SOMAS: Support of Mentors and their Students in the Neurosciences

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This project aims to enhance the recruitment and retention of students in the sciences, by developing a summer research program in the neurosciences for undergraduate students wherein junior faculty members and participating students receive intensive mentoring. The faculty members are being mentored in launching and maintaining a teaching/research career at a predominantly undergraduate institution. The undergraduate students are being mentored in conducting research as well as the steps involved in applying to graduate school. Ethics in research will be central feature of the training. The thread weaving the experiences of the participants together is the intensive mentorship that will be provided throughout the project. Junior faculty from across the United States are invited to submit applications to obtain summer research support for undergraduate students who spend 10 weeks collaborating with the faculty member on projects of common interest. Faculty members with little experience in grant-writing and who are just beginning their research programs as well as those from institutions serving women and minority groups that are underrepresented in the sciences are particularly encouraged to apply. The faculty mentors and their students receive travel support to attend the joint Annual Meetings of the Society for Neuroscience and the Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience (FUN), where they participate in the Professional Survival Skills and Ethics Workshop, or other workshops that seek to help faculty develop grant-writing skills. The students present their research findings at the FUN Poster Session held jointly with the Society for Neuroscience Meeting, and attend Survival Skills Workshop sessions that provide them with tips on applying to graduate school as well as what to expect after enrolling as a graduate student. The SOMAS Program aims to serve as a model for other summer research programs that have traditionally focused on the undergraduate student. In the long term, preparing junior faculty to integrate teaching and research at predominantly undergraduate institutions amplifies the impact of the program because it influences SOMAS Faculty Awardees throughout their careers. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of the neurosciences, the SOMAS Program has the potential to influence departments as wide-ranging as biology, psychology, chemistry, mathematics, and computer science at predominantly undergraduate institutions.