". . . We will look to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development for a concentrated attack on the unsolved health problems of children and of mother-infant relationships. This legislation will encourage imaginative research into the complex processes of human development from conception to old age. . . For the first time, we will have an institute to promote studies directed at the entire life process rather than toward specific diseases or illnesses." —John F. Kennedy, October 17, 1962
For more than 50 years, NICHD has supported and conducted research on the processes of human development and how they affect health, from pre-pregnancy through adulthood.
Establishment
The story of the founding of NICHD
Highlights in NICHD History
Important moments from more than half a century of history
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