The US National Institutes of Health has announced the mid-September departure of Sally Rockey, Deputy Director for Extramural Research, who will be leading a recently created agricultural research foundation. In a statement, NIH Director Francis Collins notes Rockey’s 19 years with the US Department of Agriculture before joining NIH and asserts that this will be an ideal fit, adding that he will "greatly miss her wisdom, courage, and creativity as we tackle the knotty issues associated with extramural grant funding."

An entomologist by training, Rockey left the USDA and joined NIH ten years ago and was named deputy director for extramural research in 2010. Since early 2011, Rockey has maintained a blog covering extramural funding issues at NIH. "Writing this blog has been a centerpiece of my tenure as Director of the Office of Extramural Research, and I thank you for reading and participating in the conversation here at Rock Talk and helping us to throw open the doors to what is, at times, the mystery of the NIH decision-making process," she writes in a post announcing her departure.