Jason Evans is giving me a tour of the new NCI Program for Natural Products Discovery (NPNPD) facility when he pauses to look at a sample-handling robot under repair, its mechanical insides temporarily disemboweled. I ask if he has an electrical engineering background, and he laughs. Evans is a scientific programmer, but for him and his colleagues, that’s beside the point.

Nearly two decades ago, NIH’s first female director formed a task force to evaluate the status of women scientists in the Intramural Research Program. The resulting report led to the creation of the Women Scientist Advisors, a group that counsels senior leaders in each institute and center on issues facing women in the sciences.

On November 19, an internationally renowned virologist will visit NCI at Frederick to deliver a lecture in the Building 549 auditorium. Beatrice Hahn, M.D., was invited by the NCI HIV Dynamics and Replication Program, which is hosting her as the speaker and recipient of the Eighth Annual David Derse Memorial Lecture and Award.

Ulrich Baxa, Ph.D., and his team are helping to move a microscope the size of a minivan. The behemoth, a Titan Krios, is making the 29-mile trek from a Gaithersburg, Maryland, laboratory to its new home at the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research.

The Scientific Library at NCI at Frederick provides resources and services to support cutting-edge cancer, AIDS, and infectious disease research, and the librarians and informationists are ready to guide researchers to any information they need. Within the past year, two new staff members began working at the Scientific Library: Biosciences Informationist Matt Stirling and Public Services Librarian Joelle Mornini. Librarian Tracie Frederick, who has been with the Scientific Library for 12 years, also stepped into the role of Library Director in 2018.