientific leadership. Yet, as many readers of this column already know, I will step down from this extraordinary position a year from now to return to my laboratory at the University of Colorado on a full-time basis. This decision reflects my desire to be fully engaged in research and teaching but also the realities of charting new strategic directions for HHMI.
Photo: Bruce Weller
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