Today is Bob's 63rd birthday. This is when I usually focus on celebrating Bob and his legacy. I often post about the Robert C. Millikan Cancer Epidemiology Seminar and the latest awardee of the Robert C. Millikan Cancer Epidemiology Award. But this year, everything is upside down. The Millikan Seminar was canceled due to COVID-19, so I did not make my annual trip to Chapel Hill, NC. I struggle to know what to write.

A question we keep asking within our family is, "What would Bob say?" Bob's scientific knowledge was something we relied on. So was his compassion and humor. Bob was a great person to talk with. He cared deeply about humanity, social justice, and the land. His office was full of quotes and sayings taped haphazardly to the wall. Sometimes if I was going through hard times, he would send me poems, including ones he wrote. 

In that spirit, I want to share with you a video of a piece of mine, Choro, that was Covid-canceled just days before its premiere. I hope it brings you cheer in these difficult times.

Happy Birthday, my dear brother, Bob.

Today is Bob's 61st birthday. It's hard to believe a year has passed since we celebrated the release of MILLIKAN SYMPHONY on Innova Recordings. The CD is receiving great reviews and international radio play, and more people are learning about Bob and his rich life. If you haven't already, check it out here! I continue to be incredibly grateful to all of the Supporters who made the CD, and the creation of MILLIKAN SYMPHONY, possible. Here's a video from the CD-Release Concert in Chapel Hill, with Jennifer Curtis performing the 4th movement of the symphony with chamber orchestra.

Bob was notorious for avoiding cameras. I took this picture of him up at the boathouse in the winter of 1999 and its still one of my favorites. I miss him every day. I don't expect that will ever change. Happy Birthday dear brother.

On August 24, 2017, Bob’s 60th birthday, we celebrated the CD-Release of MILLIKAN SYMPHONY! At the event we also made a special public announcement. Here are (transcribed) comments that my brother Brent gave:

“When Bob passed away, we were thinking together as a family, and with people in the Department of Epidemiology at the Gillings School of Global Public Health, about ways to honor his legacy, and also further his work at UNC.”

“One of the things that came very strongly to all of us was that while at the same time Bob had a very brilliant scientific mind and very amazing intellect, he also had an incredible way of working in a very supportive and warm way with people. Whether that was in doing research in breast cancer or in melanoma, or in his other relations here on campus like working with the crew team. When thinking about ways to honor his legacy, that really came to mind.”

“And in that context, the idea came to us of creating an endowment fund: The Robert Craft Millikan Cancer Epidemiology Fund & Award. Our thought was to focus in a way that could really have the most impact, in ways that maybe were the most meaningful for Bob.”

“And in that sense we thought supporting young researchers could be a really good way to do that. Bob had so many amazing relationships with young students, people he worked with, people he mentored, and that really came out after he passed away. There was such an outpouring of appreciation for him. And that really struck us as a way that would make a lot of sense.”

“So working together with Andy Olshan and also Sterling Frierson from the Gillings School, we came up with the idea of having an annual Award that would be given to an outstanding graduate student, who has really done outstanding research, that is working on their dissertation, and where that Award could make an important contribution to their ongoing research, and to their careers.”

​We are pleased to announce the first recipient of The Robert C. Millikan Cancer Epidemiology Award: Nicole Niehoff. With an impressive résumé of research, publications, and service, we are grateful to Andy Olshan and the Department of Epidemiology for selecting such an outstanding student. I had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Niehoff last fall at the annual Robert C. Millikan Cancer Epidemiology Seminar when the award was announced. 

Nikki, as she is known, is a 4th year cancer epidemiology PhD student who also received her MSPH in Epidemiology at UNC during her first two years in the program. Her Master’s paper was, “Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and postmenopausal breast cancer: an evaluation of effect measure modification by body mass index and weight change”.

She is currently working on her dissertation. Her topic is, “Single and multipollutant air toxics in association with breast cancer risk and telomere length”. In her research she is “examining the impact of hazardous air toxics exposure on breast cancer risk and whether there are certain subgroups of women most susceptible to the effects of those pollutants”.

Congratulations to Ms. Niehoff upon receiving this Award! We wish her all the very best in her career and celebrate her “commitment to further understanding the etiology of breast cancer”.