2005 NIH Director's Awards Ceremony
On July 14, several NCI employees were honored at the 2005 NIH Director's Awards Ceremony, which was held on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Md. NIH Director Dr. Elias Zerhouni presided over the ceremony and the presentation of more than 60 awards to NIH employees. "By no means are the colleagues we're honoring today the only ones who have contributed significantly to our mission," Dr. Zerhouni said. "I really appreciate the professionalism, dedication, and perseverance of the entire NIH staff. But it's really a pleasure to take some time to honor some of our colleagues."
The following NCI employees received awards:
- NIH Director's Award for special efforts beyond regular duty to NIH: Drs. Malcolm Smith, Richard Simon, Alan Hildesheim, and J. Carl Barrett
- NIH Mentoring Award: Dr. Peter Blumberg
- NIH Director's Group Award: Jacquelyn Goldberg, Jeanne Adler, and Dr. Barry Anderson - Pediatric Clinical Investigations and Research Branch Team; Christina Bruce and Viola Black - EEO Restructuring Team; James Dickens - Roadmap Central Implementation Team
- PHS NIH Commissioned Corps Award for cancer-related health disparities research: Capt. Linda Brown.
Cancer PSAs Air on Soap Opera
Soap opera viewers know a bit more about cancer thanks to the Hollywood, Health & Society (HH&S) program, funded by NCI and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Producers for CBS-TV's As the World Turns developed two story lines with scientific feedback from NCI - one involving a main character with breast cancer and another involving a pregnant teen who smokes. The ongoing story lines were bracketed by public service announcements (PSAs) featuring stars from the show. A mammography PSA aired on June 23 and teen smoking and pregnancy PSAs aired on July 11 and 13.
The Cancer Information Service reported an increase in calls related to the two topics, with many callers citing the show as the source of their curiosity. HH&S is conducting research to determine how many viewers feel they know more about the health issues mentioned after watching episodes with the cancer-related story lines.
Based at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication, HH&S is billed as a "one-stop shop to provide entertainment industry professionals with accurate and timely information for health story lines."
Blumenthal to Head New CCR Nanobiology Program
Dr. Robert Blumenthal has been appointed as director of the new Center for Cancer Research Nanobiology Program (CCRNP), which combines physics, computational sciences, and biology to develop nanoscale material-based strategies for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer. The program, previously the Laboratory of Experimental and Computational Biology, will interface with NCI's main Nanotechnology Program, other CCR basic research labs and clinical branches, and the extramural community.
