Senate confirms Zerhouni

Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni became the 15th director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) May 2 when the Senate, without debate, approved the Bush Administration nominee. Zerhouni is the first radiologist to head the NIH, which has an annual budget of $20.4 billion and funds the majority of the medical research conducted in the U.S. The chair of radiology and executive vice dean for research at Johns Hopkins University fills a two-year vacancy created when the previous NIH director, Dr. Harold Varmus, resigned to head the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.