“BRAIN: Where Neuroscience, Engineering, Informatics, and Psychology Meet” CANCELLED; Reschedule Date TBD

Dr. Thomas Insel is Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the component of the National Institutes of Health committed to research on mental disorders.
Dr. Insel has served as Director of this $1.5B agency since 2002. During his tenure, Dr. Insel has focused on the genetics and neurobiology of mental disorders as well as transforming approaches to diagnosis and treatment. Prior to serving as NIMH Director, Dr. Insel was Professor of Psychiatry at Emory University, where he was founding director of the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience and director of the Yerkes Regional Primate Center in Atlanta. Dr. Insel’s research has examined the neural basis of complex social behaviors, including maternal care and attachment.

A member of the Institute of Medicine, he has received numerous national and international awards and served in several leadership roles at NIH.

“The NIEHS—Our Future, Our Health: Research Opportunities”

Linda Birnbaum, Ph.D., is Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) of the National Institutes of Health, and also Director of the National Toxicology Program (NTP). As NIEHS and NTP Director, Birnbaum oversees a budget of more than $740M that funds biomedical research to discover how the environment influences human health and disease. The Institute also supports training, education, technology transfer, and community outreach. NIEHS currently funds more than 1,000 research grants.

A board certified toxicologist, Birnbaum has served as a federal scientist for nearly 35 years. Prior to her appointment as NIEHS and NTP Director in 2009, she spent 19 years at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), where she led the largest division focusing on environmental health research. Besides being the first woman to head the NIEHS, Birnbaum is an alumna of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, earning both her M.S. and Ph.D. in microbiology.

“Navigating NIH Peer Review”

George Chacko, Ph.D., joined the University of Illinois in May 2014 as Director of Research Information Analytics, a newly-created position in the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research. Prior to Illinois, Chacko served as Director of the Office of Planning, Analysis, and Evaluation (OPAE) at the NIH’s Center for Scientific Review (CSR). In this role, Chacko restructured the Office and redefined its mission to emphasize independence, research, operational efficiency, data provenance, collaboration , and the use of open source tools. His office was involved in evaluating CSR’s peer review operations (about 60,000 grant applications reviewed, annually) and attempting to understand the scientific impact of these operations.

With a wealth of past experience at NIH and extensive education and training in experimental biology, Chacko will share his insights on navigating the NIH funding peer review process.

“What’s Happening at NIH”

Dr. Sally Rockey, Ph.D., leads NIH extramural research activities. Her role is to oversee the development and implementation of the critical policies and guidelines central to the successful conduct of NIH-supported biomedical research.

Rockey received her Ph.D. in entomology from The Ohio State University, and has spent the majority of her career in the area of research administration and information technology. Prior to NIH, Rockey served in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Extramural Research office, where she quickly rose to the post of Deputy Administrator for the Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service, overseeing the USDA extramural competitive grants process and portfolio. She was promoted to Chief Information Officer at the USDA, then in 2005 moved to NIH and became the Deputy Director for Extramural Research  in 2008.

Rockey leads or is active on a number of Federal committees related to science, research administration, and electronic government and collaborates closely with academic and scientific communities. She is the author of the widely-read “Rock Talk” blog.