PREDOCTORAL TRAINING IN NEUROBIOLOGY AND BEHAVIOR

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The university-wide predoctoral training program in neurobiology and behavior at the State University of New York Stony Brook is designed to provide broad training opportunities for students interested in careers in the neurosciences. Students can enter from their undergraduate training or through the M.D.-Ph.D. Program. Several students from underrepresented minorities have entered the program and have graduated or are making good progress. Trainees benefit from program breadth in several ways. In the initial 2 years they take a very broad neuroscience course organized by function (vision, motion) rather than by traditional discipline (physiology, anatomy). During these initial years they can sample a wide variety of research laboratories including molecular neurobiology, cellular neurobiology, developmental neurobiology, systems neurobiology and behavioral neuroscience. After choosing one of these laboratories for their thesis research, they are encouraged to collaborate as required with other laboratories using techniques that are not available in their thesis laboratory. Throughout their period of residence their program is enriched with an active seminar program, journal clubs, a yearly retreat, a course in oral presentation of data and a course in scientific ethics. Although a major aim of the program is to train students to do independent research, all students must serve as teaching assistants in undergraduate biology for 2 semesters providing them with valuable training in teaching which increases their desirability for positions in 4-year colleges. In order to carry out this training the program has assembled a training faculty of about 40 representing the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior and 7 different departments at Stony Brook. A recent addition to the Program faculty is the Neuroscience Group at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories. Facilities for carrying out research training are available through the participating laboratories as well as centralized facilities maintained through departments associated with the program as well as more centrally through the University. Students have published their research in journals among which are Nature, Cell, Neuron, and Journal of Neuroscience. In addition, the Program has succeeded in placing its graduates in excellent postdoctoral positions and several have obtained independent faculty positions in universities, medical schools or colleges. The stipends from the training grant are to be used mainly to support students during the initial years of didactic training.