NCI and FNL Researchers Turn Lessons Learned into Stepping Stones

There are times where opportunities are not present in our environment, so sometimes it’s necessary to make them. Like the famous paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson said, “one must take initiative in life to achieve what he or she wants.” That is exactly what Laura Prestia, Ph.D., and her colleagues, Robert Sons, Ph.D., and Alan Alfano, Ph.D., did in 2016 when they started the Technology Transfer Ambassadors Program (TTAP).

Test your home for radon. I could think of at least 10 reasons why I didn’t want to. It was something else to add to the endless to-do list. The test kit would be expensive. If the test showed high levels, addressing the radon problem would be more expensive. In short, it was going to be a pain. But as it happens, it wasn’t.

When the pandemic shutdown began in March 2020, offices across NCI at Frederick and the Frederick National Laboratory quickly became ghost towns, as employees packed up and decamped to their newly set-up home offices. But for those engaged in scientific research—including efforts to combat COVID-19 itself—the need to safely work on-site became more critical than ever.

The NCI at Frederick Scientific Publications Database added 241 publications by NCI at Frederick researchers between October 1 and December 31, 2021. In comparison, for the period between October 1 and December 31, 2020, the database added 303 publications.

Sleep more, lose weight, eat balanced meals. This week these words are as familiar as an overplayed holiday carol as many of us once again make (and, all too easily, break) health-conscious New Year’s resolutions. But the staff in Environment, Health, and Safety and Occupational Health Services want us to add one more resolution to our lists for 2022. Thankfully, it’s easier: check the radon levels in our homes.