HHMI Casts A Wide Net

If you've always wanted to vie for a spot as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, now's your chance. HHMI plans to invest at least $600 million in the research of as many as 50 newly selected investigators, who will be drawn from a broad array of disciplines including chemistry, physics, and engineering.

"We are looking for scientists who have demonstrated originality and productivity in biomedical research and who show exceptional promise for future contributions," says Jack E. Dixon, vice president and chief scientific officer at HHMI. The nonprofit medical research organization currently supports about 300 investigators in the U.S.

For the first time in a general competition, HHMI is soliciting applications directly from researchers. In previous general competitions, researchers had to be nominated by their institutions. Candidates should have between four and 10 years of experience since being appointed as an assistant professor and must be based at one of some 200 eligible U.S. institutions.

"The intent is to ensure that the HHMI investigators appointed through this competition will be in strong research environments that are able to provide infrastructure support to the research programs," explains Senior Scientific Officer Josephine P. Briggs.

Applications should be filed by 3 PM on June 13. Successful candidates will be named next spring. The new investigators will become HHMI employees but will maintain their faculty appointments at their home institutions.