 We're not done with the goodbyes, unfortunately, so it's September and that means that We're ready to graduate the council class of 2016. They've done their four years of service they've been judged to be rehabilitated and We're ready to release them back into their other life So I'm going to say a few kind words and Eric is going to hand out some lovely parting gifts To our retiring members and let's start with Joe Ecker As an executive secretary It's a pleasure to work with somebody like Joe because you can assign just about anything to Joe He's been involved in large-scale data production activities consortia science plant genetics Epigenetics gene expression and model organism database. I just throw it at Joe and he just takes it on Joe has served on a couple of really challenging and difficult review committees for me and So I've known him for a number of years before doing four years on council and I was reflecting about this last night I think despite all that work. I don't remember a single time when Joe has complained about anything And I can't tell you what a pleasure that is as an SRO or an executive secretary of council To have low maintenance reviewers. So Joe, I can truly say it's been a pleasure to work with you Howard Jacob Howard has a very Interesting perspective that he has brought to the council and it's made him a very valuable person when I first met Howard probably almost 20 years ago and He was a molecular geneticists who worked in model organisms and touted the Glories and benefits of working with the rat and I knew Howard as an applicant and as a review panel member But more recently he's done some very transformative research Medical College of Wisconsin Taking on clinical sequencing before it became the routine practice that it is now So Howard really has a foot in both camps. He's a basic scientist by background and training and More recently somebody who understands the value of clinical sequencing and that kind of balanced perspective is really Essential to have on this council. So Howard we wish you well and thank you So Bob Nussbaum Bob's been a friend of NHGRI for maybe 25 years He was one of the first faculty to be recruited and work in the intramural program He was the original Project manager of the CIDR Center for Inherited Disease Research Centralized genotyping facility. He launched that drew broad support from maybe 14 different institutes of NIH and CIDR has been a smashing success Bob Bob is somebody who is easy to trust I have a lot of faith in everything Bob says to us and my experience Bob is equally Comfortable telling you you did a great job with that and he's just as comfortable telling you you kind of screwed that up And I find that refreshing Bob I Hope I didn't just bring a lot of criticism on to myself from the rest of you But Bob has been a trusted member of this council and I remember five years ago sitting down with Eric Talking about the nominees and saying who do you want to put on the council and the first name out of his mouth was Bob Nussbaum And there was a little argument about that. So Bob, thank you So we have three other members that we're going to say goodbye to but they're going to tune in and watch this on the Archive council archive. So I'm going to say some kind words about them as well Lucila on a machado. She'll be with us tomorrow. She couldn't be here today Lucila falls under the category. I will stand by the assertion You can never have too much informatics expertise on any advisory panel And Lucila has been very valuable to us for four years She's a great advocate of training and She gently nudged us over and over again to consider expanding the training budget She stayed on council long enough to actually see that happen We are very grateful to her for that Asserting that on us. I Think as an SRO and exec sec, I've never met anybody who is so keenly attuned to Conflict of interest She's very respectful of the process and I had because Lucila is So well known and has so many collaborators. I had lots of excruciating conversations with her a parsing out the relationship between her and her collaborators and the application she's Her respect for conflict is just beyond reproach and I admire that in anyone So we thank Lucila for her four years of service and you'll have a chance to speak with her tomorrow Lon Cardin was on the phone with us earlier, but he's actually in the UK at six hours later over there He's might even be in bed at this point. So we can say anything we want to about lawn Now we can really say whatever we want I have to go to the other page for comments now Lawn is also trustworthy and dependable and you can believe anything he says again falling into that class category of low maintenance advisors Always a pleasure to work with lawn and he always brought the very interesting perspective of somebody who had been an academic researcher for a number of years and then change careers and As you all know has been working in the pharmaceutical industry That's been an important perspective for NHGRI to have his knowledge of population genetics and genetic Epidemiology been very very valuable to NHGRI as well So Lawn, thank you very much for four years of devoted service and for staying up late to stick with us to the very end And the last member who's retiring this year is arty rye. She couldn't be with us today I've known arty for almost 20 years as a peer review member As a grantee and for the last four years as a council member arty's expertise is in intellectual property and That was enhanced by a time maybe a year year and a half working in the patent and trade office so her knowledge of technology and tech transfer is exquisite and She's been a valuable member of the LC research community and a valuable member of this council and we thank arty as well I wish Too bad. She wasn't here. I've been good to have a Duke person here when Eric dishman Dolanata's rivalry chance. Yeah So I know I've said these words before or something like it, but it's no less true now than it's been in the past Serving on council is an honor and it's probably one of the more interesting things that you'll do it's also a great responsibility and We were fortunate to have a budget increase last year, but the first three years that these Council members have served here have been challenging times times of flat budgets and even budget reductions NHGRI is faced with making really difficult choices often. There is not a good or obvious choice And I admire the willingness of the council to help us to hang in there and Engage in discussions that are not easy. They're not fun and sometimes they're just downright painful so Thanks again to the six members that are leaving us and We know we'll see you again because there are workshops and consider the peer review opportunities that are now open Okay, so we're just about done with the open session The last piece of business to do is for me to read the conflict of interest statement to you and again this applies to all of the Applications that you will review in the closed session of council You must leave the room when an application submitted by your own organization is being individually discussed in the case of state higher education or other systems with multiple campuses geographically separated own Organization is intended to mean the entire system Except when a determination has been made that the components are separate organizations for the purpose of conflict of interest Determination you should avoid situations that could give rise to changes of conflict of charges of conflict of interest Whether real or apparent for example You should not participate in the deliberations and actions on any application from or involving your spouse or child a recent student recent teacher professional collaborator or with someone with whom you've had we have worked closely or have a close personal friendship or Scientists with whom you've had long-standing scientific or personal differences The NHGRI staff will determine the appropriate action based on recency Frequency and strength of such associations or interest either positive or negative and will instruct you accordingly in Council actions in which you vote on a block of applications without discussing any Individual one the so-called on block action your vote will not apply to any application from any institution Fulfilling the criteria noted above now in the yellow envelopes or folders rather You'll find two forms one is about conflict of interest and the other is disposing of confidential materials Please sign those forms and leave them on the table and we will collect them when the council meeting is over and At this point the open session is completed and you can gavel us into closure We're going to take about a ten minute break. Let them break down the Broadcasting equipment and then we'll resume with the closed session I'm going to keep people here till 6 p.m. All right you we will go into closed session now. Thanks