Mentoring For Success: Developing Fundamental Skills For Biomedical Research

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The key goal ofthis application is to increase the numbers ofunder/represented students in biomedical and behavioral research, bybroadening the opportunities to earn Ph.Ddegrees and to increase their participation in academic, research, administrative and leadership positions in our country. Northwestern University, an institution with a significantnumber of mentors with extramural research support, will attract, retain, prepare and facilitatethe transition of undergraduate and graduate students of diverse scientific and social- economic backgroundsinto postdoctoral positions in life and biomedical science. We will develop a program to increase the number of graduate students in these areas of science who have the motivation and credentials to succeed,but who lack some ofthe scientific preparation needed to successfully complete oneof the graduate programsat Northwestern University(NUIN, IGP,IBiS, BME, CBE). The strength of the program will be to design an individualized curriculum for each student during the first year in graduate school to overcomeacademicdeficiencies and to allowfor successful completion ofthe specific graduate program core courses during the second year. Courseworkwillbe complemented with a scientific skills course, research communicationskills workshops, extended research rotations, and faculty and peer facilitated tutoring and mentoring. Special emphasis willbe placed on developing hypothesis driven research proposals and on writingand presentation skills by attending specialized courses and workingwith research and communicationmentors. This will maximize the opportunities for successfulcompletion of their PhD degree, and will increase student competitiveness for external fellowships or appointment to existing training grants (T32). Finally, wewillprepare students to transition into competitivepostdoctoral research positions and to successfully participate in leadership positions beyond graduation. These goals willbe accomplished by requiring students to present their research at local and national meetings, by becoming members of and participating in the activities of scientificsocieties and by timelypublication of scientific findings. We anticipate that the success of the program willbe measured by the quality ofpeer review publications and presentations at scientific meetings, research and fellowship awards, and successful transition to postdoctoral research and leadership research positions in academia and industry in life and biomedical science areas.