U.S. Department
ea eC isieerare|
Human Services
National Institutes
of Health

February 18, 2003
Vol. LV, No. 4

 

Varmus Portrait Dedicated in Bldg. 1

By Rich McManus

hree years after leaving directorship of NIH to head Memorial
Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, Dr. Harold
Varmus returned on Jan. 15 for the formal unveiling of his

portrait—a tradition observed by all
past NIH directors. At a Wilson Hall
ceremony attended by many of his
former colleagues and recruits, Varmus
gave an art history lesson explaining the
portrait, which includes him in the
foreground, seated and looking gregari-
ous in an open-collared shirt, and a
prominent backdrop featuring a famous
painting, executed by Jacques Louis
David in 1788, of French scientist
Antoine Laurent Lavoisier and his wife
Marie Anne Pierrette Paulze.

The Varmus portrait is the work of

SEE VARMUS PORTRAIT UNVEILED, PAGE 6

 

Former NIH director Dr.
Harold Varmus shares
his observations about
new portrait in Bldg. 1.
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’ Varmus chats with

NIH director Dr.
Elias Zerhouni
and former NIMH
director Dr. Steven
Hyman (c) at the
event; Hyman,
now provost at
Harvard Univer-
sity, spoke
candidly about
Varmus’s tenure as
NIH director.

PHOTOS: JOHN
CRAWFORD

VARMUS PORTRAIT UNVEILED. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

artist Jon R. Friedman, whose renderings of former
National Academy of Sciences president Dr. Frank
Press and of Dr. Maxine Singer, an NCI scientist

who now heads the Carnegie Institution of Washing-

ton, had impressed Varmus. Friedman spoke briefly
at the ceremony, also attended by Varmus’s wife
Connie Casey, who unveiled the artwork.

NIH director Dr. Elias Zerhouni emceed the affair,
and read a letter from former Rep. John E. Porter
. (R-IIL.), a prominent

the agency’s congres-
sional appropriations
committee, who could
not attend. Porter’s
letter hailed Varmus as
the model and “gold
standard” of an NIH
director, and praised
his organizational
skill—“closely analo-
gous to herding cats.” Even greater than Varmus’s
success winning large NIH budgets from Congress,
Porter said, was his ability to achieve “vastly
increased public awareness of the benefits of
science.”

Offering more of a traditional roast of the day’s
honoree was Dr. Steven Hyman, whom Varmus
recruited to direct NIMH, and who now is provost

B friend of NIH while on

at Harvard University. “So what do you say about a

man who is truly larger than life?” he began.
Hyman said NIH appeared, at least from an extra-
mural perspective, to be in the doldrums prior to
Varmus’s arrival in 1993. “With Harold’s arrival,
things really seemed to change quickly and with an
upward trajectory that I don’t think anyone could
have predicted.”

Hyman said Varmus’s great gift was an insistence
on quality science and its benefits for society. “He
believed in talking honestly and directly, with no
funny business...Nothing is more effective than
frank communication.

“The thing about Harold,” he continued, “is that

he is relentlessly about content.” Varmus was rather

less tolerant of the minutiae and procedure of

bureaucracy, Hyman added. “When that stuff came

up, his eyes glazed over and a look of boredom and
disapproval swept over his face...If you were so
dense that you didn’t know your conversation with
him was over, he’d give another hint by going over
to his desk and reading his email.

“Harold was all about high standards and being
honest about what good science was—this, and his
integrity, made him a great boss. Harold always
protected your back. Even remarkably radical
reforms could go forward (under his direction), if
they bettered science. He really made the job of
being an institute director incredibly rewarding.”

   

 

Varmus and Zerhouni stand beside the finished work,
which features Varmus sitting before a famous old
painting by French artist Jacques Louis David.

Hyman praised Varmus’s skills as a recruiter,
noting that candidates should have interpreted it a
a sign of respect when Varmus met them while still
dripping wet from exercise, or when Varmus took
them to Bethesda’s no-frills restaurants for recruit-
ment pitches. He noted that, under Varmus, “the
necktie was demoted at NIH as a symbol of polite
dress.”

Hyman concluded, “Harold was all about sub-
stance, content, high quality science, and he was
entirely unapologetic about it. He wasn’t about
marketing or making compromises. His tenure led
to enormous morale and camaraderie. That sense?

Just after Varmus
announced bis
intention, in fall 199]
to leave NIH, some
colleagues put up a
mock portrait
featuring artwork tl
had accompanied a
New Yorker feature
on Varmus. The
proto-portrait only
remained on view fo
several days.

putting science first was such a positive influence,
and a spectacular asset for NIH and the America
people.”

Zerhouni then spoke of how influential Varmus
had been in helping him to decide to take NIH’s
directorship. He divulged that he at first turned _
down the position, but reconsidered when the
House approached him again. Zerhouni won an
exception to the White House rule barring nomin¢
from talking with anyone about their job offer; “l
told them I needed to talk to Harold Varmus abot.
it, and they agreed. We met at the Harvard Club®
New York, and those hours were very influential,’
qethouni said. “Ninety-five percent of what he told
we turned out to be true.”

~gechouni said Varmus’s major strength was
winning bipartisan support for NIH. He created a
te harbor for politicians at NIH. They can meet
with no overriding political stress.” Zerhouni
id one Could measure Varmus’s status by the

amber of new buildings he launched, or by his

fort to double the budget within 5 years, but

ted another way to measure the outcome of his
ure: “What if the director’s portrait changed in
relative to his or her accomplishments?” he

    
 
 
   
 
 
  
   

tjon R.
dman spoke
‘briefly at the
ceremony. His
portraits of

other scientific
leaders

prompted

Varmus to select
him for bis own
official portrait.

wondered. “The portraits would range in size from
postage stamps to frescoes. And you, Harold, would
cover all the wall downstairs.”

Vammus then took the podium, thanking everyone
for attending. “This is a very happy event for me, in
patt because I really like this portrait...I didn’t expect
tosay that. I’m also glad that it hangs here, not
me.”

He credited NIH with turning him into a scientist,
while he served as a clinical associate here from 1968
t0 1970 as a way of avoiding the Vietnam war. He
then described why the background portrait of
lavoisier—-“founder of modern chemistry and
reductionist science” —was important to him. “The
panting celebrates science in four ways,” he said: it
«mphasizes the connection between science and art;
ithighlights the relationship between science and
Words (Lavoisier can be seen working on his Traité
eementaire de Chimie or Elementary Treatise on

emistry presented in a New Order according to
Modern Discoveries, published on Jan. 17, 1789); it
tepicts the benefits of science and marriage; and it
“ows the relationship of science to politics

4voisier was a member of the French ruling class).
Yamus concluded that it was important to him

t the portrait “puts me in the backdrop of my
iimage.” He noted, ironically, that both he and

‘orginal David portrait occupy opposite ends of
“8 St. in New York—his apartment is at one end,
itd the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which
“lays the roughly 7x9-foot portrait, is at the other.
Vane guests enjoyed a reception in Wilson Hall, the
24s portrait was installed on the first floor of

Ng. 1, just outside the director’s office. o

 

 
   

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