Scientists Call Appointment of JD Vance's Friend to Top NIH Position "Cronyism
Employees at the National Institutes of Health learned in an email on Friday, in the midst of a hiring freeze, that their prestigious environmental health sciences research center has a new director.
There was no job announcement, no search committee to identify top candidates, no interviews or reference checks.
The position to lead the nations premier environmental health research institute wasnt even open.
Yet Jay Bhattacharya, a political appointee who oversees the 27 institutes and centers under NIH, named Kyle Walsh, an associate professor in neurosurgery at Duke University, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS).
In an email dated Oct. 17, Bhattacharya informed NIH employees, who were told they may periodically check their emails for updates about the shutdown, that Walshs appointment was effective Oct. 10. The email called Walsh a leader in neuro-epidemiology whose research bridges laboratory and population-based science to understand how genetics and environment interact to shape brain health, cancer risk and aging.
https://truthout.org/articles/scientists-call-appointment-of-jd-vances-friend-to-top-nih-position-cronyism/