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New Pair to Lead Scripps

Peter Schultz and Steve Kay are taking over the leadership spots at the Scripps Research Institute, Nature News reports. Schultz, a chemist at Scripps, will be the institute's new chief executive officer and vice chair, while Kay, a molecular biologist currently at the University of Southern California, will be its president.

This shakeup comes, Nature News notes, about a year after a failed merger attempt between Scripps and USC. Scripps faculty largely opposed the merger idea, and the institute's president Michael Marletta resigned shortly after the plan was scuttled. James Paulson, head of the institute's cell and molecular biology department, has been the acting president and chief executive since Marletta's departure.

Scripps hopes Schultz and Kay will raise the institute's profile for attracting both talent and funds, especially resources from non-traditional sources.

"Pete [Schultz] has tremendous academic credentials, experience in commercialization and a vision of how to do bench-to-bedside research in an academic setting, while Steve Kay has shown proven leadership in recruiting top talent and fundraising," Patrick Griffin, a biochemist at the Scripps' Florida campus who served on the search committee, tells Nature News.

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