On July 9, NIH hosted the White House’s H1N1 Influenza Preparedness Summit, jointly led by HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano and Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

“I’m very grateful that all of you are taking this seriously,” President Obama said by telephone link from L’Avila, Italy. “Although we were fortunate not to see a more serious situation in the spring, the potential for a significant outbreak in the fall is looming.”

As remarkable an invention of the federal government as NIH is—a common descriptor in recent decades has been “the crown jewel of government,” thank you very much—there was a handful of scientists half a century ago who thought the National Institutes of Health was just a few ingredients shy of being a true Elysium.

It had a faculty—many hundreds of doctors—and a leafy, sprawling campus, but no teaching mission and no students, which had been such a source of inspiration and ferment on the campuses from which the scientists hailed. In order to keep the spirit of continuous education alive, a new, complementary entity was needed.