No new Science chief until '08

The search for a replacement for Science editor-in-chief won't pick up until 2008, according to the journal's publisher, the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

"What I've been told is there's going to be no activity of the search committee until next year," Ginger Pinholster, director of AAAS's office of public programs, told The Scientist in an Email. "The board of directors meets in February."

In June, Donald Kennedy said he planned to retire from his post as the journal's editor-in-chief. Kennedy himself told The Scientist he remains in the dark as to who will take his place. He noted he was the "last person" who would know about his replacement, but that he was confident the search committee and chair David Baltimore will make a "good choice."

Kennedy has said he would remain in the post until a replacement is named.

Floyd Bloom, former editor-in-chief of Science (whom Kennedy replaced), said he has agreed to approach candidates who make the search committee's "short list" to help recruit them to the position, and has not yet received any names. He told The Scientist he doesn't even know who is on the search committee.

Bloom declined to name names of who he would like to fill Kennedy's spot, but said he would prefer a scientist to someone who is primarily an administrator. As Science's editor-in-chief, he said his scientific background helped him recruit authors with unconventional ideas. "Having someone who's been a scientist do that kind of inviting gives it an extra impact."

Numerous names have emerged as potential candidates, including Baltimore, Shirley Tilghman (president of Princeton University), Nobel laureate Harold Varmus (former National Institutes of Health director and current president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center), and his co-laureate J. Michael Bishop (chancellor of the University of California, San Francisco).

Who do you think will, or should, replace Don Kennedy at Science Tell us here. (Anonymous tips are welcome.)

Alison McCook
mail@the-scientist.com

Links within this article:

K. Grens, "Who will replace Don Kennedy?" The Scientist, July 30, 2007
http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/53447/

K. Grens, "No progress on Science head search," The Scientist, September 20, 2007.
http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/53603

Harold Varmus
http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/23543/