The National Institutes of Health has selected John Powers III, MD, as acting director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which oversees a $6.6 billion budget and is the agency’s second-largest institute.
Dr. Powers previously served as principal senior advisor to the NIAID director and director of collaborative research with Leidos Biomedical Research, according to NIH.
He is an attending physician in infectious diseases at the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Md., and is a professor at George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C., and the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy in Baltimore.
Dr. Powers replaces Jeffrey Taubenberger, MD, PhD, who had served as acting director since April 2025. In recent weeks, a handful of other top NIAID leaders were reassigned to other posts, prompting lawmakers to raise concerns about the depth of infectious disease expertise at the institute.
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