Since the world went virtual in March 2020, the ‘Laptop’ in the Scientific Library’s Laptop Librarian Program has taken on a layered meaning.

For 14 years, the program has taken resources outside the Library’s walls and helped National Cancer Institute at Frederick and Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research scientists where they work. A librarian would bring a laptop to a specified location during regular times to answer questions about Scientific Library resources and services, making research support even easier to access.

The grounds around Building 1071 on the NCI at Frederick campus are about to receive a new ecological improvement network. It won’t come with complex equipment, nor will it add to the campus’ ubiquitous metallic sheen of steam pipes or modules encasing crucial apparatus. Instead, passersby will only see five saplings.

Spring has arrived in Frederick, and with it comes a beloved scientific tradition: the Spring Research Festival. Now in its 25th year, the festival brings together scientists, students, support staff, and spectators from across Fort Detrick, NCI at Frederick, and the larger Frederick community. Participants can expect two days of scientific excellence.

Spring and rain are nearly inseparable in the public conscious. English speakers in the Northern Hemisphere have been repeating the proverb, “April showers bring May flowers,” in some form for at least 500 years. Geoffrey Chaucer even begins his famous Canterbury Tales with mention of the spring rains. Small wonder that rain and water are on the minds of staff in Environment, Health, and Safety as another Frederick winter turns to spring. But their thoughts are considerably less whimsical than proverbs or poetry. In fact, they’re all business.

Nominations for the 2021 Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research (FNL) Achievement Awards are now underway. This program honors and recognizes staff members for outstanding contributions to the FNL mission over the past year. Nominations will be accepted through March 13. This is an entirely peer-nominated awards program, and all employees are encouraged to nominate their colleagues.

In 1972, soon after then-President Richard Nixon’s newly established Frederick Cancer Research Center hired its first employees, 24-year-old Kunio Nagashima put on a suit and tie and boarded a Boeing 747 at Tokyo’s Haneda International Airport. An electron microscopist from Kyoto University, Nagashima had a one-way ticket in his hand, bound for the United States and ready to take a new job—sight unseen.

Women Scientists Advisors (WSA) was established in 1993 and comprises elected representatives from each NIH Institute or Center who volunteer their time to support other female scientists on issues ranging from pay equity to work/family balance and leadership opportunities. 

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.