The head of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, has resigned. David Schwartz stepped aside temporarily last August when an investigation was opened into his management, in part because Congress had questioned him over potential favouritism and having conflicts of interest (see Nature 448, 979 ; 2007).

“Our community has not universally embraced the scientific direction or strategies that I have implemented,” Schwartz wrote in an e-mail to staff. “In my enthusiasm to bring new science and opportunities to our field, it appears that I have inadvertently disenfranchised segments of our community. I sincerely apologize for the pain this may have caused.”

Schwartz will now run the pulmonary and critical-care unit at the National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver, Colorado; he will also help to create a centre for genetics and therapeutics there.