"Despite a federal hiring freeze, the Trump administration just appointed a scientist who calls Vance one of his “closest friends” to head the nation’s key environmental health research arm."
"Employees at the National Institutes of Health learned in an email on Friday, in the midst of a hiring freeze, that their prestigious environmental health sciences research center has a new director.
There was no job announcement, no search committee to identify top candidates, no interviews or reference checks.
The position to lead the nation’s premier environmental health research institute wasn’t even open.
Yet Jay Bhattacharya, a political appointee who oversees the 27 institutes and centers under NIH, named Kyle Walsh, an associate professor in neurosurgery at Duke University, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS).
In an email dated Oct. 17, Bhattacharya informed NIH employees, who were told they may periodically check their emails for updates about the shutdown, that Walsh’s appointment was effective Oct. 10. The email called Walsh a leader in neuro-epidemiology whose research bridges laboratory and population-based science to understand how genetics and environment interact to shape brain health, cancer risk and aging."
Liza Gross reports for Inside Climate News October 21, 2025.
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