SILVER SPRING, Md. – Staff of Naval Medical Research Center (NMRC) hosted an 80th birthday celebration to recognize the past accomplishments and future mission of the command on Oct. 27.

The celebration capped off NMRC’s Commander Leadership Conference, a three-day gathering of staff from across the Naval Medical Research & Development enterprise to review ongoing work, and to make strategic decisions for the year ahead.

The event featured remarks from Capt. William Deniston, commander, NMRC, leadership from across the enterprise’s worldwide commands and Rear Adm. Bruce Gillingham, Navy surgeon general and chief, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery.

Throughout the conference, and during the birthday event, NMRC emphasized a theme of “Looking back, focusing forward.”

“We are launching a new era of support,” Deniston said, addressing visitors and enterprise staff. “One in which our support to and focus on the fleet and Marine force is more apparent.”

Along with the history of NMRC, speakers highlighted past and recent accomplishments of the worldwide commands.

“It’s not easy to summarize 80 years of research and development,” said Capt. Abigail Yablonsky, deputy commander, NMRC. “There are countless examples of what research has done to improve the lives of our warfighters and their families. We are evolving all the time – the research we do now is not the research we did in the past, and the research we will do in the future is going to look entirely different from the research of today. We’re constantly adapting to new environments, new threats, and new technology.”



The National Museum of Health and Medicine also contributed a display of historical items representing work from NMRC’s history.

The enterprise, led by NMRC, consists of Naval Health Research Center, Naval Submarine Medical Research Laboratory, Naval Medical Research Unit (NAMRU)-Dayton, NAMRU-San Antonio, NAMRU-2, NAMRU-3 and NAMRU-6.

NMRC is engaged in a broad spectrum of activity from basic science in the laboratory to field studies in austere and remote areas of the world to investigations in operational environments. In support of the Navy, Marine Corps, and joint U.S. warfighters, researchers study infectious diseases, biological warfare detection and defense, combat casualty care, environmental health concerns, aerospace and undersea medicine, medical modeling, simulation, operational mission support, epidemiology, and behavioral sciences.