Dr. Neal
Nathanson, the former
chair of microbiology in Penn’s Medical Center and, more recently, director
of the Office of AIDS Research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH),
was named vice provost for research, effective December 1. He is responsible
for overseeing the policies and administration of the University’s entire
$500 million research enterprise. The research post had previously been
held by Dr. Ralph Amado, professor of physics.
“Penn’s
research enterprise has grown exponentially over these last 10 years,
and the landscape in which our scientists conduct research has changed
dramatically,” noted Dr. Robert Barchi Gr’72 M’72 GM’73, the provost.
“President [Judith] Rodin and I are thrilled that someone of Neal’s stature
will head our research efforts. I can’t think of anyone with a better
combination of world-class personal research and science policy experience
at the national and local level to lead our research efforts in the near
term.”
The
73-year-old Nathanson first came to the University in 1979 as professor
and chair of the Department of Microbiology, and held the chairman’s post
for 15 years; he then spent another two years as vice dean for research
and research training in the School of Medicine. From 1998 until this
past September, he was director of the Office of AIDS Research at the
National Institutes of Health.
“Although
there is a strong research infrastructure at Penn, there’s always room
for improvement in infrastructure,” he said in an interview. “So the vision
I have is trying to make the research environment as friendly and as supportive
for the research community as possible.”
Certain
aspects of Penn’s research program have been under a cloud since the death
of 18-year-old Jesse Gelsinger, a patient in a gene-therapy study, in
September 1999. (A lawsuit brought by the Gelsinger family against the
University was settled in November. See story on page 21.) Since then,
the University has been working to correct any problems associated with
its research.
Although
Nathanson didn’t mention the Gelsinger case specifically, he acknowledged
that “there are a lot of operational issues that are really a work in
progress that I didn’t start but that clearly need to be taken to completion.
We have a whole set of issues in the regulatory arena and in the area
of human subjects. Institutional review boards are responsible for ensuring
the safety of human subjects and all the things that go along with it,
including consent forms and conflict-of-interest issues. All of that is
a major challenge.”
Nathanson
also noted that “we’re in the middle of an evolution, or revolution” in
the way research information is stored, as computers are rendering hard
copy obsolete. “When you have a research enterprise that runs $500 million
a year, it’s enormously complicated to move” all that information to electronic
systems, he said, though he pointed out that “all of our peers” face the
same challenge as Penn.
Nathanson,
who earned his bachelor’s degree and his medical degree from Harvard University,
received his clinical training in internal medicine at the University
of Chicago. After two years heading the Polio Surveillance Unit at the
Centers for Disease Control, he joined the faculty of Johns Hopkins School
of Hygiene and Public Health, where he rose to head of the Division of
Infectious Diseases in the Department of Epidemiology. He has served as
president of the American Epidemiological Society and as editor of Epidemiologic
Reviews. All told, he has almost 40 years of experience as a faculty
member and administrator in research-based institutions.
Given
that he’s been at Penn almost 20 years, he said, his familiarity with
the research community and administrators should give him the “advantage
of a fast start”—though he acknowledged that he still has a fair amount
to learn about the research performed at some of Penn’s schools. The real
issue, he said, “is broadening one’s background to understand the research
cultures at such a large and diverse university.”
“It
was truly good fortune that Neal was finishing his work with the NIH just
as we were conducting the search for a vice provost for research,” said
Barchi. “Fortune smiled and we couldn’t be more pleased that someone with
his depth and experience has taken this leadership position.”
