Career Development Course for Postdocs

Jan - June 2008

1.  Communication Skills - Fred Pereira
Jan 7 4:00	Scientific Writing I – Critical writing and manuscript preparation.	N315	Content	Choosing a Journal; Defining the Question and the Answer; Parts of a Scientific Manuscript (title, authorship, abstract, introduction, materials and methods).	Susan Marriott
Jan 14 4:00	Scientific Writing II – Reviewers, revisions, and responding to critiques.	M112	Content	Parts of a Scientific Manuscript (Results, Figures and Tables; Discussion), Continuity of the Parts; Considerations for clear and effective writing	Susan Marriott
Jan 28 4:00	Oral Presentations	N315	Content	Knowing your audience, length of talk and speaking at the appropriate level; Organizing your presentation, effective illustration and use of slides/transitions; Effective presentation style and use of aids to emphasize important points; Introducing topics and concepts, clarity of speech and effective use of jargon; Acknowledgements and referencing; Answering questions and defending your work.	Gayle Slaughter
Feb 4 4:00	Posters	N315	Content	Understanding the elements of a poster (title, authorship, abstract, methods, experimental data, conclusions, references); Organizing the layout, effective illustration and use of figures and tables to attract interest; Effective presentation style and use of aids to emphasize important points, clarity of speech and effective use of jargon; Answering questions and defending your work.	Fred Pereira
Feb 11 4:00	Critical Reading and Evaluating Scientific and Medical Literature	M112	Content	Philosophy of the scientific inquiry and literature; Strategies of reading, sources of literature and pitfalls; Evaluating the experimental approach, support of data for the conclusions, unique contribution and interpreting the scientific impact and significance.	Fred Pereira

2.  Ethics

				NIH Topic
Feb 25 - 4:00	Scientific Misconduct	McMillian	Content	1 required	Definitions- Falsification, fabrication, plagiarism ; policies of the College, allegations, inquiries, investigations, penalties	H. F. Gilbert
Feb 25 5:00	Situational Ethics	McMillian	Content	1a - elective	Case studies and discussion of scientific misconduct in the laboratory	H. F. Gilbert
Feb 26 4:00	Experiments with Humans	McMillian	Content	8 required	definition of research with human subjects, experiments with human material, confidentiality of medical data, experiments involving humans, informed consent, the role of the IRB	Stacey Berg
Feb 26 5:00	Data management and ownership	McMillian	Content	4 required	Keeping a laboratory notebook, maintaining other records/computer files, ownership of scientific materials/data, sharing results and reagents	Gayle Slaughter
Feb 27 4:00	Authorship and peer review	McMillian	Content	3 & 5 required	should be an author?, responsibilities of an author, manuscript review systems, responsibilities of a reviewer, dealing with criticism	Bill Brinkley
Feb 27 5:00	Experiments with Animals	McMillian	Content	7 required	when can animals be used ethically in research, avoiding unnecessary pain/suffering and euthanasia, appropriate selection of numbers/types of animals in research, animal use approval	Lloyd Michael
Feb 28 4:30	Data Analysis and Error	McMillian	Content	1b elective	Experimental measurements and error, replication of experiments, influence of statistics on experimental design, how errors affect your conclusions, statistical significance, correlations, when is it ethical to ignore some experiments	Gil Gilbert
Feb 28 5:30	Plagiarism and Conflicts of Interest	McMillian	Content	2 & 6 required	Plagiarism (definition and examples), attributing credit to others, financial conflicts of interest, conflicts of interest in peer review, plagiarism and computers, copyright, acceptable use policies of the Colleg	Gayle Slaughter

3.  Leadership/Management - Kim Worley
March 3 12:00 pm		Time and Management Tips	M112			Content			Set goals with the big picture in mind; conceptualize problems to communicate better; focus on outcomes; change will happen – maximize opportunities, minimize risk.  Be accountable for time, effort, money and space; don’t procrastinate; base decisions on facts; read email when you will deal with it; don’t duplicate effort - do it right the first time; put most pressing item at the top of the agenda.  Communicate; listen; develop tolerance for ambiguity; use humor; hire people smarter than yourself; foster group cohesiveness; delegate.	Ralph Feigin,
March 10 4:00		Technology Transfer	M112			Content1 Content2			Academic technology transfer, BCMT as example.  The outside legal council perspective on IP, including contractual pitfalls, inventorship complications, strategic patent application, FDA regulations, communicating to investors, financial planning, balancing your limitations with mentorship, and planning an exit strategy.	Tamsen Valoir & Terese Rakow
March 17 4:00		Conflict Resolution	N315			Content			Sources of conflict, conflict styles, recognize common goals, underlying interests and negotiate consensus or win/win rather than win/lose.  Effective personnel skills – kindergarten skills (share, play fair, don’t hit, clean up, tell the truth, respect other’s property, apologize), paint vision, clear expectations, communicate, hire better than yourself, nurture team, involve people to solve problems, reward and recognize, know your strengths.	Scott Basinger
Mar 24 4:00		Collaborations	N315			Content1 Content2			Meeting people, networking, identifying common interests and parallel goals, defining areas of contribution.  Interdisciplinary team building - bringing together different types of expertise, e.g. development of BC program.  Organizational structures to facilitate working together across departments; frequent meetings, conference calls, listservs, ftp sites to support interaction; leader with broad knowledge; mechanisms for storing retrieving and annotating samples.  Obstacles - who gets grant credit, publication credit; cross department and multiple institution issues; promotion of service members; IP issues,	Tim Palzkill, Wah Chiu, Kent Osborne, Vera Moiseenkova-Bell
March 31 4:00		Setting up a lab (including staffing)	N315			Content			Staffing a lab, recruiting, screening, interviewing, hiring, dismissing, mentoring. Equipping a lab; designing space; ordering and installing equipment; acquiring licenses; training courses; implementing data management systems for ordering, expenses, and research documentation.	Brendan Lee
April 7 4:00		Starting a Company	N315			Content			Creating a business plan, financing, target market. Examples - Lexicon	Art Sands
4.  Career Development/Employment - Jeff Rosen
April 14 4:00	Developing your own project to move with you				M112			Powerpoint Hints List	K99/R00 and other transition awards, generating data on a new project while supported on a fellowship or grant, Negotiating with your PI about what you can take with you.		Fariba Behbod
April 21 4:00	Obtaining and Negotiating a Faculty Position				N315			Content	What are competitive startup packages, how to determine what you need to start your own laboratory		Trey Westbrook
April 28 4:00	Obtaining and Negotiating a Position in Industry/Biotech				N315			Content	Expectations in Biotech and Pharma, what they are looking for, and what you should know about publications etc.		Roy Smith
May 5 4:00	Mentoring and being mentored (joint for faculty and postdocs)				N315			Content	NAS book on Advisor, Teacher, Role Model, Friend.  Senior faculty mentors for junior faculty		Jeff Rosen
May 12 4:00	Networking				M112			Content	Professional societies, study sections, meetings etc.		David Moore
May 19 4:00	University Structure and Tenure				N315			Content	BCM Promotions Committee Criteria		David Tweardy
June 2 4:00	Teaching and Course Design				N315				What to expect from teaching obligations and how to fulfill them.  Balancing Teaching and Research		Frank Kretzer
June 9 4:00	Non-research options for your Ph.D.				M112			Content	Teaching, intellectual property, journalism and other options.		Scott Basinger
5.  Grants - Xander Wehrens
June 16 4:00	Finding the Right Grant for you			N315			Content		Sources of funding opportunities for postgraduate trainees; Matching your research and training interests to a funding source; Who can apply for which grants and fellowships; Deadlines and important dates; Where to find resources for funding opportunities
June 23 4:00	Grantsmanship (getting funded)			N315			Content		Outlining your application; Hypothesis-driven and discovery-driven research, and its relationship to proposals; What is a specific aim; Developing models and hypotheses; Background and significance; Importance of alternative approaches; Potential outcomes and interpretation		Xander Wehrens
June 30 4:00	Your First Grant (Specific Aims)			N315			Content		What to put on your specific aims page/section		Gil Gilbert

Total Hrs - 28 Central  + 5-8 on Departmental Level for grant writing