 So, we added something to the open session agenda reflecting development, I guess I would say, the story began actually earlier this summer when Jeff made an appointment to come see me and he proceeded to ruin my day, in fact he certainly ruined my month, I might even contend he ruined my summer. He informed me that he planned to do something he was completely entitled to do and that had us to retire and to retire in January of, he said 2017 I kept pleading for 2020 but he won and so it is 2017. So in January Jeff will be retiring and needless to say he's a true NHRI giant and he will leave behind a remarkable legacy of accomplishment. So this is his last council meeting which is why we decided to add this to the open session to sort of be able to give a chance for me to say some things, importantly for Jeff to be able to say some things. So I'm going to give this introduction and then Jeff is going to give some reflections on some of the work that he has done at NHRI and I'm sure particularly focused around the technology development program which has his fingerprints all over. So my objectives for this introduction are also two-fold, one I want to, why is this just not advanced? Do you have to use this? There we go, you have to use this. So first thing the objective of this is for the introduction is for me to thank a true NHRI and genomics legend but the second thing of course is to find as many embarrassing photos of Jeff as we could. So I'll ask to inhibit future retirements of outstanding NHRI leaders because they know that if they retire on me I'm going to embarrass them in an open session of council. So it's a new tradition we're going to start. So and remember we collect everything at NHRI including lots of photos and so but before I get to that let me give some just general bio details about Jeff if you don't know his full history. He got his bachelor's degree from Case Western University in 1973, he got his PhD in cell biology from Carnegie Mellon University in 1979. He then did a postdoc at Yale University through 1984 and then he joined the faculty at University of Kentucky. His research and training in early faculty research examined the regulation of mRNA abundance control and mammalian non-muscle cell motility. In 1999, 1992 was pivotal for NHRI because we recruited him from the University of Kentucky to what was then the NCHCR actually it was Jane Peterson who actually was instrumental in bringing him here because she needed somebody to help manage the genome sequencing or really it was the genome centers program at that stage was very early in the days of the human genome project. And that was a stage remember the centers were just building physical and genetic maps of human model organism genomes and I'm told from our historical legacy data that he considered him Jeff considered himself a cell biologist and in his usual very modest way he thought the move to genomics and to extramural administration would be a stretch for him just but it once again illustrated how flexible and nimble he actually was because he took to the opportunity quite well. It didn't take long so he arrived in 1992 it didn't take long before it was recognized that Jeff was going to have a lot to contribute to the Institute. So 1992 he arrived and you can see by 1993 he was already winning one of many awards. This one might have been related to his choice of sweater we're not quite sure but he won something from Jane Peterson one year after having arrived wasn't very surprising a year later he won yet a different award this time he knew to wear a tie to the award ceremony. 1996 two years later Jeff was asked to take the leadership of the DNA sequencing technology development program at the Institute and the rest is history when you really think about it. He skillfully I think about the timing of that 1996 skillfully managed a diverse portfolio of grants across a range of nucleic acids related technologies what would eventually become the thousand dollar genome program in fact I would contend the name Jeff Schloss is largely synonymous with the thousand dollar genome program. I think you all know that program has resulted in a reduction in DNA sequencing cost by nearly a million fold in addition to catalyzing an entire industry built around genome sequencing including clinical diagnostics. Obviously Jeff didn't do all that himself but he led NHGRI's program and I think the fact that our program contributed so much to that important technology development surge obviously also including the private sector but without any question Jeff deserves remarkable accolades for that I didn't start that program and so it's really easy for me to brag about it and I actually have probably had very little to do with it because Jeff was already ably leading it when I became director so I always make the point that in my opinion I think this technology development program that Jeff has led for all these years is arguably the most successful technology development program in the history of NIH and I'd be happy to argue with anyone who doesn't agree with that. But needless to say I think even during this remarkably intense period and it was obviously very intense to imagine being at the helm of that important period Jeff actually seemed to enjoy himself quite a bit you know and you can hear he once again he's dressed up as a human microarray and the early 2000s we didn't know exactly what date this was. Here you can see by 2003 he was there drinking and celebrating the end of the human genome project looking like this was about his eighth glass of wine by my assessment and then even enjoying New Year's and able to smile on New Year's of 2006 so he seems to celebrate a lot. During this time not only was he at the helm of the thousand dollar genome technology development program he had actually took on other responsibilities as well let me list a few of these. He coordinate and has been coordinating the Centers of Excellence in Genomic Science program. He worked at the early days in particularly the human microbiome project. He's also recognized across the NIH we couldn't keep him a secret so Ilya Serhouni the former NIH director for example when he was starting the NIH roadmap program he asked Jeff to serve as one of the two co-chairs of the nano medicine working group. By the way Jeff was the only non-institute center director to be a co-chair of one of those working groups and he also served as the NIH representative to the federal working group for the National Nanotechnology Initiative and finally he was the founding member and chair of the NIH Bioengineering Consortium or Beacon. But of course then there were transition not only to have those responsibilities shortly after I became director there were transitions in terms of some of the senior leaders of the extramural program at the party. This is actually a picture taken at Mark Eyre and Jane Peterson's retirement party. I don't think he was smiling because he was happy they were leaving he was just smiling because he's always seems to be smiling in all these pictures but once again I think it was one of these examples of his modesty that when I started to put together a new leadership team pending retirements a lot of reorganization of the institute I turned to Jeff and and asked him would he be interested in assuming a greater leadership role really having mostly just looked after his program not having run a division or have been a supervisor of many people and he once again modestly thought this was going to be a big stretch for him but it actually really wasn't he actually became a division director I think fell into this role remarkably and slid into it remarkably well and and again I had done a terrific job I think in being the first director of the division of genome sciences. Lots and lots of recognition throughout all this I already mentioned some of it in the early days he's won the NHGRI individual merit award at least ten times we stopped counting I'm told in 2014 so it may have been more than ten he's won the NIH director's award six times in 2012 he was a finalist for the service to America Awards Sammy Awards which I've talked about which is a very high honor to even be considered seriously for one of those awards in federal service which is a word given out by the Partnership for Public Service. I told counsel about this and I'll just tell the story again for those who don't remember it and I'm on the program committee for the AGBT meeting every year that this case in Marco Island and Jeff Humbly in night in 2014 Jeff Humbly submitted an abstract just for consideration as a poster or maybe a concurrent talk and I when everyone involves anybody from NHRI I get very quiet on the phone calls that decide which abstracts are going to get selected for talks I just let the conversation of the other program committee members proceed and they looked at this abstract and we got to consider and they said this is ridiculous Jeff should not only be giving a talk we should have Jeff come tell us about the thousand dollar genome program and the technology development program in NHGRI so they elevated him for the only time it's ever happened in this meeting from an abstract to basically a keynote talk and this is Jeff giving basically this opening keynote talk in the in the premiere session of that meeting every year which is the technology session where I think he's going to he gave a talk sort of his views of what the technology elements of success associated with the technology development program I think that's some of the same things I'm hoping he's going to talk about when I'm done here but that was a great honor and it was a very well received talk at that meeting and then in 2015 the Institute actually nominated him to receive one of the highest level awards you can get and that is the Department of Health and Human Services career achievement award and indeed he was selected for that and there he is receiving the award from Secretary Burwell. So that's my mix of embarrassing photos but hopefully very genuine accolades. So I guess I would just close before I turn this over to Jeff to hear his remarks on a talk that he entitled something very funky and he's going to have to explain why he entitled the talk the way he did. Let me just say a bazillion thanks. I give those thanks just personally for myself for everything Jeff has contributed in helping me as the director and prior to that to being a great colleague across the Institute and I've known I've known him since he arrived here and I've always enjoyed interacting with him and I very much have enjoyed having him part of the leadership team. I know NHGRI wants to thank him for all of his contributions since his arrival in 1992. In reality you can tell NIH wants to thank him for all the things he's contributed to NIH but probably most importantly the genomics community and the entire biomedical research community wants to thank him because of all he has contributed and it is a very impressive contributions in technology development program here at NHGRI. So with that Jeff I hope I've embarrassed you enough. You can come up now and tell us what you want to share with us. Thank you. Well thanks Eric.