NIH Director Will Be Acting CDC Chief; O’Neill to Head NSF

The National Institutes of Health director will become acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and President Trump will nominate the CDC’s former acting director to lead the National Science Foundation, a White House official confirmed to Inside Higher Ed. The NIH and NSF are among the largest federal funders of university research.

The official said NIH director Jay Bhattacharya will maintain his current duties while also leading the CDC “until a permanent CDC director is nominated and confirmed.” Jim O’Neill was dismissed last week from leading the CDC, a position he had only held since late August. The NIH is headquartered in Bethesda, Md., while the CDC is based in Atlanta.

“Both are eminently qualified for these positions, and the White House has confidence in them to deliver on the president’s agenda,” the official said.

Bhattacharya’s new duties leading the CDC come as the NIH continues to lack permanent leadership in many top posts. With last week’s ending of Lindsey A. Criswell’s directorship of the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, 16 directors of the 27 institutes and centers that comprise the agency are in an acting capacity.

These NIH directors have departed for multiple reasons, including terminations by the Trump administration and resignations.