Dr. Joey Barnett is a Professor and Acting Chair at
Vanderbilt University Medical Center and director of the National Directors of
Graduate Studies (NDGS) association. NDGS is an informal group of graduate
program directors. In speaking with Dr. Barnett, I could tell he is passionate
about ensuring predoctoral pharmacology and physiology students have the best
possible experiences in the US. The NDGS meets every other year to assess the
current state of pharmacology and physiology graduate programs in the US and
make recommendations for improvement.
Dr. Barnett will be giving a talk Tuesday morning at 9:30 am at Experimental Biology (4/23/13)* on
PhD Training in the US, where he will present graduate training models and best
practices. Several areas will be addressed: 1) communication about career
opportunities between mentors and trainees, 2) the importance of careers “away
from the bench”, 3) trainee responsibilities for their career development, and 4)
the PhD-postdoc-career process as a continuum of training.
Communication with
trainees about career opportunities. It is imperative for graduate programs
and graduate student advisors to communicate with their trainees about careers.
Doing so requires that mentors learn about the opportunities available for
their students but doesn’t mean they need to be experts in each area (examples:
policy, communication, industry). Connecting students with people already
working in those areas is a great way! Advisors
can can cast a net in their networking pool and find people working in the fields
their students are interested in. The
NDGS is also a resource for advisors to help connect students.
Scientists who choose
careers away from the bench are just as important as scientists who stay at the
bench. Communicating science to non-scientists, for example, is vital for
continuation of science funding. Scientists at the bench, , work long hours and
often have difficulty finding time to reach out to the public paying for their
salary, equipment, and supplies. This means that science communicators, such as
science journalists, are the main conduit for bringing scientific research to
the public. Science policy is also important: Congresspersons are not able to
be experts in every single area that laws and policies are based on. They depend
on scientists to distill the message for them so they are well-informed to make
important decisions.
The process leading
to a career in science should be thought of as a continuum rather than discrete
points. Dr. Barnett believes that we could do better in continuing training
of scientists past the predoctoral stage. In medical programs, trainees are
required to work in several specialty areas before they come to their final
choice. For scientists, the postdoc experience is almost exclusively
research-based… which is great if the postdoc is planning to continue
performing research. However, there are many other career options available for
scientists, and research-based positions are becoming highly competitive.
Instead of solely performing research as a postdoc, the positions could be more
flexible and allow the trainees to branch out. An example of this is the IRACDA
NIGMS program (K12). IRACDA stands for Institutional Research and Career
Development Awards and is a grant program in the National Institute of General
Medical Sciences (NIGMS) branch of the National Institute of Health (NIH). (Is that enough acronyms for you for today? Me
too.) There are currently participating universities in 15 states but the list
is expected to grow in coming years.
In the IRACDA program, postdocs spend 70% of their time
performing research and 30% focusing on learning how to teach. In the first
year of their postdoc, they use the 30% time to take courses in education
theory. In year 2, they teach part of a course, possibly in combination with
other student teachers. In year 3, they have the opportunity to develop and teach
an entire course on their own. The experience gives awardees a huge leg up when
applying for teaching positions. Focusing the postdoc position in this way
would strengthen the skill sets needed for future careers.
Trainees are
responsible for their own career development. It’s true, trainees need to
grab life by the horns and seek out as much career information as possible. Up
to the PhD point, there is a lot of hand holding in career development: in high
school, there are interest and skill assessments to help match students to the
right career for them, and at university there is the opportunity to take
additional assessments which also take personality into account. When beginning
a PhD program, the department should bring in speakers to talk about career
options but the decision is ultimately the trainees’ so they need to be active
in the process. We live in the information age so Google it up! Want a job in
industry? Want to know what in the world a career in science policy would look
like? It’s all there! And don’t forget your advisor and faculty members, they
have large networking pools and can help connect you to people in other careers
to help you decide if it’s for you. Sometimes students are worried to tell
their advisor that they don’t want to follow in their footsteps and become a
research-based scientist but they won’t shrivel with disappointment. They may
see the potential for you to be a great researcher but their number one
priority is for you to be happy.
The session Tuesday morning promises to be informative and
exciting! There will be presentations by Dr. Goulding about PhD education in
the UK as well as information regarding the ORPHEUS initiative by Dr. Mulvany.
I know I said no more acronyms but, well, I lied. ORPHEUS is the ORganization
of PhD Education in Biomedicine and Health Sciences in the EUropean System.
ORPHEUS was created to help standardize PhD education across countries and
universities after the European Union was formed. The last speaker will be Dr.
Poundry from the NIGMS at NIH giving the future needs for PhD training from the
funder’s perspective.
Please join them for what will be a great session!
*394. Pharmacology
Education Division: The Future of PhD Education in Biomedicine: U.S. and
European Perspectives
Discipline:
Pharmacology/Experimental Therapeutics
Symposium
Tuesday
April 23, 2013
9:30
AM-12:00 PM Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel, Grand Ballroom E
Chair: J.A.
Mitchell
Track:
(Across Societies) Education
9:30
AM PhD training in the USA: present and
future. J. V. Barnett. Vanderbilt
Univ. Med. Ctr.
10:00
AM PhD education in the U.K.: why
change? N. J. Goulding. Barts and The London Sch. of
Med. and Dent.
10:30
AM Standards of PhD education: the ORPHEUS
perspective. M. J. Mulvany. Aarhus Univ. Grad. Sch.
of Hlth. Sci., Denmark
11:00
AM Research funder perspective: PhD graduate
attributes – future needs. C. A. Poudry. NIGMS, NIH
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