I sit here late on Sunday afternoon watching the Eagles stumble around against the Cowboys on national TV. We have had a lovely weekend; our family came to DC to help us celebrate Harriet’s upcoming birthday. We had a great time. Before they left on Sunday I took them to see my office and also showed them the wonderful exhibit of botanical art focused on healing plants in the Lombardi lobby that Harriet actually helped to organize.
The work week was busy, but aside from the meetings, I have nothing new to report. Our CCSG preparations continue, and I am busily working on various drafts of the sections I am responsible for authoring. We have to write the grant according to the new CCSG guidelines. While this has created a lot of work – we focus less on metrics and more on the impact of our research – this reconfiguration has forced us to take a fresh and refreshing look at our cancer center.
The coming week promises to be interesting. I have been appointed to the NCI Board of Scientific Counselors and have my first meeting on Tuesday. This is an interesting time to be reviewing the work of the Intramural Program, with a “fiscal cliff” looming and increasing scrutiny of the federal budget. It is always easy to sling arrows at presumed targets from afar, but it gets pretty humbling when the review process gets down to brass tacks. As many of you know, the review processes for the extramural and intramural programs have some major differences. In the extramural setting we evaluate projects and the individual is considered in that context. For intramural reviews, it all is turned on its head. The review focuses primarily on the investigator, and the projects and their progress are subjected to scrutiny within that context. Hence, the review is more personal – our decisions amount to referenda on the overall quality of work of investigators and their teams.
I am also looking forward to this week’s GUMC Convocation. I think this is a wonderful (relatively) new tradition, and encourage everyone to make time on Thursday to attend the Colloquium on health disparities with our own Lucile Adams-Campbell at 10 am and the formal Convocation at 3 pm.
Also, Craig Jordan will be hosting along with Dean Ray Mitchell an event Thursday evening at 6 pm in the New Research Building Auditorium to introduce Georgetown Medical students to the Royal Society of Medicine, namely the advantages of overseas fellowship for medical school graduates and student membership for medical students.
And, speaking of events, if you haven’t already I encourage you to register for the upcoming Ruesch symposium on November 30 — this year the topic is Accelerating the Cure Through Clinical Research. The program is excellent — you can find all the information here.
Finally, we will have our grandson Isaac at our house all week while his parents are out of the country at a scientific meeting in Argentina. Don’t cry for us – we love having him around – and I don’t need all that much sleep, anyway! But, if you see me carrying around a mug of coffee more frequently than usual this week, you now will know why.
Have a great week.