Byrnes Named CSR Director
Photo: CSR
Dr. Noni Byrnes has been named director of the Center for Scientific Review. She had served as acting director of CSR since the retirement of former director Dr. Richard Nakamura in May 2018.
“Noni’s nearly two decades of experience with NIH peer review, as well as her consummate professionalism, give me the utmost confidence that she is the best person to lead CSR through the next era of scientific discovery,” said NIH director Dr. Francis Collins, who made the appointment.
Byrnes will oversee an annual budget of more than $130 million and more than 500 scientific, support and contract personnel. CSR manages the receipt and referral of all grant proposals for NIH and other parts of HHS, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration. CSR also oversees the peer review of approximately 75 percent of the nearly 50,000 grant applications received by NIH each year.
Byrnes has worked at CSR since 2000, when she started as a scientific review officer in the enabling bioanalytical technologies study section. She also managed CSR’s Review Internship Program, which transitioned bench and behavioral scientists to science administration positions.
From 2006 to 2011, she was chief of the cell biology integrated review group, and from 2012 to 2017, she served as director of the Division of Basic and Integrative Biological Sciences.
Prior to joining NIH, Byrnes worked in the pharmaceutical industry, where she conducted research to support investigational new drug submissions, served on phase III clinical trial project teams and provided oversight of contracts with clinical research organizations.
Byrnes earned her B.S. in chemistry from Allegheny College and her Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from Emory University.