Mind, Brain, Body, and Behavior

42 FARRERAS

Robert B. Livingston, M.D.

Courtesy of the National Library

of Medicine

tenure was marked by the establishment of a number of programs

that affected the intramural scientists personally, namely, the Assembly

of Scientists, sabbaticals, tenure, the Associates Training Program, and

the Foundation for the Advancement of Education in the Sciences.

Assembly of Scientists

In January 1958, the NIMH-NINDB basic research laboratory chiefs

sought mechanisms that would improve the “professional stature,

...performance, and...long-range research development of the NIH.”^35

Their aim was to “maintain the NIH as a national and international

resource of important value to biomedical science and to health and

welfare generally.”^36 The goal was for the administration to rely more on

the ideas of scientists whose responsibility and concern with the devel­

opment of policies affecting them and their work as well as the mission

of the institutes made them sensitive to such issues. The expectation of

the laboratory chiefs was that their collective judgments with respect to

such issues would be welcomed.^37 The laboratory chiefs also believed

that an additional channel of communication between the scientists

and the administration was necessary to ensure that the long-term phi­

losophy of the institutes was maintained:

the coming years will bring to bear on the NIH strong pres­

sures to change its short-term mission and modus operandi.