Changes and opportunities

In April 2004 the Human Brain Project (HBP) celebrated a Decade of Neuroscience Informatics but shortly afterward, one of the originators of the project left National Institutes of Health (NIH) and was replaced by another originator. Steve Koslow and Mike Huerta started the HBP together in 1993 (Huerta et al., 1993; Koslow and Huerta, 1997). After a few years, Mike left for other NIH projects and Steve became the face of the HBP. As a historical aside, the initial project described “A neuroscience database that will allow neuroscientists to access information at all levels of integration, from genes to behavior” (Huerta et al., 1993). Wisely, the actual implementation of the HBP focused on smaller, more achievable projects and this approach has been so successful that it even led to the creation of a journal. All the scientists who benefited from the HBP, which includes the three editors-inchief, will agree that Steve was not just a manager but also an evangelist for neuroinformatics and that he thereby promoted our science and work. He traveled around the United States and the world to spread the word on this new field, always stressing the importance of developing databases in neuroscience to provide access to the continuously increasing amounts of data being produced. So when Steve sent me and several colleagues an e-mail just before Christmas to announce that he was “starting a new position at the Allen Institute for Brain Science” I worried for the future of the HBP until I heard that Mike Huerta was taking over the Office of Neuroinformatics. Mike is running other programs at the National Institute of Mental Health and is a member of the editorial board of this journal, so he will be quite busy in the near future. But as Mike was also involved in the early phases of the HBP he is ideally suited to make a running start. It will be interesting to see if more changes at the HBP than the director. To conclude, Steve: thank you for all the good work done and good luck in your new position! Mike: welcome back and let’s go for an even more successful second decade!