The Federal Employee of the Year

Dr. Steven Rosenberg is the chief of surgery at the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, where he developed life-saving treatments for cancer patients, pioneering the use of the body's immune system and genetically engineered anti-tumor cells to fight the disease. Rosenberg has been the mentor to hundreds of researchers, many of whom have gone on to discover variations of immuno-therapies to fight previously incurable cancers.

In an interview with me, Rosenberg, who is the 2015 Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal Federal Employee of the Year, spoke about seeking to help patients face great adversity, and how he motivates his staff and stays focused on the goal of saving lives. I am the vice president at the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service and head of the organization's Center for Government Leadership. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Q. What motivated you to follow a career in public service?

A. I was interested in this desperate problem of cancer. As a surgeon, I would routinely operate on patients and they would seem well, but then the tumor would come back and destroy them. I came to the National Institutes of Health because it is the world's greatest institution to perform research for patients who have problems that cannot be solved by today's medicine. I stayed at the NIH because I found it to be the ideal place in which to do solid basic science and take it to the bedside.

This post was originally featured on The Washington Post's website.