Division of Intramural Research holds first annual Orloff Science Awards

Office of the Director - February 10, 2012

Dr. Martha Vaughn and Dr. Edward Korn (center) joined NHLBI Acting Director Dr. Susan Shurin (left) and DIR Scientific Director Dr. Bob Balaban (right) at the first annual Orloff Science Awards ceremony in Lipsett Amphitheater on Jan. 20, 2012.

The NHLBI Division of Intramural Research (DIR) honored eight research labs, as well as members of the Clinical Investigators Working Group (CIWG) and the Proteomics Research Core, at the inaugural Orloff Science Awards in the NIH's Lipsett Amphitheater on Jan. 20.

In total, more than 100 DIR team members, including technicians, postdocs, administrative and support staff, were recognized for their efforts and accomplishments. The leaders of the research labs included Drs. Manfred Boehm, Cynthia Dunbar, John Hammer, Warren Leonard, Stewart Levine, Joel Moss, Michael Sack, and Clare Waterman. Dr. Minoo Battiwala led the CIWG, and Dr. Marjan Gucek led the Proteomics Core.

These teams where recognized for their outstanding scientific contributions over the past year, which included topics on the basic mechanisms of cell adhesion and metabolism, stem cell biology, and new clinical insights and treatments.

The awards are named in honor of Jack Orloff, a longtime member of the NHLBI intramural family and scientific director from 1974-1988. Dr. Orloff’s wife, Dr. Martha Vaughn; past DIR Scientific Director Dr. Edward Korn; and NIH Deputy Director for Intramural Research Dr. Michael Gottesman attended the ceremony.

The NHLBI developed these annual awards with two goals in mind. First, they provide a platform to recognize the outstanding research teams whose projects came to fruition in the last year. Second, the ceremony serves as a "state of the union" review of the DIR, including new and current staffing, destination of trainees, scientific publications, external commentaries on the DIR accomplishments, and highlights of the clinical research program. Of special note were the scientific contributions of the DIR principal investigators, who published over 400 papers and whose work was cited by others over 30,000 times.

"With these new awards, NHLBI DIR can now recognize the entire team responsible for our research contributions as well as get an overview of who we are and what we have accomplished at the end of each year," said current DIR Scientific Director Dr. Robert S. Balaban.

NIH staff can view the full videocast of the ceremony at: http://videocast.nih.gov/Summary.asp?File=17066

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