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About the Workshop
This workshop is intended to bring together approximately 150 postdoctoral investigators who will soon be seeking their first independent positions. While the transition to independence is a challenge for all postdocs, young investigators who are members of groups that are underrepresented in the biomedical or behavioral sciences may have an especially difficult time finding and establishing themselves in their first independent positions. For this reason, emphasis will be placed on members of these groups.
The goal of the workshop is to cover a broad range of topics that postdocs will need to make a successful transition to independence, including making the right career choice, finding the right institutional fit, applying for a position, succeeding in the job interview and seminar, negotiating a start up package, establishing a lab, finding a mentor, networking and forming collaborations, applying for and getting a grant, undergoing the tenure process, teaching, and balancing research with many other commitments. Although the focus is on academic positions, the participants will also have an opportunity to learn about other scientific careers.
Featured Keynote Speaker - Dr. Francis Collins, NIH Director
Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D. is the former director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). On August 17, 2009 he was sworn in as director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Dr. Collins led the successful effort to complete Human Genome Project (HGP), a complex multidisciplinary scientific enterprise directed at mapping and sequencing the entire human DNA, and determining aspects of its function. A working draft of the human genome sequence was announced in June of 2000, an initial analysis was published in February of 2001, and a high-quality, reference sequence was completed in April 2003.
From the outset, the HGP ran ahead of schedule and under budget, and all the data is now available to the scientific community without restrictions on access or use. Building on the foundation laid by the HGP.
Dr. Collins received a B.S. from the University of Virginia, a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Yale University, and an M.D. from the University of North Carolina. Following a fellowship in Human Genetics at Yale, he joined the faculty at the University of Michigan, where he remained until moving to NIH in 1993. His research has led to the identification of genetic variants associated with type 2 diabetes and the genes responsible for cystic fibrosis, neurofibromatosis, Huntington's disease and Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences.
On Nov. 5, 2007, Dr. Collins received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civil award, for his revolutionary contributions to genetic research.