CCR SSSC Organization

 I am a Staff Scientist in the laboratory of Cellular Oncology. My research focuses on T cell immune responses in the context of viral infections and cancer development related to human papillomavirus. I also work on the development of cancer therapies and vaccines that could be deployed in low resource settings. I did my postdoc in Dr John Schiller laboratory and was recruited after my postdoc together with an increasing number of Staff Scientists across NCI. I am glad to see that the role of Staff Scientists and Staff Clinicians is becoming more appreciated as instrumental for the success of academic research. In fact, NIH has been leading the way in that aspect and the importance of more permanent scientist positions in academic labs was advocated by prominent scientists such as Bruce Alberts, Marc W. Kirschner, Shirley Tilghman and Harold Varmus in this position article published in PNAS a little less than decade ago (https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1404402111). 

During my tenure as a Staff Scientist, I have been part of the annual scientific retreat subcommittee and the professional development subcommittee. My active participation in these 2 subcommittees was manifested in the successful organization of the 2023 professional development day and the last five  annual SS/SC scientific retreats as organizer and as co-chair in 2020. With this experience, I believe that I have acquired a solid understanding of the organization and understand better the aspiration of the diverse Staff Scientist and Staff Clinicians community. 

As co-chair at the executive board, I will primarily focus on strengthening scientific animation through the existing platforms such as the scientific retreat and the brown bag seminar series. I will engage in collaboration and continuing education for Staff Scientists and Staff Clinicians. I believe that these three aspects could contribute to strengthening the position of staff scientist and Staff Clinician to achieve our professional goals and to serve the institution better. Finally, and maybe most important I will serve as a liaison between us and the NCI leadership. I am always reachable and I will be happy to relay your concerns, suggestions, or ideas.

I firmly believe that these efforts will not only strengthen the position of Staff Scientists and Staff Clinicians but also contribute to the overall success of our institution. I am committed to serving with dedication and passion, working collaboratively with fellow professionals to achieve our common goals

I joined NCI in 2002 as a post-doctoral fellow and became a Staff Scientist in 2009 in Dr. Zhenggang Liu’s lab, in the Laboratory of Immune Cell Biology. I immediately became a member of the CCR SS/SC Organizations. I became a member of the Professional Development Sub-Committee and was part developing of an alumni database. In 2016, I was elected the Chair of the Professional Development Sub-Committee and have organized the agenda for monthly meetings, bi-annual surveys, townhalls, Professional Development Day and developed a variety of workshops such as Tech Transfer for the SS/SC community. Professional Development Day is targeted to providing training to SS/SC in a variety of soft skills to enhance their careers at NCI.

As part of the Liaison Committee, I have effectively helped institutionalize a strong tradition of regular communication with the OD to meet the needs of the SS/SC community. Several SS/SC programs such as SCEP, STEP, and SS/SC Research Award were a result of this communication.

As an elected member of the Council of the NIH Assembly of Scientists (AOS), I have access to NIH-wide regulations, and have collaborated with Dr. Carl Hashimoto (Senior Advisor for Faculty Development) to improve SS/SC positions. The most recent achievement of this collaboration has been the lifting of the percentage caps on SS titles NIH-wide, thus enabling the promotion of greater numbers of SS.

I am Ravi Chalamalasetty, a Staff Scientist in the Cancer and Developmental Biology Laboratory, CCR, NCI-Frederick campus. I have been a SS from 2015 and since then, I have attended and presented my work at many annual SS/SC retreats including at virtual meeting in 2021. These meetings were super informative not only learning about fellow SS/SC’s exciting work but also provided much needed information about Quad Reviews and other professional development initiatives by the SS/SC committee members. I recently attended SS/SC Professional development day in Oct 2023 and learned about exciting opportunities to develop professionally. When I learned about the open position for Frederick co-chair position from my website committee Chair, I was excited to apply for the leadership opportunity to contribute and serve the SS/SC community. For many years, I was part of SS/SC Website Committee helping in the maintenance of SSSC website. Specifically, I played a key role in organizing and updating Peer-to-Peer Mentoring Program (PPMP) webpage. Additionally, I also served on the SS/SC Retreat committee, working within the Agenda Team to draft invitation letters for distinguished speakers.

If elected as co-chair, I am enthusiastically looking forward to collaborating with other Board members to further enhance the visibility of the SS/SC organization and educate fellow staff scientists about the available resources, fostering new connections, facilitating new collaborations, thereby collectively advancing the success of our community.

I have been a staff scientist in Dr. Shuo Gu’s lab in RNA Biology Laboratory since April 2020. In the past two years, I have attended all meetings organized by SS/SC, including the SS/SC annual retreat, CCR SS/SC annual meeting, and the Professional Development Day. I wanted to connect with more fellow staff scientists and serve the SS/SC community, so I requested to join two sub-committee immediately after I learned about the opportunities in February 2021. 

I attended the latest CCR SS/SC annual meeting on September 20th, 2022. I appreciated all the committee members, especially the co-chairs making efforts to organize such an informative meeting, so new staff scientists could benefit from it. It made me even more interested in becoming a member of the committee. I’m proud that I’m a member of the SS/SC professional development sub-committee and SS/SC annual retreat sub-committee.  

I’m enthusiastic about contributing to the SS/SC community. I will establish networking with more fellow staff scientists and improve communication and leadership skills by serving the community. Therefore, I would like to nominate myself to be the co-chair of SS/SC for the Frederick campus for the years to come.