A Paradox and Alan Rein: Distinguished Retrovirologist Retires from the HIV DRP

U.S. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, NCI Deputy Director for Management John Czajkowski, and SAIC Corporate Chief Executive Officer John Jumper were joined by representatives of the Frederick County Chamber of Commerce in cutting the ribbon for the National Cancer Institute’s Advanced Technology Research Facility (ATRF).

One morning in early January, Amar Klar sat down at his computer and found an e-mail with a curious message from a colleague. While reading a bestselling novel, The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides, his colleague, a professor at Princeton University, found a description of research on yeast genetics that was surprisingly similar to Klar’s early research. Even the laboratory in the novel was reminiscent of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where Klar had conducted his research.

Can you imagine working for the same company for 50 years? Nathaniel “Ned” Greenberg has accomplished just that, having recently received his 50-year service award from NIH, and he has no immediate plans for retirement. “I don’t look upon my job as a chore, it’s more of an avocation than a vocation,” said Greenberg, a chemist in the Biological Testing Branch, under Branch Chief Melinda Hollingshead, DVM, Ph.D. “I am lucky that I found something that I enjoy doing.”

Forty years ago, what we now call the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research was born. Here are some highlights in the facility’s history.

Producing viral vectors for in vitro and in vivo studies, evaluating new technologies, organizing outreach and internal events and special programs, preparing site visit reports, helping make newcomers feel comfortable, collaborating on statistics and other projects—these are just some of the ways that the women of the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research go about their everyday work lives—and in the process, make history.