Trusted Health Information from the National Institutes of Health Jon Lorsch has been the head of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences since 2013 That includes research on things as small as molecules and cells and as large as whole organisms and entire populations and ecosystems We  fund research in specific clinical areas that involve multiple organ systems—things like sepsis We also have a major focus on training new scientists and increasing research capacity throughout the country We’re trying to invest in places that historically haven’t had much funding to conduct research and support researcher training and career development to create a more diverse and inclusive science workforce Our programs span the entire pathway of science career development starting with early childhood education and going all the way to helping early career scientists establish independent research We lay the foundation for all the other research that NIH supports It’s crucial to understand the basics of how different organisms work because if you know that then you understand how breakdowns in those processes cause diseases That gives you the needed information to eventually develop treatments It’s like when there’s something wrong with your car If you don’t understand the basics of how the car should work then it’s going to be really hard to figure out what’s wrong with it and how to fix it We support research that investigates how basic life processes—which covers a wide range of approaches and topics—work at different levels That research could look like anything from scientists working with test tubes and solutions to researchers using computers to simulate biological processes We think it’s really important to support investigator-initiated research meaning we don’t tell researchers what they should be working on We don’t know where discoveries will arise and big breakthroughs often come from surprising places so we need to invest in a broad range of research We have programs supporting research training and increased diversity at the undergraduate One of our new programs called MOSAIC (which stands for Maximizing Opportunities for Scientific and Academic Independent Careers) helps post-doctorate research fellows establish faculty careers at research institutions We really invest in networking and mentorship—a good network and mentors can “make or break” someone’s interest and success in science Our SEPA (Science Education Partnership Award) Program innovative education projects in scientific areas that young people might be interested in Some help support after-school science clubs that focus on students from underserved communities We have a program that makes science-focused apps for online games A program in West Virginia supports students who are pursuing biomedical research activities in high school and graduates of the program get college tuition from the state at colleges and universities in West Virginia A superhero-themed program in Indiana gets kids interested in veterinary research and a program in Utah helps train teachers to give them the skills to make genetics engaging for kids We’re supporting research that uses data science and machine learning to better understand biological systems We’re investing in research related to synthetic chemistry―basically This is super important for drug development and one of our researchers recently won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for their work in “molecular carpentry.” They essentially created a better way to stick different molecules together to make new ones We’re also funding research on organisms that might give us new insights into biological processes in surprising ways the African spiny mouse is the only mammal that can heal its wounds without scarring we’re hoping to learn more about why humans form scars and whether we could make a molecule that could let us heal without scarring This could be huge for heart disease since heart attacks cause scarring on the heart which makes it weaker than before the attack I actually remember the exact moment I knew I wanted to be a scientist and a teacher brought a cow heart into the classroom I was looking at all the channels and flaps and thinking Where did it come from?” It made me want to be a scientist I also had really great science teachers throughout my education who helped me get and stay interested in science After completing a post-doctoral fellowship I joined the faculty at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine where I was really thrown into the deep end of teaching but I found I really enjoyed teaching the medical students and got more involved in that I wanted to find the best ways to teach them and ended up leading the first-year curriculum for medical students and working on some curriculum reform efforts My experience there made me realize I wanted to move towards scientific leadership and management―spaces where I felt like I could have a bigger impact and I decided to apply in the spirit of “opportunity knocks only once.” It’s the greatest job in the world It’s amazing to have the opportunity to help people’s careers get started and sustain them throughout those careers Funding an early career investigator to get their lab up and running then watching what they do over the next few years and thinking “Maybe they’ll be the one to win the Nobel Prize”—that’s what motivates me and the pandemic helped reinvigorate that hobby and getting to manage all that is just astonishing It’s a lot like promoting careers in science!  Alternative accessible version (pdf) Crowdsourcing to Understand Pregnancy Today! Feel like screens are eating into family time We have some tips from experts for setting limits on screen use and.. About 1.7% of people in the United States will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at some point in their lives The pancreas is a gland behind your stomach and in front of your spine Connect with NLM NLM | NIH | HHS | USA.gov became the director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) in August 2013 Lorsch oversees the Institute’s $2.9​ billion budget which supports basic research that increases understanding of biological processes and lays the foundation for advances in disease diagnosis The NIGMS supports more than 3,000 investigators and 5,000 research grants–around 11 percent of the total number of research grants funded by NIH as a whole NIGMS supports around 26 percent of the NRSA trainees who receive assistance from NIH.  Lorsch came to NIGMS from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine where he was a professor in the Department of Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry He joined the Johns Hopkins faculty in 1999 and became a full professor in 2009 Lorsch studies the initiation of translation a major step in controlling how genes are expressed neurodegenerative diseases and cancer can result To dissect the mechanics of translation initiation Lorsch and collaborators developed a yeast-based system and a wide variety of biochemical and biophysical methods The work also has led to efforts to control translation initiation through chemical reagents Lorsch continues this research as a tenured investigator in the NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. NIGMS supported Lorsch’s research from 2000-2013 He also received grants from the NIH’s National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and National Institute of Mental Health as well as from other funding organizations Lorsch is as passionate about education as he is about research he worked to reform the curricula for graduate and medical education spearheaded the development of the Center for Innovation in Graduate Biomedical Education and launched a program offering summer research experiences to local high school students many from groups that are underrepresented in the biomedical sciences he advised dozens of undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in chemistry from Swarthmore College in 1990 and a Ph.D in biochemistry from Harvard University in 1995 where he worked in the laboratory of Jack Szostak He conducted postdoctoral research at Stanford University in the laboratory of Daniel Herschlag Ph.D. Lorsch is the author of more than 80 peer-reviewed research articles He has also been the editor of six volumes of Methods in Enzymology and has been a reviewer for numerous scientific journals His honors include six teaching awards from Johns Hopkins.  Lorsch’s other activities have included membership on the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology’s mentoring committee the RNA Society’s board of directors and NIH review committees. Since joining NIH including serving on the NIH Scientific Data Council Administrative Data Council and Extramural Activities Working Group Copyright © 2025 University of Rhode Island | University of Rhode Island URI is an equal opportunity employer committed to the principles of affirmative action The World Heritage Centre is at the forefront of the international community’s efforts to protect and preserve World Heritage partnerships for conservation Ensuring that World Heritage sites sustain their outstanding universal value is an increasingly challenging mission in today’s complex world where sites are vulnerable to the effects of uncontrolled urban development Our Partners Donate Take advantage of the search to browse through the World Heritage Centre information are rare architectural vestiges of the Carolingian era The sculptures and paintings from this period are still in remarkably good condition L'ensemble formé par l'abbaye et son entrée monumentale est un rare témoignage architectural de l'époque carolingienne avec des sculptures et des peintures de cette période remarquablement bien conservées إن المجموعة التي تتشكل من الدير ومدخله العظيم المعروف باسم "تورهال" هو أحد الآثار النادرة التي تعود إلى الحقبة الكارولينية بمنحوتاتها ورسومها المحفوظة بطريقة جيدة جداً 洛尔施修道院及其颇具纪念意义的入口——著名的“托尔哈尔”(Torhall)是卡洛林时代(the Carolingian era) 珍贵的建筑遗迹，那时遗留下来的雕刻和绘画都保存得十分完好。 Монастырь вместе с монументальным входом – известным «Торхоллом» - является редким архитектурным памятником эпохи Каролингов (VIII-IX вв.) Скульптуры и живопись этого периода все еще находятся в очень хорошем состоянии El conjunto formado por la abadía y su monumental entrada es uno de los raros testimonios arquitectónicos de la época carolingia se hallan en un excelente estado de conservación Apart from the Gothic gables and a few relics of past repairs and completion this gatehouse is one of the very rare buildings from the Carolingian era whose original appearance is intact It is a reminder of the past grandeur of an abbey founded around 764 The monastery’s zenith was probably in 876 when it became the burial place for the Carolingian kings of the Eastern part of the Frankish Realm The monastery flourished throughout the 11th century an expansive reconstruction was carried out After Lorsch had been incorporated in the Electorate of Mainz (1232) The Benedictines were replaced first by Cistercians and later by Premonstratensians the church had to be restored after yet another fire and be adapted to changing liturgical needs The glorious Carolingian establishment slowly deteriorated under the impact of the vagaries of politics and war: Lorsch was attached to the Palatinate in 1461 and incorporated in the Electorate of Hesse in 1803 Monastic life finished in succession of the protestant reformation of the Palatinate in 1556 Criterion (iii): The religious complex represented by the former Lorsch Abbey with its 1200-year-old gatehouse in unique and excellent condition comprises a rare architectural document of the Carolingian era with impressively preserved sculpture and painting of that period gives architectural evidence of the awakening of the West to the spirit of the Early and High Middle Ages under the first King and Emperor In the case of the Abbey and Altenmünster of Lorsch the integrity is related to the architectural remains the entrance hall and main body of the Abbey church documenting an astonishing variety of architectural styles The Abbey wall and the commercial constructions following the heyday of the Abbey provide an example and – to a certain extent – represent symbols of the rise at least two thirds of the Abbey’s area represents an intact archaeological site preserving the material relics of more than 800 years of monastic life Together with the monumental remains and the conserved fragments of the ancient library the cultural heritage of Lorsch Abbey has been one of the most powerful and active spiritual centers in Central Europe for several centuries The Abbey and Altenmünster of Lorsch fulfils the conditions of authenticity through the preserved buildings themselves which still represents the best preserved and largely intact surviving example of architecture of the Carolingian era in Central Europe and presented with the greatest possible care The laws and regulations of the Federal Republic of Germany and the State of Hesse guarantee the consistent protection of the Abbey and Altenmünster of Lorsch and its surroundings Both are listed monuments according to the Act on the Protection of Cultural Monuments in the State of Hesse The Hessian building code regulates the realisation of single building projects as well as building plans and the preservation statute of the city of Lorsch guarantees the protection of the visual integrity this differentiated protective system ensures an efficient preservation of the historical substance in good condition The buffer zone underwent a minor boundary modification to further ensure the protection of the site The State Administration for Palaces and Gardens of Hesse is in charge of the management of the Abbey the city of Lorsch is responsible for the Altenmünster A special heritage service led by an expert acts on site In the case of difficult conservation issues the State Administration for Palaces and Gardens of Hesse calls an independent international expert commission to guarantee highest standards for the preservation of the historical substance of the World Heritage property As director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, Jon Lorsch oversees a $3 billion budget that supports almost 5,000 researchers, many of whom are members of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. For many years, in fact, Lorsch was an ASBMB member. Before being tapped by the National Institutes of Health, he was on the faculty at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he ran a lab focused on RNA biology. He continues to work on the molecular mechanisms of protein synthesis as a senior investigator at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Lorsch spoke with ASBMB Today about the most pressing challenges scientists are facing today, with particular emphasis on how they’re being asked to do more with less funding and what can be done to make the field more diverse and inclusive for the next generation of scientists. The interview has been edited for length, clarity and style. Lorsch: I believe two of the biggest challenges the community is facing right now are inflation and the cost of training. The inflation of goods and services is having a significant impact on the scientific community. In addition, the cost of lab trainees such as postdocs is on the rise. In academic science, we need to separate the research workforce from the pool of students and postdocs receiving training and professional development by working in labs. In terms of salaries, graduate students receive a degree, and we need to remember that the degree has monetary value. On the other hand, a postdoc position used to be the gateway to an academic job. That is no longer the case because most postdocs do not end up as faculty in academia. I also think the size of labs has gotten way too big. Scientists need to contemplate what is the most efficient lab size and reconsider how we perceive success. In my opinion, success should not be equated with having a 25-person lab. I believe having a smaller lab is more efficient and productive because we can provide better training to our Ph.D. students and postdocs and more direct input into and oversight of the research. Overall, my interpretation of what many are referring to as the “postdoc crisis” is that it is the long-predicted implosion of the large laboratory business model, in which trainees are used as low-cost labor. Lorsch: The MIRA program is one of our flagship initiatives, and we are trying to use it to address several challenges in the current research model. To address inflation, we are trying to increase the median and mode of MIRA funding to $300,000 of direct costs, which would be more than current NIGMS R01 funding and would help offset some of the losses to inflation that have taken place recently. Another important aspect of MIRA is that it gives researchers the flexibility to follow new ideas or observations as they arise, rather than being bound to predetermined specific aims the way they are with R01s. This flexibility reflects how science actually works and how discoveries get made. Lorsch: We have a number of programs for undergrads — like MARC and U-RISE — and for graduate students — like G-RISE and IMSD. To support the postdoc-to-PI transition, we began the MOSAIC program, which is a K99/R00 award. We began MOSAIC at NIGMS, but now many NIH institutes participate. Through this program, we have also set up mentoring centers with scientific societies, of which ASBMB has been a big part. Kenny Gibbs runs the MOSAIC program and has been to meetings with scholars at the mentoring centers who have told him that, before they received a MOSAIC award, they were on the verge of dropping out of academia. Now, they actually have academic positions as independent investigators. So, as Kenny says, MOSAIC is doing something important. In addition, we are about to launch the ARC program. This program will provide Ph.D.-to-postdoc transition support in the form of a F99/K00 award. We really try to target these transition points because that is where we lose so many scientists and so much diversity. We want to recognize and support folks who are doing DEIA work, and we realize that this takes time away from their research. So, we created the NIH UNITE ReWARD R01 grant, which supports independent researchers who have made significant contributions to DEIA and who currently do not have a major NIH grant. Finally, we want to expand our shared technology resources program at the national and regional levels with the R24 program. This program allows better access to high-end instruments for researchers across the country, regardless of the institution they are from. With this shared resource model, not every institution has to buy and maintain its own cryo-electron microscope or NMR spectrometer. Lorsch: My advice for early-career investigators is to shift the balance in your labs toward longer-term employees. I think having one or two graduate students and postdocs, a staff scientist and a technician is a great investment to train the next generation but also contribute to the sustainability of your lab and the research enterprise. This kind of model creates long-term, sustainable jobs for Ph.D. scientists who don’t necessarily want to be independent investigators. And of course, apply for funding right away. There are tons of great programs out there. Become a member to receive the print edition four times a year and the digital edition monthly. Marissa Locke Rottinghaus is the Editorial Content Manager for ASBMB. Enter your email address, and we’ll send you a weekly email with recent articles, interviews and more. This guide offers practical advice on setting yourself up for success — learn how to leverage campus resources, work with professors and embrace your strengths. He will deliver prerecorded remarks at the 2025 ASBMB Annual Meeting in Chicago. With the National Institutes of Health and other institutions canceling summer programs, many students are left scrambling for alternatives. If your program has been canceled or delayed, consider applying for other opportunities or taking a course. This Black History Month, we highlight the impact of DEI initiatives, trailblazing scientists and industry leaders working to create a more inclusive and scientific community. Discover how you can be part of the movement. The society encourages the executive and legislative branches of the U.S. government to continue their support of the nation’s leadership in science. PAAC members met with policymakers to advocate for basic scientific research, connected some fellow members with funding opportunities and trained others to advocate for science. Become a subscriber, manage account information, change payment or delivery details. 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Patricia Welbourn Lorsch's career spans three continents ranging from drama studies in Paris to teaching journalism in Calcutta she was a reporter and feature writer in London’s Fleet Street and a feature writer on a national Canadian publication Now she’s on the board of Cambridge Family and Children’s Service and the President’s Advisory Committee for the JFK Center for the Performing Arts in DC Married to Harvard Business School Professor Jay Lorsch step-mother of three and grandmother of eight She is finishing a memoir of her experiences in Paris and London in the 60s Writer Patricia Welbourn Lorsch has been thinking lately about two Asian refugees she met nearly 25 years ago The three of them sat side-by-side in Faneuil Hall Columbia Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons is dedicated to developing the next generation of leaders in medicine Read the latest news stories about CUIMC faculty The 2020 Baton Awards were presented in a virtual ceremony [watch above] during the Dec 3 meeting of the CUIMC Administrators Network Anne Stewart—were recognized as team players in receiving this year’s Baton Awards The awards were created in 2009 to recognize medical center team players—individuals who “go the extra distance to make sure that if a teammate fumbles they are there to catch the baton and who trust their colleagues to take the baton from them when they pass it along understanding that any success is a shared one.” Janiris Jorge (image from award ceremony livestream) chief of staff in the CUIMC Executive Vice President’s office joined Columbia in 1999 and has held several positions including her recent promotion to chief of staff Her first position was in the finance office but she soon moved into the Dean’s Office and held multiple roles including serving as manager for faculty recruitment and special projects for 13 years Dori Lorsch (image courtesy of Dori Lorsch) department administrator for the Department of Health Policy & Management in the Mailman School of Public Health since 2013 originally joined CUIMC in 2010 as director of financial reporting in the controller’s office She has been an active participant on steering committees at the University department administrator/chief financial officer for the Department of Emergency Medicine in the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons She returned in 2010 as director of operations at Harlem Hospital until the Harlem Hospital affiliation ended she has held several positions in VP&S departments “Today’s honorees have all the qualities of a good relay runner,” said Anil K. Rustgi “They make CUIMC a great place to work because they always have their eyes on group success.” After being on the job for less than two months director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) faced something he never thought would happen funds basic research in the biomedical sciences including more chemistry-related research than any of the 26 other NIH institutes and centers With a current annual budget of about $2.4 billion several meetings to review grant proposals were canceled About 1,000 proposals assigned to NIGMS were affected Favorable proposals would have been further evaluated at a meeting in January when the final decision about funding each proposal would have been made ACS’s Basic Package keeps you connected with C&EN and ACS $80 Regular Members & Society Affiliates ACS’s Standard Package lets you stay up to date with C&EN ACS’s Premium Package gives you full access to C&EN and everything the ACS Community has to offer After being on the job for less than two months, Jon R. Lorsch, director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) NIGMS, part of the National Institutes of Health But now it is unclear how many proposals will be reviewed in time for the January meeting Final decisions about some proposals could be pushed until the next meeting in May but there will be ripple effects for some time,” Lorsch tells C&EN What has excited Lorsch the most during his first few months on the job is the energy and ideas of the NIGMS staff They are always looking for “the most efficient and effective ways to invest the taxpayers’ money to promote fundamental biomedical research,” he says exciting science being proposed by the research community deciding the most effective way to distribute the funds is a major challenge,” he adds Lorsch emphasizes that he doesn’t know where the next big breakthroughs and discoveries in biomedical research will come from He declines to identify any particular areas of untapped biomedical research that are promising to him but he notes that “it is critically important to continue funding investigator-initiated “Letting scientists follow their noses has worked extremely well in the past and we are confident it will continue to work extremely well in the future,” Lorsch says Lorsch was a professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine he worked on unraveling the molecular mechanism behind translation initiation—the assembly of a ribosome on a messenger RNA molecule Disruption of that process can lead to many human diseases Lorsch is confident that his background in fundamental research about living systems will position him well to steer NIGMS through turbulent times He views science as about questions as opposed to about specific disciplines he notes that it is hard to define himself as solely a biochemist because he is also a biophysicist and a molecular biologist “I think the fact that my science lacks definition is a strength,” he tells C&EN A lot of attention is currently on translational research at NIH to spur the development of new drugs but Lorsch is optimistic that support for basic he is keen to embark on an analysis of the current research portfolio at NIGMS and begin a strategic planning process to ensure that taxpayers’ money is well spent That process “will require close collaboration with the research community including the chemistry community,” he says but it has been essentially flat ever since “Transitioning us from the models that were developed during the budget-doubling period to new models that will be optimal for the coming years is really critical,” Lorsch says “How we do things at NIGMS needs to be agile so that we can evolve in response to the changing external environment,” he stresses NIGMS is also working on ways to better measure the outcomes of both its diversity and training programs “We would like to empower the community to do innovative experiments in the training arena to find out what works well and what doesn’t,” he says most productive scientific workforce in the biomedical enterprise.” This article has been sent to the following recipient: Sign up for C&EN's must-read weekly newsletter Copyright © 2025 American Chemical Society Your independent source for Harvard news since 1898 Footnotes appear at the end of the article Concerns about the compensation of chief executive officers and other top executives of American public companies have reached fever pitch since the financial crisis and the economic meltdown of 2009 Some observers blame the recent recession in part on the flawed compensation arrangements for the top management of major financial institutions a growing chorus of voices--including some shareholders and academics--have been criticizing the way top managers are paid The criticisms focus particularly on CEOs not only because they are the highest paid but also because their compensation sets the pattern for executives beneath them the current complaints focus on two issues: executives are paid too much and current incentive-pay schemes are flawed because the connection between executive pay and company performance is mixed at best--and at worst has led to a series of dysfunctional behaviors Whether executives are paid too much is highly contested and the public (as measured by opinion surveys) believe that CEOs are overpaid What cannot be disputed is that American CEOs make more money than CEOs in other countries largely because of a greater reliance on incentive pay (see the details in the chart above) American CEOs are paid increasingly large amounts relative to the average employee and their immediate subordinates it is clear that the rise in executive pay contributes to the skewing of income distribution in the United States Less clear is evidence about the link between executive compensation and performance The most comprehensive survey examining the link between CEO pay and performance found that changes in firm performance account for only 4 percent of the variance in CEO pay.1 This may in part reflect CEOs’ ability to game the system or even the perverse effects of incentives that promote dysfunctional behavior The solutions offered for the problems of excessive levels of executive pay and the need to strengthen the link between pay and performance often hit on the same themes: strengthen the independence of directors and compensation committees; increase the shareholders’ rights to elect directors and to express their views on compensation plans to discourage gaming and align incentives more closely with the aims of the owners It is also tempting to suggest that these problems can be solved by better compensation schemes or improved techniques to link CEO pay to stock performance.  We disagree with the premises underlying these remedies we find that the current compensation trouble stems in large part from unexamined assumptions that have fundamentally changed the nature of executive compensation and radically shifted the way that boards and even the larger society regard the corporation and its broader purpose.  the problems of executive compensation are symptomatic of larger societal questions They cannot be resolved without considering the purpose of executive compensation--what behaviors and values we are trying to motivate in our business leaders--and indeed the larger purpose of business in American society We assert that the current approach to executive compensation is an outgrowth of a pervasive paradigm that boards and indeed even those of us educating future and current business leaders have adopted about the purpose of the corporation and to whom and for what executives are responsible.  To understand our perspective requires understanding how corporate America arrived at its current compensation policies In mid-twentieth-century business articles and textbooks one finds references to executive “salaries”; mention of incentives (in cash “It is usually unwise to have a large proportion of executive pay consist of incentives.”2 compensation packages for CEOs and other senior executives included more incentives and those incentives were paid in stock and options as well as cash These arrangements were often worked out in discussions and negotiations between the CEO and the compensation committee of the board of directors As the complexity of companies and their compensation arrangements increased a new actor emerged to provide ideas and advice to both executives and corporate directors--the compensation consultant Because these consultants promoted themselves as disinterested many board members with limited time and knowledge about compensation matters came uncritically--the consultants’ advice.  At the core of that advice was the alleged power of incentive compensation to motivate executives Directors often found themselves sympathetic to such an idea and perhaps also were compromised about the basic premises behind CEO pay by the fact that they were often active CEOs themselves But the advice about the importance and efficacy of such incentives was based more on the power of an idea than on clear empirical data the consultants had their own reasons to keep their client executives happy a McKinsey partner and compensation expert explained in 1985 “For their part the consultants like to satisfy this well meaning desire of the executive and frequently have substantial other income from the client to protect This could create a conflict of interest[,] for consultant recommendations below the expectations of the executive might not be well received Further[,] as time goes on[,] the consultant may come to regard the executive as his client rather than the company.”3 [Emphasis added.] The underlying assumption that executives would work more effectively if their monetary rewards were tied to the results they were achieving built on earlier ideas about incentives for factory workers that go back to the piece-rate schemes advocated by Frederick Taylor and other proponents of Scientific Management But these prescriptions missed two complications when applied to senior executives: • that very often executives have little or no control over the results they are supposedly being rewarded for achieving; and • that the results of a company are more often produced by a group of executives or even by an entire organization’s effort Although some scholars had pointed out that incentives work only when individuals had a clear “line of sight” between their efforts such complications were increasingly ignored as boards accepted the consultants’ assumption about what motivated executives.4  A related and equally unexamined assumption was that executives worked primarily for money the intrinsic satisfaction of achieving results and the pride taken in belonging to a successful company were overlooked and sometimes denigrated Even for American business executives who value the “almighty dollar” so highly these other rewards have important meaning That is another reason for our strong reservations about whether the heavy reliance on incentive compensation delivers the results that its proponents believe it does Even as attitudes toward executive compensation changed inside firms changes related to the larger market for CEOs--and a new intellectual framework about the purpose of the corporation--would complete the superstructure that has governed the executive compensation process for more than three decades Increasing turnover in chief executive suites contributed to a belief that there is a robust and well-functioning market for senior executive talent against which compensation needs to be benchmarked By “robust and well-functioning,” we mean a market in which many buyers and sellers make transactions anonymously what and how an executive should be paid is defined by the supply and demand for the talent she represents Though there can be little doubt that such a market exists for middle-level executives there are fewer “buyers” and “sellers” when one considers senior-level executives and the transaction is not transparent until much later Therefore market rates are much harder to identify and the compensation arrangements in reality depend much more on negotiations between the executive and the compensation committee and its advisers the most significant determinants of compensation are the negotiating skill and bargaining power of the parties involved These negotiations cover not only the amounts to be paid This flawed assumption about the “market” for CEO talent flows from two factors that have driven up senior-executive compensation.  given the idea that there is such a market compensation consultants have sought a method for making market rates transparent--the much-discussed compensation surveys that establish the “price” of various executive positions by company size Not only is the validity of such a methodology questionable but the surveys also have the perverse effect of “ratcheting” compensation ever upward (to use Warren Buffett’s term) It works like this: The surveys report compensation for a position by quartiles--from highest to lowest amounts compensation committees and their fellow directors prefer the upper quartile It not only makes the executives feel better but it looks better in the company’s Compensation Discussion and Analysis (CD&A) in its annual 10-K report to the Securities and Exchange Commission If the executives don’t want the public to be told they are below average in pay (and presumably performance) neither do many directors and shareholders That would imply that the board of the company (in which shareholders have invested) believe its performance is below average American senior executives are like the children of Lake Wobegon--all above average Recent papers suggest further that executives game the system of comparisons,5 6 making the benchmark against which they are being judged a moving target that is too often manipulated by the directors If the executive’s performance falls short of the original target often surreptitiously in the company’s financial footnotes. 7 8 Although compensation committees and their advisers act in the belief that they are dealing with a market they actually find themselves involved in negotiations and finance Lucian Bebchuk and his collaborators have argued that when directors negotiate with an executive their proposals are constrained not only by their beliefs about market conditions but also by their bargaining power and tactics Nowhere is this clearer than in the case of the large lump-sum payments commonly granted to executives especially when they are brought in from outside the company These are typically of two types: “make whole” payments (money given to an executive to replace earnings which he will leave behind with his former employer) and “golden parachutes” (money guaranteed to the executive if the company is acquired by or merged into another firm) Both payments are guaranteed regardless of the executive’s performance unless he or she should be fired for cause (which according to the etiquette of corporate America never happens) because of their large size and lack of a link to performance are another important cause of the rise in top level compensation--and are a major source of shareholder concern.  Yet compensation committees continue to grant these lump sums to new executives because that is what they believe the market requires to attract the new talent The idea of bargaining about the size of such payments or about making them contingent on performance The behavior of General Electric’s board as it was beginning the process of selecting a successor to the retiring Jack Welch illustrates the elevator effect on pay Five possible candidates were identified about two years in advance of Welch’s departure He suggested to the compensation committee and the board that each executive be granted a multimillion-dollar retention bonus to encourage him to stay at GE and compete for the top spot When directors expressed concern about the cost to GE shareholders of all these bonuses they were told that they would have to pay only the person who was selected as Welch’s successor: the others were all likely to leave GE to be CEOs elsewhere and their new employers would pay the promised amount as a “make whole arrangement.”9 The second factor that transformed compensation was the theory that linked top executives’ pay plans to a firm’s stock price.10 Taking as a starting point the earlier work of Adolph Berle and Gardiner Means and others argued that corporate directors and senior executives were “agents” of the company’s shareholders.11 It followed that the goal of boards and the executives whose compensation they set must be to align these agents’ interests with the owners’ most directly by maximizing shareholder wealth Thus executive incentives should be tied to “shareholder value,” usually measured by the company’s stock price and dividends per share.  Few ideas about business have been as quickly and widely embraced not only by directors and executives as well as by the Delaware Court of Chancery Prominent business organizations switched from advocating a “stakeholder view” in corporate decisionmaking to embracing the “shareholder” maximization imperative still emphasized in its mission statement that “the directors’ responsibility is to carefully weigh the interests of all stakeholders as part of their responsibility to the corporation or to the long-term interests of its shareholders.” By 1997 the same organization argued that “the paramount duty of management and of boards of directors is to the corporation’s stockholders; the interests of other stakeholders are relevant as a derivative of the duty to the stockholders.” In applying these ideas to executive-compensation plans and the executives themselves had a problem the executives had only partial control over the factors that determined the value of their company’s stock A company’s past or likely future performance was only one determinant of the current share price; the general stock market level and broader economic conditions also affected shareholder value significantly The most widely accepted solution to this complication was to tie executive compensation to economic goals seen as drivers of shareholder value (return on assets while paying the executives in stock or in options: a purportedly perfect alignment of interests and incentives.  these assumptions--which are still widely shared by directors and those who advise them--have created (with a little help from the IRS12) a near-universal set of beliefs about the components of effective compensation for senior executives (see figure below) as a glance at the CD&A section in the 10K of any public company will show There is also a bonus related to annual company performance (usually paid in cash and stock) and a long-term incentive based on three years of company performance even though in many industries (such as pharmaceuticals) a three-year time frame can hardly be considered “long-term.” Most plans also include the make-whole payments and golden parachutes described earlier This should not be surprising because a handful of consultants who share these assumptions advise the boards of all major American companies The validity of “agency” theory has been widely accepted and provides the intellectual underpinnings for many aspects of these plans even though many of its original advocates have recognized its limits and imperfections!13 “IRS Increases Scrutiny of Performance-Based Plans under Sec The major causes of the escalating pay for CEOs and other senior executives flow from these assumptions The most obvious connection is the ratcheting effect of the compensation surveys is the fact that until the downturn in 2008 the economic performance of publicly traded companies had been on an upward trend for a decade or longer Even though we have doubts that their incentive plans actually motivated managers to act to cause their companies to perform better if company results improved for any reason (including pure serendipity) the managers received higher pay: cause and effect didn’t matter What drove incentive compensation up was the company’s performance itself--whether under the control of the CEO and his team or not.  Because the largest proportion of senior executive compensation is in company stock so did the amount of pay the executives received wide adoption of lump-sum payments increased compensation still further What most troubles us is that executive pay is rising not so much as a driver of improved performance but as a consequence of improving performance and an accompanying rise in equity values incentives have impact on behavior only when the recipients can see a direct link from their actions to the results achieved and the rewards they will receive in most companies multiple forces and the joint efforts of many individuals cause the results achieved There are circumstances when executives can see an opportunity--a direct connection between actions they can take and results that will produce rewards they desire--but not in the way their companies intend: for example decisions to cut corners on approving mortgages to earn greater origination fees (and the resulting waves of loan losses and foreclosures) or the decisions taken at Enron to create off-balance-sheet transactions (disguising that failed corporation’s true causing executives to take unwise or even illegal actions we understand how to deal with specific transgressions like these by making them difficult or legally risky to carry out But when the transgressions arise because fallacious assumptions become accepted practices among our business and professional leaders The SEC can require greater disclosure about top management compensation in the CD&A--but the likely result is executives comparing their pay with each other to make sure they are being fairly treated Or Congress can change the tax code (as it did in 1993) so salaries above $1 million would be taxed at an excess rate--but the dubious effect was to put more emphasis on incentive compensation accompanied by all the problems just described Congress can call for “say on pay” (a measure adopted in the United Kingdom) thus giving shareholders the right to hold a nonbinding vote on top executives’ compensation--but shareholders are likely to be trapped in the same misleading assumptions as boards have been We need to rethink how we pay senior executives so that they are motivated not only to create wealth for themselves but also to build companies that serve society The issue of CEO compensation goes beyond absolute amounts and the technical terms defining how executives are paid we believe that the existing approach to compensation offers a poignant commentary on the kind of society we are becoming Compensation systems always become in part ends reward systems condition the behavior and thinking of those people who participate in them or feel their effects because business is such a central institution in American society they also shape our national culture and character.14  The contemporary pay system is an important part of a radical shift in what we in America regard as the essential nature of corporations and the role and identity of business leaders.  public corporation was regarded as both an economic entity and a social institution Shareholders were but one of several constituencies that stood in relation to the corporation.15 Corporate decisions were evaluated not only by their specific economic results but also with an eye toward their moral and political consequences.16  corporations are typically described in terms of economic and financial considerations alone corporations are seen simply as groups of self-interested market actors--shareholders or customers--held together by nothing more than a series of contracts.17  These supposedly voluntary contracts define the transactions between executive and employee in a mutually advantageous way.18 Once the contractually defined exchange is completed the parties to such a relationship have no further obligations toward each other: they revert to the status of anonymous market actors But this image of the corporation is problematic: it has nothing to say about the unavoidable fact that organizations are themselves complex social systems.19 Organizational relationships are not merely transactional and fleeting Defining the organization as a nexus of individual contracts conveniently dispenses with issues of power and exploitation.20 It denies any unique relationship between an organization and other constituents this model is at odds with more than a century’s research in psychology and organizational behavior on actual workplace relations it relieves the corporate institution of any meaningful responsibility to anyone but the transitory group of stockholders who buy and sell shares constantly.21  We need to change the terms of the conversation to make room for a larger and more public discussion about the purpose of the corporation and larger moral and political considerations Every corporation is embedded in a social matrix and is accountable for multiple factors within that social setting: obligations to the society that provides it tax advantages or public goods or basic infrastructure such as roads and airports.22 In a democratic society like the United States the general public expects responsible and ethical practices and the exercise of self-restraint among business leaders in exchange for vesting an extraordinary amount of power that affects society’s well-being in private the primary problem in this perspective is the agency problem we described earlier in which all the actors are trying to protect themselves from the self-interested actions of everyone else.24  As part of that broader public conversation we also need to revisit what has happened to the identity of management and what it means to be a manager we believe that the perspective and practices that now undergird executive compensation have themselves mutated the identity of managers fundamentally the prevailing paradigm regards managers as relentless self-interested free agents ready to make tracks out of their companies and to sacrifice the long-term for immediate gain That view has largely displaced earlier views of managers as professionals with obligations to various “stakeholders” and to the broader society.25 The dominant ethos today also legitimates the notion that human beings are relentless market maximizers who need literally to be bribed to focus solely on shareholder value--undermining other commitments managers might have to employees or larger national and global concerns such as the environment or human rights.  Both of us have dedicated our professional lives to business education; we believe deeply in the power of profit-driven business as an institution But business is useful only if it serves as a means toward an end We are now presented with choices about sustainability and the environment that concern nothing less than our collective destiny the destructive effects on the real economy of badly managed and largely speculative financial dealings the unrestrained exploitation of our planet’s nonrenewable resources--all of this should lead us to reflect on the type of capitalist system we have created and the types of people who are leading it.26  The recent economic crisis and the role that our compensation systems played in fomenting it require a holistic re-examination not only of compensation but of the assumptions and values underlying the economic system we have created Our present condition offers us a unique opportunity to re-envision our journey and our ultimate destination Re-thinking the nature of executive pay within the context of our larger economic and social system and the challenges we face may enable us to create a new model of compensation rooted in a more realistic recognition of the social context within which firms operate rest on valid assumptions and fundamental values that allow us to build a more inclusive and sustainable economic future--one in which we don’t have to bribe executives to do the duties we have entrusted to them Jay Lorsch, D.B.A. ’64, Kirstein professor of human relations, and Rakesh Khurana, Ph.D. ’98, Bower professor of leadership development, both of Harvard Business School, co-hosted a conference with Gordon professor of business administration Brian J. Hall last fall on executive compensation; a summary of the proceedings is available The authors thank Melissa Barton for her help with research for this article Footnotes for the preceding article follow: Medievalists.net The unique holdings of the medieval monastic library of Lorsch currently scattered over 68 libraries worldwide are being re-compiled into a virtual library Heidelberg University Library and local government officials in Germany have been working since March of 2010 to publish the 330 surviving Lorsch manuscripts and manuscript fragments online The project by the name of “Bibliotheca Laureshamensis – digital” is being funded by the State of Hesse with 450.000 euros and will continue through 2013 “The virtual reconstruction of the former library of Lorsch Abbey gives us the chance to study the abbey’s intellectual foundation which is of great interest to the State of Hesse has united experts from Hesse and Baden-Württemberg in an exemplary cross-border cooperative effort that reflects the historic significance and geographical location of the monastic library of Lorsch between the palatinate and the diocese of Mainz.” The Bibliotheca Laureshamensis – digital project will see the digitisation of the abbey’s codices scientific descriptions detailing the origin handwriting and content of the library’s manuscripts will be compiled in a project database researchers will have comprehensive and systematic access to the Lorsch manuscripts a fact that opens up entirely new possibilities of research “This is the first time that a digitisation project for the virtual reconstruction of a medieval library is compiling manuscripts that have been scattered so widely throughout the world The project’s international character makes it a pioneering achievement in the field of manuscript digitisation“ Research and the Arts for the state of Baden-Württemberg located between the Rhine River and the Odenwald mountains Its scriptorium and comprehensive library made the abbey an exceptional centre of knowledge in the Carolingian era “Lorsch was one of the centres in which the heritage of the ancient world was preserved and also increasingly transformed through transcripts The abbey provided an immense knowledge transfer for Carolingian and medieval culture” Director of the Administration of State Houses and Gardens in Hesse Even for the humanists of the 16th century Lorsch was so interesting that the manuscripts became the basis of the library of Elector Palatine Ottheinrich The medieval library holdings are mostly vellum manuscripts dating back to the 8th and 9th centuries the golden age of the scriptorium at Lorsch They include outstanding works such as the “Codex Aureus of Lorsch” arguably the best known and most precious item of the former monastic library “The complete digitisation of the Lorsch manuscripts in the holdings of the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana is a particular achievement of this project” 133 manuscripts of the former monastic library have found a home in Rome Heidelberg University Library was given permission to digitise the Lorsch manuscripts on site at the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana Source: Heidelberg University We've created a Patreon for Medievalists.net as we want to transition to a more community-funded model We aim to be the leading content provider about all things medieval podcast and Youtube page offers news and resources about the Middle Ages We hope that are our audience wants to support us so that we can further develop our podcast and remove the advertising on our platforms This will also allow our fans to get more involved in what content we do produce Member Login Jon Lorsch '90 receives his Doctor of Sciences hood from biochemist Amy Cheng Vollmer Jon Lorsch is an extraordinary biochemist whose work has had direct implications on the study of medical diseases He has authored over 70 research papers and currently serves as the director of the NIH’s  National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) NIGMS supports basic research that increases the understanding of biological processes more specifically to lay the foundation for advances in disease diagnosis Jon Lorsch has served as a visionary leader of the NIGMS which is particularly evident in his commitment to developing programs to support scientists of all backgrounds He has led the NIGMS with the knowledge that the next generation of extraordinary scientists will be diverse in their identities Jon served as member of the faculty at Johns Hopkins where he was a professor in the Department of Biophysics and Biophysical chemistry his passion for education was reflected in his work to reform graduate and medical school education He led the development for the Center for Innovation in Graduate Biomedical Education which not only serves as place for pedagogical innovation but also serves as a resource to prepare biomedical students for the myriad careers they may enter.  you embody the defining values of Swarthmore’s founders and by the power vested in me by the Board of Managers of Swarthmore College and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania I have the honor to bestow upon you the degree of Doctor of Sciences Department of Chemistry and BiochemistrySwarthmore College500 College AvenueSwarthmore Jon Lorsch '90 has been named the next director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.  At Swarthmore and completed his senior thesis under the direction of Judy Voet Hammons Professor Emerita of Chemistry. In 1990 he received the American Chemical Society Award for Academic Achievement.  He has been a Professor of Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.  Jon returned to Swarthmore in 2005 as a Visiting Examiner for the Honors Program in Biochemistry Facsimile Finder unveils one of the richest manuscripts of Carolingian art – the Lorsch Gospels – a volume that Charlemagne himself may have held in his hands the famous court scriptorium of Charlemagne at Aachen produced a glorious It is a collection of the Four Gospels of the New Testament crafted by the most outstanding artists of the time Described as Euvangelium pictum cum auro scriptum habens tabulas eburneas (illustrated Gospel Book it first appears in a book record of the Lorsch Abbey dating back to around 860 and its magnificent full-page illustrations it is without doubt the most precious and well-kept manuscript of the abbey and it was probably used only at rare occasions in the cloister To underline its importance and artistic value the Lorsch Gospels was bound in a magnificent ivory cover representing the high point of early medieval art Our thanks to Facsimile Finder for helping us create this post. You can learn more about this manuscript and see more images by visiting their website Please also check out their social media – Twitter, Instagram and their Youtube Channel which features dozens of videos of medieval manuscripts Furthermore, R01 applications require defined experiments proposed in advance, leaving little room for investigators to follow new research directions within the grant’s cycle. Lorsch is also concerned that the time spent writing grants is increasingly burdensome. The first pilot cohort of awardees will be established investigators with two or more NIGMS R01 awards or a single R01 award of more than $400,000 in direct costs. Applications are expected to be due in the summer. The second pilot cohort will include early-stage investigators. If the initial pilots are successful, the NIGMS plans to broaden eligibility to include all investigators working in areas relevant to the institute’s mission. Lorsch said he believes the flexibility and stability of MIRA awards will give investigators the freedom to explore new avenues of inquiry and will allow the maximum return on taxpayer investments through a broad, diverse NIGMS research portfolio. “We hope that by creating the stability for investigators, we can really empower them to be more ambitious and more creative in their research,” he said. “We also hope to increase the flexibility for investigators to follow new ideas and new research directions as they arise during the course of their work. If they discover something very interesting … they’ll be able to follow that.” There already has been interest from other leaders within the National Institutes of Health who are awaiting results from the MIRA pilot. The NIGMS solicited comments from the research community about the program in July. The response was overwhelmingly favorable, Lorsch said, with positive comments from 80 percent of 300 respondents. Lorsch indicated the two main concerns raised by respondents were somewhat contradictory. First, some were worried that funds would be unevenly distributed. Joseph Haywood, president of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, echoed that sentiment in a public letter in August to Lorsch. “We are concerned about the possibility that (NIH) funding will become concentrated among a small number of (investigators) or institutions,” Haywood wrote. Second, some respondents indicated the cap on funds – $750,000 – would not be enough for some investigators who have large labs with many employees, trainees and projects and who are used to receiving more money. Lorsch said he hopes the stability of the program and the desire on the part of principal investigators to write fewer grants will be incentives. Lorsch also said he believes concentrating the limited funds in only a few hands is inefficient and that several studies, including a 2010 analysis by the NIGMS, have shown that large research budgets usually do not give the best return on investment. “These and other lines of evidence indicate that funding smaller, more efficient research groups will increase the net impact of fundamental biomedical research: valuable scientific output per taxpayer dollar invested,” Lorsch wrote in January on his blog. In addition, he wrote, the tight funding environment often means that funding a single investigator with multiple R01s precludes funding other researchers at all. Lorsch said that the NIGMS is developing an evaluation plan for the MIRA pilot, and he indicated that it will include feedback from both reviewers and grantees. It also will determine whether grantees altered their original research plans based on new data and whether MIRA allowed for a more diverse NIGMS portfolio. While most in the science community feel that MIRA is a promising program, there are still a number of unknowns. Benjamin Corb, public affairs director for the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, ticked off a list of questions that he and others have: “What will be the buy-in from the community? How will reviewers adapt to the different review guidelines? What will the final evaluation plan look like? For most of these questions, we won’t know the answer until the experiment (the MIRA pilot) is complete, but I am looking forward to seeing the results.” Erica A. Gobrogge is program director in the office of postdoctoral affairs at Van Andel Institute and former education and professional development manager for the ASBMB. Follow her on Twitter. and just about any other major organizational problem you can think of All eyes are on culture as the cause and the cure Copyright ©2025 Harvard Business School Publishing Harvard Business Publishing is an affiliate of Harvard Business School The National Institutes of Health has selected Jon R to direct the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) a professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine expects to make the move to NIH this summer who has been leading the institute since Jeremy M Berg left for a position at the University of Pittsburgh in July 2011 Lorsch will oversee a budget of about $2.4 billion The majority of that money funds basic research in the biomedical sciences including more chemistry-related research than in any of the other 27 NIH institutes and centers NIGMS supports about 11% of NIH-funded grants The institute is also known for supporting research training and programs intended to increase the diversity of the biomedical workforce The National Institutes of Health has selected Jon R. Lorsch, a biochemist and leader in RNA biology, to direct the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) Calling Lorsch “broad-minded” and a “visionary thinker with strong management skills,” NIH Director Francis S Collins says he is confident that Lorsch will help keep the U.S He is well-known for his work on dissecting the molecular mechanics of translation initiation the assembly of a ribosome on a messenger RNA molecule Translation initiation plays a key role in controlling gene expression Disruption of the process can lead to numerous human diseases What excites Lorsch most about becoming NIGMS director is the opportunity to help support breakthroughs in understanding living systems “We have incredible new tools to interrogate the inner workings of biological systems—from free-electron lasers to genomic approaches that allow us to locate each transcribing RNA polymerase or translating ribosome in a cell,” he says “I am eager to help find the best ways to use methods at all scales Lorsch was also passionate about reforming the curricula for graduate and medical education Lorsch says he will remain “committed to catalyzing innovations in scientific education and to producing the best-trained and most diverse biomedical research workforce in the world.” a professor in the biophysics and biophysical chemistry department at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine including more chemistry-related research than any of the other 27 NIH institutes and centers The institute is also well known for supporting research training and programs intended to increase the The institute is also well known for supporting research training and programs intended to increase the diversity of the biomedical workforce in biochemistry from Harvard University and has published more than 60 peer-reviewed research articles He is well known for his work on dissecting the molecular mechanics of translation initiation What excites Lorsch the most about becoming the NIGMS director is the opportunity to help support breakthroughs in understanding living systems “We have incredible new tools to interrogate the inner workings of biological systems—from free electron lasers to genomic approaches that allow us to locate each transcribing RNA polymerase or translating ribosome in a cell,” he says He launched a summer research program for high school students including those from groups that are typically underrepresented in the biomedical sciences Bookmark content that interests you and it will be saved here for you to read or share later How to Succeed When Professionals Drive Results but none so much as professional service firms professionals—and how they're managed—are the primary source of competitive advantage What separates the best professional firms from their less successful competitors And what lessons do their experiences hold for other talent-driven businesses Lorsch and accomplished practitioner Thomas J Tierney draw from rigorous research and decades of experience to provide a practical perspective on how to win in professional services Their work is based on an analysis of industry leaders in fields as diverse as law executive search and management consulting Aligning the Stars argues that strategic success is achieved by building an organization of executive-level stars whose day-to-day performance reinforces and ultimately achieves the goals of the business Outstanding firms align stars across business lines Lorsch and Tierney show how successful firms create and sustain alignment via strategy By describing how to lead the stars that shape a company's destiny Aligning the Stars offers valuable lessons for the leaders of every talent-driven business Tierney was worldwide managing director of Bain & Company from 1993 to 2000 nonprofit organization that collaborates with mission-driven leaders and organizations to help accelerate social impact Thomas frequently speaks and writes on topics related to nonprofit leadership and philanthropy Lorsch is the Louis Kirstein Professor of Human Relations at the Harvard Business School He is editor of The Future of Boards: Meeting the Governance Challenges of the Twenty-First Century and the author or coauthor of over a dozen books including Back to the Drawing Board: Designing Boards for a Complex World For years I have wanted to find a book I could enthusiastically recommend to people in search of the key elements peculiar to building enduring Author of Good to Great and Coauthor of Built to Last Jay Lorsch and Tom Tierney are sometimes iconoclastic With clear principles and many stimulating examples this well-written book will provoke reflection and debate among professional firm leaders our monthly look at the critical issues facing global businesses *I have read the Privacy Policy and agree to its terms SOMEWHERE BETWEEN the Custom House on Laight and Washington streets and Albert Lorsch and Co pearls and rubies was tucked inside a box of jewelry imported from France The police detectives and the company were stumped Did someone have sticky fingers at William Mace and Co. the truckers who shipped the goods to Lorsch Was there a conspiracy among the Lorsch employees at least in the dusty archives of The New York Times The paper never followed up on the story of those missing jewels slowly dismantled a red 1990 Ford Thunderbird to spruce up his own 1989 vehicle His father had bought the parts car from a buddy for $100 It was a retired Hertz rental that the man's daughter drove around for a few years he wanted one last treasure: a speaker he found in the trunk As he tore out the back seat to get to the wires he noticed something out of the corner of his eye "I thought it was either drugs or money," he said It was four postcard-sized paper packages marked Out of the packages spilled between 4,000 and 5,000 tiny I was worried about how I was going to send my kids to college," said Romiza who has an 11-year-old son and a 14-year-old daughter who has an office in New Bedford but appraises and identifies stones from Maine to Miami All he knew for sure was that they were old "In the old days they used to cut the stones thick and they used to cut the angles skinny," he said "Nowadays they cut the angles much shallower." the premier organization for grading and identifying gemstones said Romiza's rubies were clever fakes - bits of well-shaped glass Romiza told the Falmouth police about his find His attorney told him if no one claims it after a year "Everyone calls me 'Ruby' around town," he said Romiza is still hoping they might be worth something either to a glass museum or a costume jewelry retailer DeMello doesn't know how much they might be worth "We don't appraise glass normally," he said Or perhaps among those thousands of stones Romiza only handed over one to the experts at GIA for evaluation One of the four packages remains sealed with an Albert Lorsch sticker Although he admits the curiosity drives him crazy But the origin of the stones remains a mystery Newspaper articles and court documents date the company from the 1880s to the 1930s A search for a Lorsch jewelers operating today turned up nothing It isn't certain how the stones got in that rental car or if they are part of the jewels stolen or misplaced in New York City more than 100 years ago "I want to know where these things come from and why they are here," Romiza said Media Play News the festival favorite documentary on erotic thrillers from director Anthony Penta which had its Los Angeles premiere last week at the Vidiots movie theater in the Eagle Rock neighborhood is available for digital purchase or rental at Vudu A Blu-ray Disc, both standard and in a limited-edition slipcover, is available for sale from indie film distributor Yellow Veil Pictures through the Vinegar Syndrome website We Kill For Love documents the birth and development of the erotic thriller genre which according to the film is an outgrowth of the film noir and femme fatales of the 1940s and ’50s The genre soared to popularity in the early 1990s and revitalized the videocassette rental business before the 1997 launch of DVD Erotic thrillers combined bodily pleasure with danger such as 1987’s Fatal Attraction and 1992’s Basic Instinct most erotic thrillers were produced and released exclusively to the home video market by such companies as Prism Entertainment The documentary stars filmmakers Andrew Stevens and Fred Olen Ray; film stars Athena Massey and Kira Reed Lorsch; film scholars Linda Ruth Williams and Abbey Bender; and others. Media Play News publisher and editorial director Thomas K both of whom later appeared in the TV series “Star Trek: Voyager,” attended the premiere at Vidiots which opened in early June alongside a DVD rental store modeled after the original Vidiots in Santa Monica was first shown to audiences at the Overlook Film Festival in New Orleans Netflix says people who binge-view programming enjoy doing so in the company of their pet animal Another Best Picture Oscar nominee is headed for home video Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will release Call Me By Your Name 27 and Blu-ray Disc and DVD on March… Indie film distributor Breaking Glass Pictures has set a Feb 18 home release date for Kill The Monsters who also stars in the film alongside Jack Ball and Garrett McKechnie The LGBTQ comedy/political allegory… The British Association for Screen Entertainment (BASE) 11 announced it is rejiggering its annual awards show to better reflect changing consumer and category trends Please enter an answer in digits:18 − 16 = Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Click here to read the latest edition cover to cover “I loved being a producer on The Bay and I was one of the original Emmy winners with them but it’s a great show and to win an Emmy was a great payoff Kristos Andrews and Wendy Riche were so kind to me I was given a great storyline as Jo Conners.” I’m a natural-born and experienced producer,” she said She had nothing but the kindest words about working with such veteran actors as Ronn Moss and Matthew Ashford “Ronn Moss was very integral in getting me on the show,” she said “I have been very good friends with his wife both Ronn and Devin were there to vouch for me since we were the bad guys and the schemers He and I had a cat and mouse relationship on the show,” she said will be celebrating its 10th anniversary this fall On being an actress and a producer in the digital age “There are so many more opportunities There are so many places where the digital age can go and that’s exciting You don’t need to have a huge budget to make something that’s good and put it out there It is great to have more opportunities.” “You need to create your own content You need to really put yourselves out there and you need to be executive producers of your own careers and create your own content that you love.” “She has been my best friend for many years I have somebody who needs me each day,” she said writing and collaborating with people and friends These things help get me up in the morning.” She defined the word success as “health and happiness.” “Also the feeling that you’ve done a good job,” she said “Success is a constant thing and it’s a process.” For her fans, she concluded, “I am just so thrilled that I have fans. I have been in this business since I got my SAG card on the original 90210 as an extra when I was 17 years old. I’ve worked hard to get here and I am still here in my mid-40’s now, and I feel I am at the prime of my career and that’s exciting. I have my a new Facebook fan page where fans can go and check that out.” To learn more about Emmy winner Kira Reed Lorsch, check out her official website “My fans can also go to my website and join my fanclub and they can connect with me there,” she said America’s greatest strengths are being decimated systematically Image: ©AFPUS President Donald Trump said Sunday he was ordering new tariffs on all films made outside the United States OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced Monday that the company behind ChatGPT will continue to be run as a nonprofit Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth on Monday ordered at least a 20 percent reduction in the number of active-duty four-star generals and admirals.