NIH head rumours run amok - May 27, 2009
It wouldn't be Washington if the rumour mill weren't spinning out of control. Just days after Barack Obama finally nominated Charles Bolden, a Marine Corps general, to head NASA (Nature), media reports are buzzing yet again about another long-anticipated science nominee: Francis Collins, supposedly to head the National Institutes of Health.
The shortlist for NIH head reportedly included more than just Collins, but he has long been considered a frontrunner. The former director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, he spearheaded the publicly funded drive to sequence the human genome. Never shy, he has been outspoken about his efforts to reconcile science and religion, such as in his 2006 book The Language of God (Nature story, subscription required). Most recently he has drawn attention through his BioLogos Foundation, funded by the Templeton Foundation and meant "to address the escalating culture war between science and faith in the United States". It drew a fair amount of ire for its apparent fluffiness, for instance from blogger PZ Myers.
Obama's personnel announcements come near the end of most days on the White House listserv, often titled 'President Announces More Key Administration Posts'. For reporters, this means opening each email with baited breath to see if it will be, finally, the NIH head announcement -- or something about the chief of protocol for the state department.
