Dr. William T. Riley Appointed Acting Director (2014) and Then Director of OBSSR (2015–2022)
"I cannot imagine a more exciting time than now to be a behavioral and social science researcher. Advances in technology, open data, and big data analytics are providing new and temporally dense information in large and varied samples. Transdisciplinary efforts by diverse disciplines, including genetics, neuroscience, computer science, and engineering, are reinvigorating the behavioral and social sciences with novel approaches and methodologies and are cross-pollinating behavioral and social sciences research approaches into their disciplines, as well."
William T. Riley becomes OBSSR’s Acting Director, and then Director, after serving for more than a decade at NIH in the National Institute of Mental Health; the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; and the National Cancer Institute. He specializes in applying digital technologies, engineering, and computer science to the behavioral and social sciences to improve public health research and outcomes.
Under Dr. Riley’s leadership, OBSSR expands its training initiatives. In particular, the K18 award provides funding opportunities for established scientists to gain experience in disciplines beyond their primary research fields. OBSSR releases its third strategic plan, which expands on scientific priorities by providing a list of functions central to OBSSR’s mission and advancement.