T H E   N I H    C A T A L Y S T      J U L Y  –  A U G U S T   1997

ALL'S FAIR AT FREDERICK

by Fran Pollner

 

The 80 acres of the FCRDC that now holds close to 100 buildings and 2,000 people were turned over to NCI in 1972, when the "international community [repudiated] bacterial warfare," NCI-FCRDC Associate Director Donald Summers said in an interview at the Frederick campus in May, on the occasion of the Frederick Spring Research Festival.

He observed that the festival—the first of its kind and a joint effort of the FCRDC and its military landlord, Fort Detrick’s U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command—reflects new collaborative research directions, as well as an evolving camaraderie and respect for each other’s expertise. A faculty seminar program in concert with the Army is proving to be extremely popular, he said.

He recalled a "lunch with three colonels" shortly after his arrival and their remarking on the rarity of such get-togethers. "We’ve got a lot to share with each other—outstanding scientists, ideas, equipment."

"They’re smart folks," Summers said. "We live on their field. We’ve got to work together."

–F.P

NCI-FCRDC associate director Donald Summers and program analyst Jeannette DeLawter ambled through the poster aisles, trying to view all 276 scientific presentations. "This is out of sight!" Summers said.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Military medical research is exemplified in Department of Defense exhibit (above) on its breast cancer research program.
SAIC (Science Applications International Corporation) is the FCRDC’s major contractor.

 

Crowds of NIH scientists peruse posters (left) and exhibits sponsored by private industry (right).

 

Alma Bracete (right), of the Experimental Immunology Laboratory, answers questions about her own poster and the poster (above) of her high school student intern. (See "High School Science.")

 


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