People

After 34 years at NCI, Robert Wiltrout, Ph.D., said he is looking forward to trading his I-270 commute for another type of commute: exploring the waterways of Maryland, Alaska, and Wyoming to fulfill his love of fishing.

Wiltrout officially retired as director of the NCI Center for Cancer Research (CCR) on July 2 of last year.

Throughout his college academic career, Wiltrout had an interest in science, but it was not until he was working on a research project for his master’s degree that he considered a career in scientific research.

Michelle Marcelino developed a strong interest in science as a child. The former Werner H. Kirsten student intern’s father was a physicist and often discussed with his daughters how the world works in terms of science.

“I think my father instilled it in me from a very young age,” Marcelino said. “I remember being in elementary school and my father telling us colors are just wavelengths of light perceived by your eye. That’s my dad, explaining that concept in detail to a child.” 

James Cherry, Ph.D., learned at an early age that education is crucial to success. He credits his mentors, some of whom include his grandmother, Shepherd University professor Burton Lidgerding, Ph.D., David Munroe, Ph.D., Frederick National Lab, and Robert J. Hohman, Ph.D., National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, for guiding him to the career he has today.

Cherry, scientific program director, Office of Scientific Operations (OSO), NCI at Frederick, is one of the scientists featured in NCI’s Spotlight on Scientists video series.

NCI and Leidos Biomed employees took to the fields at Nallin Pond for the third annual slow-pitch softball games on August 26. The series attracted 54 employees who were divided into four teams, Red, Blue, Gray, and White, and they were cheered on by about 40 enthusiastic spectators.

In the first set of games, the Gray team defeated the Blue team, 15–8, and the White team pulled out a win against the Red team, 17–15. After a brief rest, the two winning teams and the two losing teams faced each other in a second set of games.

On Field 1, the “winners” match-up of the Gray and White teams was a nail biter, with a close score throughout the game. Daylight was a factor, however, and the team captains decided to call the game for safety reasons. With a lead of 15 to 13, the Gray team was declared the overall winner.

Editor’s note: This article was adapted from the Employee Diversity Team’s display case exhibit “Recognizing the NCI at Frederick Ebola Response Team,” in the lobby of Building 549. The Poster staff recognizes that this article does not include everyone who was involved in the response to the Ebola crisis, both at NCI at Frederick and in Africa.

When the Ebola crisis broke out in 2014 in West Africa, staff members from the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research responded quickly.

Members of the Clinical Monitoring Research Program (CMRP) were instrumental not only in setting up the clinical trials of the vaccine in Liberia, but also in providing training, community outreach, and recruitment strategies for the trials.

The Center for Cancer Research (CCR) and NCI at Frederick recently had the honor of hosting Professor Dr. Her Royal Highness Princess Chulabhorn Mahidol of Thailand.  Her Royal Highness has a special interest in scientific research related to the use of natural products for treating disease.

The purpose of her visit was to discuss the work on natural products being undertaken at NCI at Frederick. Her Royal Highness attended talks by researchers from both the Molecular Targets Laboratory (MTL), CCR, and the Natural Products Branch (NPB), Developmental Therapeutics Program (DTP), Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis (DCTD).

You may know the feeling. You have collected a lot of new data on an important experiment. Now you are faced with multiple groups of data, a sea of numbers, and a deadline for submitting your paper to a peer-reviewed journal. And you are not sure which data are relevant, or even the best way to present them.

The statisticians at Data Management Services (DMS) know how to help. This small group of experts provides a wide array of statistical and mathematical consulting services to the scientific community at NCI at Frederick and NCI-Bethesda.

NCI and Frederick National Laboratory staff members were among those honored at the Spring Research Festival Awards Ceremony on May 28. The ceremony was the culmination of the festival, which was sponsored by the National Interagency Confederation for Biological Research (NICBR), May 4–7.

Maj. Gen. Brian Lein, commanding general, U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC), presented the awards.

A team of NCI and Leidos Biomedical Research employees at NCI at Frederick received the Energy and Fleet Management Award, one of the 2014 Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Green Champions Awards, for comparing the costs and energy usage of two -80°C freezer technologies.

This was the first scientific study to be jointly conducted by Leidos Biomedical Research’s Applied and Developmental Research Directorate (ADRD) and Facilities Maintenance and Engineering Directorate (FME).  

Dan Bertolette has been selected as the most recent NCI at Frederick Champion of Safety, as part of the Champions of Safety Program sponsored by the Environment, Health, and Safety Program (EHS).

The goal of the program, which began last year, is to raise awareness and promote a culture of safety by showing NCI at Frederick staff at work in their respective workplaces, according to Terri Bray, director, EHS. “Since we have so many varied work environments here, safety often takes on a different look, according to workplace. We want to take the opportunity to show real people in real situations, to encourage safety everywhere,” Bray said.