Abstract PP01-01: A funny thing happened to me while trying to cure ovarian cancer; I became a cancer prevention research specialist

First, I want to thank Dr. Marge Foti and the AACR Administration and Members for continuing to provide such an outstanding forum for research presentations, education and training. My AACR Membership # is 28, so you can intuit that I am as, "old as the hills." I started my working career as a summer concrete finisher in Milwaukee in 1960, earning $2.50 an hour. In May, 1962 just as was to start my 3rd "tour" on a concrete team, I received a call from my first cousin, Dr. Bruce Alberts, a Harvard biophysicist (who later in life became President of the National Academy of Science, and the Editor in Chief of the Journal, SCIENCE), offering me a research specialist position in Harvard's Conant Labs, studying how DNA strands anneal after replication. I, of course said, "No thank you, " because this Harvard summer position only paid the minimum wage of $1/ hour. But then, I scratched my head, and thought, maybe this opportunity would lead to a career in scientific research? The summers of 1962 and 1963 were the key that truly opened my mind to a lifetime career in translational research. I worked with Helga and Paul Doty, down the hall from cousin, Bruce, and one floor above James Watson!So, LESSON # 1: Take advantage of every opportunity to "learn "throughout your academic career, no matter what the personal sacrifice.In the "Cold/Ice Cold" Madison, Wisconsin Winter of 1966/ 1967, while completing an internal medicine and surgical internship, I earned $3,000 and was "buttonholed"...
Source: Cancer Prevention Research - Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Tags: Other Topics in Behavioral and Social Science: Oral Presentations - Invited Abstracts Source Type: research