NIH Names Director’s Pioneer Awardees

NIH announced 13 new recip-ients of the agency’s Director’s Pioneer Award at its first annual NIH Director’s Pioneer Award Symposium on Sept. 29. The awards—first granted last year (C&EN, Oct. 4, 2004, page 20)—include a prize of $500,000 per year in direct costs for five years to pursue innovative and high-risk approaches to major challenges in biomedical research. “The scientists we recognize with Pioneer Awards have far-ranging ideas that hold the potential to make truly extraordinary contributions to many fields of medical research,” NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni said. Among this year’s recipients is biochemist Pehr A. B. Harbury, associate professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, who studies chemical evolution of small molecules. Harbury is also a 2005 MacArthur Fellow (C&EN, Sept. 26, page 10). Other awardees will pursue work in areas such as neuroscience, stem cell biology, and technology development. For more details about the award, including 2005 and 2004 winners, go online to nih roadmap.nih.gov/pioneer.