Today, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) announced the selection of neuroscientist Jeffrey S. Diamond, Ph.D., as Scientific Director. Dr. Diamond is a NINDS Senior Investigator and has served as the institute’s Acting Scientific Director since August 2022. His laboratory, within the NINDS synaptic physiology section, seeks to understand how neural circuits receive, compute, encode and transmit information.
“It is with great pleasure that I announce Dr. Diamond’s appointment as NINDS Scientific Director after an extensive search to fill the role,” said Walter Koroshetz, M.D., NINDS director. “I am confident that Dr. Diamond will provide leadership that will build on our intramural research program’s incredible strengths and continue NINDS’ efforts to create a vibrant, productive research community that is a welcoming and fulfilling workplace and training environment for all.”
As Scientific Director, Dr. Diamond will oversee NINDS’ Intramural Research Program (IRP), which consists of 48 labs and approximately 1,100 employees on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland. Scientists in NINDS’ IRP conduct research on basic, translational, and clinical neuroscience in areas such as synaptic transmission, movement disorders, structural neurobiology, biophysics, neurodegeneration, neural circuits, neuropharmacology, neurodevelopment, stroke, brain imaging, neurogenetics, and neuroimmunology.
“This past year as Acting Scientific Director has exposed me to many of the responsibilities, challenges and exciting opportunities that come with the position.” said Dr. Diamond. “I look forward to learning much more and serving our intramural community going forward.”
Dr. Diamond received a B.S. from Duke University and a Ph.D. from the University of California, San Francisco, where he studied excitatory synaptic transmission in the retina with David Copenhagen. During a postdoctoral fellowship with Craig Jahr at the Vollum Institute, he investigated the effects of glutamate transporters on excitatory synaptic transmission in the hippocampus. Dr. Diamond joined NINDS as an investigator in 1999 and was promoted to Senior Investigator in 2007.
The focus of Dr. Diamond’s research has been on how synapses, neurons and small circuits perform computational tasks required for visual information processing in the mammalian retina.
Dr. Diamond has earned numerous awards and honors, including the Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering. He follows Dr. Lorna Role, who served as NINDS’ Scientific Director until May 2021.