Elias Zerhouni, director of the National Institutes of Health since 2002, is resigning his position at the end of October. Zerhouni has led the NIH through an interesting period, and my take is that he handled the challenges well.

He leaves the NIH with more funding focused on young scientists and unconventional/high-risk/high payoff science. He has, during an era of big team genome science, emphasized the need for also funding the traditional smaller groups of creative individuals doing basic science. He has repeatedly emphasized the need for basic science, while also looking at more focused work on translating science into clinical solutions.

Among his major challenges, he's had to deal with declining NIH budgets after the 5-year doubling period (1998-2003). A major risk was attrition of the next generation of researchers - younger scientists who lose out to the natural advantages of more senior investigators in the competition for grants.

Also at issue was the balance of big-budget, large scale genome science vs. smaller projects led by researchers with more flexibility to be creative. (Big team science can come with a big bureaucracy.)

In government that seems to be staffed with hacks at many levels, Zerhouni was a refreshing dose of competence.