NIDDK Director's Update Fall 2011

Director's Note

When I began working as a fellow at the National Institutes of Health, I’d recently finished my medical residency. I planned to stay a few years and then move on to an academic institution to continue my research. However, I found so many opportunities at NIH, from the potential to do clinical, translational, and basic research to the vast human resources – talented and diverse researchers and staff whom I was able to work with and learn from. With such abundant opportunities to grow as a researcher and to serve the public, I never left.

I’m one among many. Dr. Ira Levin, the NIDDK scientific director, is the model of what an NIH career can be. Ira retired in July after nearly 48 years at NIH. He began as a guest researcher in 1963 and went on to publish hundreds of scientific papers, breaking new ground again and again in his field of spectroscopy and earning awards and the admiration of his colleagues along the way. He also led the intramural program with modesty and unpretentiousness. Through tight budgets and difficult decisions, he was the epitome of grace under pressure. Read more