A symposium in honor of Dr. Ellis S. Kempner, NIAMS, will be held Friday, Apr. 21 from 1:30 to 5 p.m. in the Bldg. 50 main auditorium. The program will recognize Kempner's scientific contributions, notably his pioneering of the technique of radiation inactivation and its diverse applications in biology. Invited speakers include: Shelagh Ferguson-Miller (Michigan State), Catharine Ross (Penn State), Sidney Fleischer (Vanderbilt), Werner Schlegel (Univ. Geneva), Marshall Nirenberg (NHLBI), Henry Metzger (NIAMS). Register for free at http://niams.cit.nih.gov/rtbc/meetings_events.htm.

NIH will celebrate Earth Day on Thursday, Apr. 27. In advance of the event, the Office of Research Facilities' Division of Environmental Protection (DEP) invites you to win a prize by guessing what IT (see photo above) is and why IT makes an important statement about protecting our environment and relates to the NIH mission. Some hints: There are not many left in the world. ITs native habitat in the Klein Karas mountains of Namibia is being increasingly destroyed, and ITs survival is further threatened by poachers. In this photo, IT is looking for a mate and for some hungry flesh flies to help consummate ITs romance with a distant partner. The San tribesmen of the Kalahari desert have been using related species for medicinal purposes for many years. Think you know what IT is and why IT's important? DEP will award a small prize to the first five people who can correctly answer these questions. Submit your answers to Michelle Coley at coleym@mail.nih.gov by noon on Friday, Apr. 21. The NIH Record will publish the answers and the names of any winners.

"Forty Years of NMR in Biological Systems — A Symposium To Honor James A. Ferretti, Ph.D." will be held Apr. 21 at the Natcher Conference Center, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The symposium will celebrate Ferretti's scientific achievements. He has pioneered the application of pulsed Fourier transform nuclear magnetic resonance techniques to the study of a wide range of chemical and biological systems. Featured speakers include Ad Bax, Marshall Nirenberg and Dennis Torchia from NIH, and a host of others. There is no cost, but registration is requested via email to tjandran@nhlbi.nih.gov. For more information visit www.nhlbi.nih.gov/meetings/ferretti.

Scopus is the newest resource available to NIH'ers via the NIH Library's online databases collection. Register now for the May 18 hands-on training on how to search, set up alerts and capture results from more than 15,000 journals and 13 million patents. Four additional free classes are offered this season. For details on all classes, visit http://nihlibrary.nih.gov/ResourceTraining/.

In 1952, a joint resolution by Congress, signed by President Truman, declared an annual national day of prayer. In 1988, the law was amended and signed by President Reagan, permanently setting the day as the first Thursday of every May. This year's National Day of Prayer will be observed May 4 at 11:30 a.m. on the lawn in front of Bldg. 1, near the flagpole. The observance invites all people of any faith to pray for the good of the country and its leaders.

The Work and Family Life Center will hold a seminar titled "Communicating Effectively," on Wednesday, Apr. 19 from noon to 2 p.m. in Bldg. 50, Rm. 1227/1233L. Communicating is one of the most basic things we do as humans. It's also one area many of us often don't actively develop. Find out what the most common barriers to communication are and how strategies such as "active listening" can help improve your relationships with coworkers.

Sahaja yoga meditation class is held every Thursday at 7 p.m. on the third floor of the CRC, Rm. 1608 North. Sahaja yoga seeks to awaken inner energy called kundalini, and is offered for free and without obligation. The class is sponsored by the recreation therapy section of the rehabilitation medicine department. For more information contact Jasmin Salloum, (301) 402-5630.

Felcom Holds On-Site Career Seminar

The NIH fellows committee (Felcom) recently had its first on-site career development seminar at the Bayview-Baltimore campus. Dr. Garth Fowler of ScienceCareers.org (c) provided attendees with tips on interviewing for a variety of job opportunities. The Johns Hopkins Postdoctoral Association (JHPDA) provided refreshments for the reception following the program. JHPDA President Simon Williams and Felcom representative for NIA Poloko Leotlela (r) were among attendees at the seminar.

The 13th annual Fellows Award for Research Excellence (FARE) 2007 competition will again provide recognition for outstanding scientific research performed by intramural postdoctoral fellows. Winners of FARE will each receive a $1,000 travel award to use for attending and presenting their work at a scientific meeting. One-quarter of the fellows who apply will win an award.

Fellows who apply to FARE submit an abstract of their research, which will be evaluated anonymously on scientific merit, originality, experimental design and overall quality/presentation. The travel award must be used between Oct. 1, 2006, and Sept. 30, 2007.

The FARE 2007 competition is open to postdoctoral IRTAs, visiting fellows and other fellows with fewer than 5 years total postdoctoral experience in the NIH intramural research program. In addition, pre-IRTAs performing their doctoral dissertation research at NIH are also eligible to compete. Visiting fellows/scientists must not have been tenured at their home institute. Questions about eligibility should be addressed to your institute's scientific director. Fellows are asked to submit their application, including abstract, electronically by Apr. 30 via http://felcom.nih.gov/FARE. Winners will be announced by the end of September 2006. More information is available on the web site above. Questions may be addressed to your institute's fellows committee (Felcom) representative.

NIH director Dr. Elias Zerhouni will host the sixth annual NIH Plain Language Awards ceremony on Wednesday, Apr. 19 at 2 p.m. in Lipsett Amphitheater, Bldg. 10. Along with special guest speaker, the "Food Label Wizard" and designer/artist Burkey Belser, Zerhouni will honor a group of NIH writers who have developed communication products that are exceptional for their clarity and focus. All are welcome to attend.

NIH began its plain language program in 2000 and held its first award ceremony in March 2001. That year, the plain language coordinating committee received over 100 entries; each succeeding year the number of entries has increased. For 2005, the committee received more than 175 nominations including web sites, news releases, fact sheets, newsletters, manuals and other written products. Members of the committee, which includes representatives from every institute, center and the director's office, evaluated submissions.

Belser is the talent behind the Nutrition Facts label on packaged foods. The Nutrition Facts box identifies at a glance how much fat, sodium and sugar lurks in every portion. The design, so simple that the label works for virtually anyone, won Belser a Presidential Design Award in 1997. The Washington-based artist also devised the Drug Facts label, which began appearing on over-the-counter medicines in 2002.

The Plain Language Awards ceremony will conclude with light refreshments. Sign language interpretation will be provided. For other reasonable accommodation, call (301) 496-1461. For more information about the plain language initiative, visit http://execsec.od.nih.gov/plainlang/index.html.

The Foundation for the National Institutes of Health is soliciting study proposals for inclusion in the Genetic Association Information Network (GAIN). The FNIH, which manages GAIN, invites investigators to submit applications to have existing disease-specific samples from case-control (or similar) studies genotyped at no cost. Applications will be peer-reviewed by scientific experts from academia, government and industry.

Applications from investigators must include information such as: the nature of study case and control populations; the phenotype and exposure information that the applicant is willing to place in a central database; the willingness of applicants to update phenotype data in the future; and plans for analysis and replication studies for the GAIN-supported genotype data, etc. Institutional support for a study to participate in GAIN will be required.

Once genotyping is complete, the genotype information and other related data, including phenotype and any exposure information, will be placed in a central database available to scientists in academia, government and the private sector, free of charge. The database will be designed and managed by the National Center for Biotechnology Information at the National Library of Medicine.

Applications are invited from government, non-profit and for-profit institutions. To apply, visit www.fnih.org/GAIN/GAIN_home.shtml. Applications are due May 9.

NIH celebrates its 12th annual Take Your Child to Work Day, on Thursday, Apr. 27. From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., a variety of institutes and centers will host educational and fun activities designed to let your child (ages 8-15) experience the world of biomedical research.

More than 1,500 children are expected to participate in NIH's Take Your Child to Work Day. The planning committee is seeking volunteers to help make the day a success. Visit the Take Your Child to Work Day web site for more information: http://takeyourchildtowork.nih.gov. Registration for the event begins in mid-April. Contact Gary Morin, (301) 496-4628 voice, (301) 480-3122 TTY, MorinG@od.nih.gov.

Individuals who need sign language interpreters and/or reasonable accommodation to participate should contact Carlton Coleman at (301) 496-2906 voice or (301) 451-2290 (TTY), (800) 877-8339 Federal Relay or by email, ColemanC@od.nih.gov.

Dr. Pamela Stratton, chief of the Gynecology Consult Service in NICHD's Reproductive Biology and Medicine Branch, will discuss "Endometriosis: New Insights into Killer Cramps," on Monday, Apr. 17 from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Wilson Hall, Bldg. 1. The lecture is sponsored by the NIH Office of Research on Women's Health.

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