Howard Hughes Medical Institute President Steps Down
The President of Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Thomas R. Cech, has announced that he plans to step down in the spring of 2009. Cech plans to return to academia and continue his research activities.
ScienceNow reports that Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is the largest private biomedical research funder in the United States, with an endowment of $18.7 billion and $685 million spent only last year on research and grants.
The biggest institutional change he oversaw was the creation of Janelia Farm Research Campus, a center in Ashburn, Virginia, that brings top scientists together to do high-risk research on neural circuits and imaging. Cech also made important changes in procedure, making it possible for individuals rather than institutions to nominate candidate HHMI investigators and adding slots for physician-scientists. Last month, he launched a new program to appoint young scientists as HHMI investigators for 6 years.
According to Chronicle.com, Cech shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and has also been a finalist for the open presidency at Harvard, but later pulled out.
Thomas R. Cech, who is also a faculty member at the University of Colorado at Boulder, will return full time to academe. His research program at Colorado has continued during his tenure at Hughes.
Photo: © Mark Warner
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