National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH, is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late 1880s and is now part of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. Many NIH facilities are located in Bethesda, Maryland, and other nearby suburbs of the Washington metropolitan area, with other primary facilities in the Research Triangle Park in North Carolina and smaller satellite facilities located around the United States. The NIH conducts its own scientific research through the NIH Intramural Research Program (IRP) and provides major biomedical research funding to non-NIH research facilities through its Extramural Research Program.
Aerial photo of the NIH Mark O. Hatfield Clinical Research Center in Bethesda, Maryland
Ida A. Bengtson, a bacteriologist who in 1916 was the first woman hired to work in the Hygienic Laboratory
NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland, in 1945
Clinical Research Center at NIH
Bethesda is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It is located just northwest of Washington, D.C. According to the 2020 census, the community had a total population of 68,056. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House, which in turn took its name from Jerusalem's Pool of Bethesda. The National Institutes of Health's main campus and the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center are in Bethesda, in addition to several corporate and government headquarters.
From top: Bethesda Meeting House, Bethesda's Madonna of the Trail statue, the National Institutes of Health, downtown Bethesda near the Bethesda Metro station, Bethesda Avenue at night, Bethesda Theatre, and the Connie Morella Library.
Aerial view of downtown Bethesda (bottom right) with the National Institutes of Health campus (upper left) and Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (right)
Bethesda looking southwest at the downtown area
Bethesda looking north at Wisconsin Avenue