The End of an Era: Director Lindberg Retires After 31 Years Leading NLM

Dr. Lindberg speaks at the March 30 NIH farewell tribute. Photo by Bill Branson.

Lindberg predicted a time when “the book or journal on the shelf will become increasingly too remote for immediate patient-care decisions,” and the computers will become increasingly useful; when “medical informatics will emerge as a formal research field and academic discipline;” and when progress in “cancer research and molecular biology will be to the average citizen not an idle curiosity or newspaper headline, but a matter of immediate personal concern.”

“I hope you saw how true and prescient his observations were,” noted NIH Director Francis Collins, MD, PhD. “Don created programs that transformed our approach to information.”

“Your influence has been profound,” said Anthony S. Fauci, MD, director of NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “The kind of capabilities you put at our fingertips made what we do possible.” Drs. Vivian Pinn, Harold Varmus, John Gallin and Roger Glass were the other NIH leaders who spoke of their collaborations with Lindberg.