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Cech: a passion for science education. Credit: PAUL FETTERS/HHMI

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute last week named biochemist Thomas Cech as its next president.

Cech won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1989 for his work on the biocatalytic function of ribonucleic acid. He intends to maintain his laboratory at the University of Colorado at Boulder while running the United States’ largest research philanthropy from its headquarters at Chevy Chase, Maryland.

“My two great passions have been biomedical research and science education,” Cech says. “This is an opportunity to get involved in these issues at the highest level.”

The 51-year-old scientist hopes to see Hughes taking a more active role in applying information technology to biology. “Computing is revolutionizing biology, and we could be at the forefront of bioinformatics,” he says. “The institute could support investments in bioinformatics and, for example, set up regional centres” for computing.

Hughes currently spends most of its $420 million science programme on directly supporting 318 US investigators, among them many of the country's most accomplished life scientists, including Cech. It also spends $100 million each year on a grants programme that supports the reform of lifescience teaching at US universities, as well as researchers outside the United States.

Cech, who has always taught chemistry to first-year students at his own university, is very enthusiastic about the university teaching programme. “It's a real American success story,” he says. “Everywhere I go, institutes have been using this money to redefine the way they educate science students.”

He seems less sure about the international programmes that support scientists in Eastern Europe, Latin America and Canada. “I need some time to talk to people” about the programmes, he says, “and to find out what administrative burden they place on Hughes.” Cech also questions why the programmes only support scientists in some parts of the world.

While he admires the UK-based Wellcome Trust, the only medical research philanthropy of comparable size, Cech doesn't expect to follow its example by influencing government research policy.

“Lobbying the government is not on my list of activities,” he says. Hughes may, however, raise its profile by becoming more involved in public discussion of the ethical, legal and other issues surrounding science.

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute was set up by the billionaire aviator as a tax dodge in 1953, but was reconstituted after his death. Independent trustees gained control in 1984, sold its main asset, Hughes Aircraft, to General Motors, and reached an agreement with tax authorities that requires it to spend at least 3.5 per cent of its vast endowment on medical research.

The stock-market boom has taken the value of that endowment to more than $11 billion. Cech will probably become the world's best-paid science administrator next January. His predecessor Purnell Choppin, president since 1987, earned more than $600,000 a year.