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Mark Guyer: -- failed to -- miserably failed to do that
this morning. I guess it's up to me.
So, as you heard, Eric said that Jane is going to Colorado to become a skiing grandmother
and for some other reason. I can't remember what it was.
[laughter]
I couldn't resist showing this slide. Oops, wrong computer. This is Jane. This was taken
several years ago just after Jane's knee was demolished by a snowboarder. Was it here or
in Colorado?
Jane Peterson: Utah.
Mark Guyer: In Utah. And it just so happened that Maggie
Bartlett of our communications office was right there to take pictures of the event.
So we have it recorded --
Jane Peterson: She promised never to show it.
Male Speaker: She broke that.
[laughter]
Mark Guyer: Well, she's not -- as I said, Maggie happened
to be right there. I was actually going to say fortuitously Maggie was there, but I don't
know if Jane would agree with that. [laughs]
But there's actually a serious point that I want to make from this slide. Jane seems
to be accident prone, and a few years later, she was in another accident where she broke
her ankle. And that one happened to be just before the first meeting of the H3Africa consortium.
Jane -- this is the first meeting in Addis Ababa. So Jane decided that with her broken
ankle, and against the advice of her doctors, her family, and everybody else, she decided
she would go to Addis and not let a mere inability to walk stop her. So, she managed to use mechanically
-- this is a device she was using to scoot around to get herself to Addis. And the effect
was that attendees at the meeting, who had just been funded by NIH, mostly for the first
time, who were not used to NIH grants administrators and so forth, were incredibly impressed that
she would make the effort in spite of not being able to walk. And found that it really
showed her dedication to the project.
And they were right. I think commitment and dedication have been the hallmark of Jane's
career with NHGRI, OHGRI, NCHGR -- whatever it was at the time. She has been involved
in a number of projects, sequencing -- his is from the Bermuda meeting -- Human Microbiome
Project, some H3Africa stuff. I know it's a little hard to see her in there, so I hope
that helps.
[laughter]
I point this one out in particular because if you look at the picture, you can -- all
you can see is her hair because she's blocked by Jim Watson's hat.
Another thing, another contribution -- major contribution that Jane has made to NHGRI,
which I don't think is as well known, is that she's the person who started the program analyst
program. And we've been very fortunate over the years to have -- since 1992, actually,
to have a group of really enthusiastic and talented young people who come to NHGRI right
out of college, have spent two years, more or less, here, some a little less, some a
little longer, and then they've gone on to medical school, or graduate school, or law
school, or, in a couple of cases, have made NHGRI their career. Now -- and I think this
is one of Jane's big legacies to us.
So I know -- just to finish up -- I know you all are wondering how someone so young as
Jane is ready to retire, and the answer is that she was very young when she started at
NHGRI.
[laughter]
Embarrassing enough?
So, just want to thank Jane for everything she's done for NHGRI, and give her one last
chance to correct all the embarrassing things that have been said about her.
[applause]