The respected, hyperkinetic supervisor of the research program on AIDS of $ 2 billion to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced his retirement yesterday. Neal Nathanson said his last day will be September 1st. "This is my birthday 73rd, and the family said you paid your dues and it's time to come home," said Nathanson, director of the AIDS Research Office (SRO).
Nathanson , viral renowned epidemiologist, was coaxed from his laboratory longtime University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia (where he still keeps his home) in July 1998 by Harold Varmus, then director of the NIH. Nathanson had little experience of AIDS but he threw himself to the task with the enthusiasm of a graduate student. "part of the reason he was able to accomplish the things he did was because he was not an insider "said Philip Greenberg, an HIV immunologist at the University of Washington, Seattle, who sits on the board of OAR." he had no vested interest, and he did not have a career to expand. "
Greenberg and other credit Nathanson with the promotion of cooperation between NIH institutes, strengthening the vaccine research budget against AIDS, better coordination of research on primates, and save "section of study "HIV in specific hazard which reviews applications for external grants. Nathanson said to address the tensions between the various institutes presented him the biggest challenge of all. "The directors of the institutes are far too powerful and the NIH Director's far too low," says Nathanson. "The institutes do not play well together. And I did a lot of behind the scenes negotiations."
Nathanson plans to return to the University of Pennsylvania, and is interested in working in the vaccine against the AIDS area, Penn or elsewhere. "Who knows what will come," he said. NIH has not yet formed a search committee to find a replacement. "It will be hard to fill his shoes, I'll tell you," said Anthony Fauci, director the National Institute of allergy and infectious diseases.
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