On Dec. 18, 2015, Dr. Richard W. Childs was promoted to rear admiral (lower half) in the U.S. Public Health Service and now holds an honorary title of Assistant Surgeon General. He is just one of three NIH employees in the intramural program to earn this honor, and the only one within Building 10.
Childs, who sees patients in the Clinical Center, is the clinical director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute's Division of Intramural Research and a senior investigator in the Laboratory of Transplantation Immunotherapy. Last year, Childs served as Chief Medical Officer for a team in Liberia in response to the Ebola crisis.
In accepting the honor, Child's said "The clinical research that we're engaged in ... can only be done at a place like the NIH Clinical Center which is unquestionably the greatest research hospital in the world." Childs is one of more than 300 Commissioned corps officers working at the NIH. Last year, Childs served as Chief Medical Officer for a team in Liberia in response to the Ebola crisis.