Research Fest '97: A Cure for the Summertime Blues

POSTER APPLICATION DEADLINE
Friday, June 13, 1997
5:00 p.m.

Ever wonder what that lab down the hall is really working on? Maybe you overheard fragments of conversation or noticed some unintelligible doodles on the corridor blackboard, but never got to ask. Now's your chance: the 11th annual NIH Research Festival comes to life during the week of October 6 through 10, featuring more than 20 workshops, more than 300 posters, and several symposia, all showcasing intramural research. "The NIH Research Festival is an annual opportunity to find out what your neighbors are up to and to be impressed anew by the extraordinary range and quality of research done in the NIH intramural program," according to Michael Gottesman, NIH deputy director for intramural research. Up-to-date details are available on the web at <http://pubnetmac.nih.gov/festival97/>.

Most of the scientific sessions will be on Monday and Tuesday in the Natcher Center, including two major symposia hosted by the Structural Biology and Immunology Interest Groups. The symposia are aimed at NIH scientists and clinicians from a broad range of interests, not simply those familiar with the fields. Monday's immunology symposium will discuss activation of the T-lymphocyte response, from basic cell biology to clinical applications, and Tuesday's symposium will address the structural biology of viral diseases, including antiviral drug design. On the evenings following these symposia, the Technical Sales Association will sponsor picnic dinners.

Wednesday's program includes a job fair for postdocs, organized by the Office of Education and co-sponsored by National Foundation for Biomedical Research, and a special symposium honoring 60 years of intramural NIH research in Bethesda, co-sponsored by the DeWitt Stetten, Jr., Museum of Medical Research. Several distinguished current and former NIH investigators, including Martin Rodbell, Elizabeth Neufeld, and Eugene Braunwald, will speak at the Wednesday event, along with some of NIH's top brass. On Thursday and Friday, the Festival will conclude with the Technical Sales Association's Exhibit, featuring two large tents filled with the scientific equivalent of the massive boat/auto/RV shows at the D.C. Convention Center.

Alan Spiegel, scientific director of NIDDK and chair of the festival's organizing committee, is proud of this year's program, which he characterizes as "broadly representative of intramural science, and capturing some of the excitement of doing research at NIH." For more information, contact Greg Roa: phone 496-1776, fax 402-0601, e-mail <gr25v@nih.gov>. Researchers may submit poster applications electronically at the Research Fest web site at

<http://pubnet-mac.nih.gov/festival97/>

Oh, What a Lovely Web
We'll Weave, May 28

New web tools, intranets, and useful biomedical sites are among the many sessions being offered in this all-day, DCRT-sponsored program focusing on effective use of the World Wide Web by information gatherers as well as information providers. Web Information Day, Wednesday, May 28, kicks off at the Natcher Conference Center at 9 a.m. with a keynote address by Vinton Cerf, the father of the Internet, who co-developed the computer networking protocol, TCP/IP, for the Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency. Now senior vice president for data architecture at MCI Communications Corporation, Cerf is coordinating efforts to develop a high-speed network to carry the enormous growth of Internet traffic.

Web Day topics will focus on search engines, web site and page design, internet access from home and travel, hot new technologies, demonstrations of valuable NIH web sites, the creation of web documents, and other topicsand the nascent NIH Intramural Scientists Database is expected to make its debut at Web Day. For further information about this event, which is free to all NIH staff, visit <http://wid.dcrt.nih.gov> or call 4-DCRT.