Objective:The objective was to compare National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding rates and application success rates among surgeon and nonsurgeon-scientists over the past 2 decades. Summary Background Data: Surgeons may be capable of accelerating the translation of basic research into new clinical therapies. Nevertheless, most surgeon-scientists believe they are at a disadvantage in competing for peer-reviewed funding, despite a recent emphasis on "translational science" by organizations such as the NIH. Methods: We accessed databases from the NIH and the American Association of Medical Colleges. Results: Although total competing NIH awards rose 79.2% from 5608 to 10,052, the much smaller number of surgical awards increased only by 41.4% from 157 to 222. There was a small but statistically significant difference between total NIH and surgical application success rates (29% vs. 25%, P Ͻ 0.01). However, the persistently low percent of NIH funding going to surgical investigators was due primarily to the very small number of surgical applications, and to a much smaller increase in the absolute number of applications over time (464 vs. 23,847). As a result, the number of grants per 100 faculty members was more than 4 times higher among nonsurgical than surgical faculties at US medical schools. Conclusion: NIH funding to academic surgeons is declining relative to their nonsurgical colleagues. This trend will likely be reversed only by an increase in the number of grant applications submitted by surgeon-scientists. Structural changes in surgical training programs, and in the economics of academic surgery, may support a greater contribution of surgeon-scientists to the success of translational research. (Ann Surg 2008;247: 217-221)

Per capita NIH funding of cardiothoracic surgeons is very much less than that of the NIH as a whole. The primary cause is the low per capita number of applications submitted by cardiothoracic surgeons. Junior cardiothoracic faculty should be encouraged to apply for career development awards. However, since the ability to shift cost from clinical to academic faculty is declining, affirmative action from the NIH may be necessary.

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The level structure of the %=60 isotone '~Zr has been studied via the decay of the low-spin isomer of ' Y. A half-life of 735+7 ms was determined from y-ray multiscaling measurements. y singles and y-y coincidence measurements have resulted in the placement of 64 y transitions in a decay scheme with 20 levels up to 4288 keV. Angular correlation measurements were used to deduce a J of 0+ for the 829-keV level. A simple band-mixing calculation is presented which supports a picture of the structure of the low-lying levels in '~Zr as that of coexistence between an axially symmetric deformed yrast band and a nearly spherical excited band.