A Parking Message

As everyone is aware, parking on campus has recently become tighter. NIH's success in securing the necessary funds for a series of projects to improve buiilding and campus infrastructure and to expand our research and clinical facilities has resulted in many of the difficulties you are experiencing in getting around and parking on the campus. Since federal parking policies limit the amount of parking we can provide on the campus, the Office of Research Services (ORS), in concert with other NIH offices and employee groups, is working on creative short- and long-term measures to minimize the impact of ongoing and future construction projects.

These include increased leasing of off-campus parking spaces with enhanced shuttle bus service to the campus, increasing TRANSHARE and carpool participation (for example, NIH is requesting lesgislation in FY 1998 to make IRTAs and visiting fellows eligible for the subsidy), and expanding the privatization of parking management, similar to that occurring in the ACRF garage. The latter would include a fee for parking for visitors and service contractors to cover the cost of a contract-operated system and to fund more effective shuttle service. Under this proposal, visitor parking would be consolidated in a few attendant-controlled locations. Attendant-assisted parking could be expanded to employee lots to increase the capacity of the existing parking facilities.

The problem of parking and transportation, however, cannot be addressed by NIH management alone. It will require all NIH employees working together toward the common goal of building a better NIH. Your ideas and input are welcome. The NIH Parking and Transportation Working Group (P&TWG) is soliciting additional members to work on these issues. Please e-mail acting chairman Tim Wheeles with your ideas.

The ORS will be starting a new web page in the next few weeks that will provide detailed information about campus construction activities, their impact on circulation and parking, and parking mitigation measures as they are introduced. In the meantimw, the P&TWG web page discusses off-campus parking, shuttle service, TRANSHARE subsidies, ride sharing, etc. Alternatively, you can call the Employee Transportation Services Office at 402-RIDE for more information.

—Steve Ficca, ORS

Joint Maneuvers
At Frederick Research Festival

This year, April showers bring May research festivals—the Ft. Detrick-NCI-FCRDC Spring Research Festival, to be specific.

This marks the first time the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command has teamed up with its civilian housemate to showcase the vast array of biomedical research in progress at the Frederick-based facilities. The event will take place on the "blue-gray field," just inside the Ft. Detrick gates in front of the main Army building, May 21 and 22, from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., followed by public lectures geared to a lay audience each evening at 7:00 in Strough Auditorium.

Friday, April 4, is the deadline for poster submission by NCI-FCRDC scientific staff (posters are being solicited from Frederick-based personnel only). Electronic poster registration is available.

Events planned include:

Scientific presentations. Research posters will be on exhibit throughout the festival, with selected submissions scheduled as 10-minute talks during scientific sessions both days from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. Four Young Investigator Awards ($100 each) will be given for the best posters presented by FCRDC students, technical support staff, and postdocs.

Student presentations. Frederick County Middle School and High School Science Fair participants, as well as Werner Kirsten student interns at FCRDC, will be participating in the poster exhibit. An award will be given to the best poster by a Werner Kirsten student intern.

Other Special Exhibits. Exhibits designed to demonstrate to both the scientific staff and local community the large number of different biomedical efforts under way at the Frederick facility will be sponsored by the Army, NCI, NIAID,the USDA, and SAIC.

Health Fair. The Safety and Environmental Protection Program, the Office of Occupational Health, and the NCI Office of Cancer Communications will offer health tips, advice, and information on cancer and AIDS.

For more information about poster registration or fair events, contact Howard Young: phone: 1-301-846-5700.

The Ombudsman Is In . . .

In our last issue's Ethics Forum, we introduced Dave Robinson, newly appointed as ombudsman for scientific conduct issues, in a pilot project involving five ICDs: NIDA, NIAID, NIEHS, NHLBI, and OD. He now has an address and a phone number: Building 10, room 1C119, phone (301) 594-7231. (Be advised that no form of electronic mail is absolutely secure.)

The NIH Cytokine Interest Group will hold its second 1997 minisymposium on May 13 at NCI-FCRDC (Frederick) in the Building 549 auditorium. Contact Howard Young for times and the FCRDC home page for directions.

Hall Effect Imaging: Look Again

The schematic we ran last issue was not the reverse mode. The one below really is.

Schematic of the experimental set-up for HEI in reverse mode. The sample is submerged in saline, and voltage pulses are applied across the electrodes. The combination of the electric field pulses and the presence of a large magnetic field (perpendicular to the page, not shown) causes ultrasound vibrations, which are detected by the transducer.

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