CSR’s primary role is to handle the receipt and review of all grant applications that NIH receives. NIH separates the review process from funding decisions.
For Reviewers
Reviewers are critical to our mission to see that NIH grant applications receive, fair, independent, expert, and timely scientific reviews. We appreciate the generosity with which reviewers give their time.
Study Sections
Applications are reviewed in study sections (Scientific Review Groups, SRGs). Review Branches (RBs) are clusters of study sections based on scientific discipline.
Review Meetings
Applications are reviewed in study sections (Scientific Review Groups, SRGs). Review Branches (RBs) are clusters of study sections based on scientific discipline.
Evaluation Initiatives
Access data visualizations, reports, and analytical tools to track progress.
Dr. Bryan Crenshaw earned his Ph.D. in biology from the University of California, San Diego, where he studied the role of transcription factors in the development of the pituitary and brain. After postdoctoral training at UCSD, he joined the faculty of the University of Chicago in the Departments…
Dr. Ella Jones earned her Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California at Davis and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Oxford. She has over 12 years of research experience in the private sector, pioneering the development of targeted molecules for cancer detection.…
After completing a Ph.D. in population genetics from Oregon State University, Dr. Mollie Manier received an NIH K99 Ruth Kirschstein NRSA Postdoctoral Fellowship to study gene expression and sperm morphological variation in sea urchin at Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University. She then…
After Receiving a M.D. from the University of Kansas School of Medicine, Dr. Nketi Forbang completed a General Surgery Internship at Howard University Hospital. This was followed by a T32-Fellowhip in Integrated Cardiovascular Epidemiology at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), School…
Dr. Paul Hewett previously served as a senior associate at the Population Council, an international non-Governmental Organization whose mission is to improve the well-being and reproductive health of current and future generations. During his more than 20 years there, he worked in developing…
Dr. Reigh-Yi Lin received her Ph.D. in molecular pharmacology from Albert Einstein College of Medicine and completed post-doctoral training at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Lin was an assistant professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology of the Mount Sinai…
Dr. Bo Hong earned her Ph.D. in chemistry from Texas A&M University. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to joining CSR, she was an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). At UCI, she also…
Dr. Chee Lim serves as Chief of the Musculoskeletal, Skin, and Oral Sciences Review Branch (MSOS RB).
Dr. Chee Chew Lim received his Ph.D. in physiology and then did his postdoctoral training in age-associated diastolic dysfunction at Boston University School of Medicine. Before joining the NIH,…
Dr. John H. Laity received his Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Cornell University. Dr. Laity then trained at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California specializing in biomolecular nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) applications in structural biology. He then took a faculty position at…
Dr. Kate Fothergill earned her Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, with a concentration in social and behavioral sciences. She obtained her Master of Public Health from the University of North Carolina. Prior to coming to NIH, she was an assistant scientist in the…
Dr. Marilyn Moore-Hoon received a Ph.D. in natural sciences (molecular biology) from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, where she combined molecular biology and biophysical approaches to study ion transport across epithelial cell membranes through solute transporter family members (SLC…
Dr. Shannon Sherman received her Ph.D. from the University of South Florida and completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Delaware. She then joined the J. Craig Venter Institute as the Director of Environmental Virology where her research focused on virus-host interactions…
Suzanne Ryan is a Scientific Review Officer in CSR’s Population Sciences and Epidemiology Integrated Review Group.She earned her Ph.D. in sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with a focus on family demography. Before coming to NIH, Dr. Ryan was a senior research scientist…
Dr. Jennifer Meyers earned her Ph.D. in immunology from Harvard Medical School, focusing on autoimmunity, and then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at NIAID in the Laboratory of Immunoregulation, studying immune responses to HIV infection. She then served as science manager at The American…
Dr. Jian Cao received his M.D. from Zhengzhou University School of Medicine in China and an M.S. from the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. He had postdoctoral training in the field of molecular and cellular biology of cancer at Kanazawa University in Japan and then at Stony Brook University (…
Dr. Devaiah Ballachanda earned his Master’s degree in Biotechnology from the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, and his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Purdue University. He was a researcher in the intramural program of the National Cancer Institute for over 15 years. Dr. Ballachanda’s…
Dr. Dharmendar Rathore has 17+ years of extramural research administration experience at the NIH. Prior to joining CSR in 2025, he served as Chief of the Scientific Review Branch at National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), where he led a review group responsible for the peer review of funding…
Dr. Hernandez-Ochoa received an M.D. degree in general medicine and surgery and a Ph.D. degree in neurophysiology from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. During his postdoctoral training at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, he investigated the role of calcium signals and…
Dr. Ganesan Ramesh obtained his doctorate from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India, where his dissertation focused on the role of TGF-βs in pre-implantation embryo development and its regulation by steroid hormones in the uterus. His expertise is in kidney pathophysiology and…
Dr. Michelle M. Timmerman is the Associate Director/Guide Liaison Officer at the Division of Receipt and Referral (DRR) at CSR.Prior to joining DRR, she served in the Office of Extramural Research as the Acting Director and Guide Policy Officer of the NIH Guide to Grants and Contracts. She also…
Dr. Jacobson currently serves as the Acting Deputy Director of CSR and the Acting Deputy Director of the NIH Office of Extramural Research. Additionally, he has been the Director of the CSR Division of Receipt and Referral since December 2024.Dr. Jacobson joined CSR in 2009 as a scientific review…
Dr. Robert Elliott holds an M.Sc. in radiation biology from the University of London and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Cornell (now Weill) Graduate School of Medical Sciences in New York City. He trained as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Irvine, and the University of…
Dr. Robert Gahl received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Cornell University. His graduate research examined the folding pathways of structural homologs within the ribonuclease family of proteins, using numerous bioanalytical techniques. Dr. Gahl’s findings identified the earliest events in the…
Dr. Roger Bannister began his Ph.D. studies in biology at the University of Iowa and completed his thesis at Utah State University. He received his post-doctoral training in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Colorado and was then appointed to a tenure-track faculty…