Three NCI Frederick branch chiefs have joined the ranks of three esteemed societies within the last year. While they’re grateful for the honor, they’re trying to share the limelight. The three say the elections serve to applaud their teams’ contributions, acknowledge the importance of investing in other scientists, and underscore that good science happens when many minds come together.
Several hundred National Cancer Institute staff converged on NCI’s Shady Grove campus last month to celebrate the annual NCI Director’s Awards ceremony in a way they hadn’t been able to for the past several years: together.
Coworkers and colleagues greeted each other in person while enjoying refreshments and watching pre-recorded award videos from senior NCI leaders in a hybrid, open-house version of the 2022 awards ceremony.
What do Nikola Tesla; National Science Board vice chair and former astronaut Ellen Ochoa, Ph.D.; and NCI Frederick’s own Howard Young, Ph.D., have in common? They’re all fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Young is among the newest additions to the esteemed group, recently elected as a 2022 fellow alongside 504 other distinguished contributors to the sciences.
NCI Frederick’s Werner H. Kirsten Student Internship Program (WHK SIP) was recognized in May by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the National Science Foundation with a 2020 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM).
One of the annual rites of spring at the National Cancer Institute at Frederick returned in April, when hundreds of members of the Ft. Detrick and Frederick National Laboratory community participated in the virtual Spring Research Festival. The event was co-sponsored by the United States Army Medical Research and Development Command (USAMRDC) and the Military & Health Research Foundation (MHRF).
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.
Eight Werner H. Kirsten student interns took home awards at this year’s Frederick County Science and Engineering Fair, a virtual competition between local middle and high school students with a passion for the sciences. The event hosted 70 students who created 64 projects, including 28 high school students who submitted 25 projects. Together, the WHK interns who won awards comprised nearly one-third of participating high schoolers.
The Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer recently awarded the Frederick National Laboratory and National Cancer Institute Technology Showcase a 2021 State and Local Economic Development Award. The FLC is a nationwide network of more than 300 federal laboratories, agencies, and research centers that promotes federal technology transfer.
National Cancer Institute Director Norman “Ned” Sharpless, M.D., had a message for NCI staff on Monday as he welcomed them to an unorthodox installment of the annual NCI Director’s Awards via video from a bedroom-turned-office inside his house. “The show must go on because you have made sure that the work of the NCI continued and even flourished during a difficult time for our nation and our world,” he said.
COVID-19 has paused or postponed many traditions this year, but it didn’t stop the National Institutes of Health from awarding NIH Director’s Awards to 660 employees and contractors. The ceremony, usually held in Bethesda, Maryland, went virtual. Several NCI at Frederick and Frederick National Laboratory employees were among this year’s recipients.
