leadership

Let’s Collaborate! 10 Elements for Building Successful Teams

What attracts talented scientists to the IRP? And, once they are here, why do they stay? One major factor is the proximity to brilliant colleagues and collaborative relationships across the spectrum of biomedical research.

Seeking to understand the key elements that contribute to successful team science, we studied a number of NIH research teams to discover the secrets of their success. The results are examined in the second edition of Collaboration and Team Science: A Field Guide, which contains new insights from individuals, teams, and organizations around the world.

What are the 10 Elements of Successful Teams? Read on to find out.

A team of researchers in the lab at the NIH IRP

Remembering Dr. Alan Rabson, a Leader in Cancer Care

Dr. Alan Rabson with journalist and author Katie Couric

The NIH community and cancer scientists around the world were saddened to learn that Alan Rabson, M.D., a prominent former IRP researcher and Deputy Director of the NIH’s National Cancer Institute (NCI), passed away on July 4 at the age of 92.

Dr. Rabson first joined the NIH in 1955 as a pathologic anatomy resident in the NIH Clinical Center, which had opened just two years before, and he began studying cancer-causing viruses in an NCI intramural laboratory a year later. Over the course of his ensuing six decades with NIH, Dr. Rabson accumulated a great many stories, a few of which we have shared in his own words, pulled from a 1997 “NCI Oral History Project” interview.

New Scientific Directors, and More to Come

Meet the NIH Scientific Directors and their programs

We’ve had a few changes on our Board of Scientific Directors in the past year, so I thought I’d give you an update. Each NIH Institute or Center (IC) with an intramural program has a scientific director (SD). The NCI, NIAID, NLM, and NIEHS are programmatically diverse and require additional leaders with SD functions. So, although 24 ICs have principal SDs, there are actually 30 people who function as scientific directors.

These SDs are responsible for the intramural budgets of their institutes. Most run their own labs. They also have numerous other responsibilities.

Mentoring in Science

In Greek mythology, Mentor was the person whom Odysseus left in charge of his son Telemachus before leaving to fight in the Trojan War. According to Homer’s Odyssey, Athena, the goddess of wisdom, disguised herself as Mentor and visited Telemachus several times to advise him while his father was away. Today, the term “mentor” denotes someone who passes his or her knowledge and wisdom to somebody with less experience.

Mentor and Telemachus, by Tito Angelini

Challenge Implicit Bias in Honor of MLK Day

Today, we honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy by observing his message and his impact on society. His message of human rights and social justice is as relevant today as it was 50 years ago.