It was my pleasure to join Marie Bernard, NIH chief officer for Scientific Workforce Diversity (SWD), in welcoming everyone to the virtual 2021 NIH Future Research Leaders Conference on June 29. The two-day conference, sponsored by SWD, offered a career-development opportunity for about 30 talented early-stage scientists interested in pursuing careers within NIH’s on-campus Intramural Research Program. These future research leaders had a chance to hear from NIH leadership and tenure-track investigators about strategies for developing an independent research career at NIH. They also will now connect with a network of scientists from across many of NIH’s 27 institutes and centers, including in their scientific focus areas. As I stated in my remarks, scientific discovery and health advancement require not only exceptional talent but diverse perspectives. Welcome to the NIH family.
The NIH will soon launch its Distinguished Scholars Program to enhance diversity among tenure track investigators in the Intramural Research Program. On October 1, 2018, I joined Michael Gottesman (back row, second left) and Hannah Valentine (back row middle, standing next to me), NIH’s chief officer for Scientific Workforce Diversity, and other NIH leaders and mentors in meeting with the first group of 13 distinguished scholars after work at a Bethesda, MD restaurant. It was my pleasure to talk about the pursuit of excellence at NIH and in science in general. Credit: NIH
