The Annual Meeting of the Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH) program, sponsored by ORWH, was held on October 1, 2024, at the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland. BIRCWH is an institutional, mentored career-development program designed to bring together mentors, early-career investigators, and leaders in the field for a day of engaging presentations. This year’s BIRCWH Scholars presented innovative research on topics such as genome-wide associations, gene expression, military sexual trauma, and placental programming of infant health. The posters highlighting the 2024 BIRCWH Scholar abstracts are available to explore on the 2024 BIRCWH Annual meeting event page.
Keynote speaker, Abbey Berenson, M.D., M.M.S., Ph.D., Professor, Departments of Obstetrics/Gynecology and Pediatrics, and Director, University of Texas Medical Branch Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Women’s Health, delivered the Ruth L. Kirschstein Memorial Lecture. In a talk titled “Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: Ruth L. Kirschstein, ORWH, and the BIRCWH Initiative,” Dr. Berenson emphasized that, “We stand on the shoulders of these giants—we cannot forget that their heroic efforts have given you the tools and resources to make major advances in women's health research and to become the leaders of tomorrow!”
Capstone speaker Nina Schor, M.D., Ph.D., NIH Deputy Director for Intramural Research, delivered the Legacy of Leadership Lecture speech titled “Development is Forever: A Career in Science and Medicine.” Dr. Schor’s lecture detailed many lessons learned throughout her extensive career. She ended her lecture with a few take-home lessons. First, science and art are two sides of the same coin, and researchers should not be afraid to mix them. Second, structure and function are key—if you figure out one, you can use them both to cure human disease. And lastly, legacy is everything. She stated, “If you honor what is good in the past and fuel what is happening in the future, you will bring meaning and substance to the present.”