BIOM 221 Professional Development

Intended Audience

Science graduate students. In 2009 the course is intended for PhD students in their first and second year, although students are invited from any year to any lecture. In 2010 the course will be aimed at students in years 3-6 of their PhD.

Synopsis

Much of what professional scientists do on a daily basis, whether in industry or academia, has little to do with what they have not been directly taught in graduate school. Rather they learn by doing. This course is intended to better prepare graduate students for what lies ahead. Impetus for this course came from the Ten Rules series in Professional Development found at http://collections.plos.org/ploscompbiol/tensimplerules.php. After first offering this course in 2008 to graduate students in all years, feedback indicated that topics should be covered in more depth with multiple perspectives. Consequently the course will now alternate so that in one year it is aimed at students in years 1-2 of their PhDs and in the next year years 3 onwards. However, students in any stage of their PhD are invited to participate in any of the lectures.

Format

Short presentations by faculty followed by discussion. For some classes students are expected to have done some preparative reading. Also for some classes we will need students to volunteer to make either short oral presentations of present a poster they have previously prepared. These will be videoed and discussed in class.

Place and Time

The course will be offered in Education Center room 1 in the basement of the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences on Fridays in Winter quarter from 2-3:30pm. See the exact schedule below since there will need to be some rescheduling during the quarter..

 

Instructor

Professor Philip E. Bourne pbourne@ucsd.edu 858-534-8301. with guest appearances by a number of faculty.

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Credit

Based on attendance and participation in the discussions.

Course Outline by Week:

 

Week

Date

Content

1.

Jan 09

Introduction: Elements of scientific success [slides]

2.

Jan 22

Getting the most from the graduate student experience [slides]

3.

Jan 23

Giving good oral presentations [slides]

4.

Jan 30

A career in industry vs academia Dr. Peter Rose [slides]

5.

Feb 06

Preparing and presenting posters [slides] [example posters]

6.

Feb 13

Forming good collaborations [slides] + critiquing of poster presentations

7.

Feb 20

Understanding and working the publishing process [slides]

8.

Feb 27

Rules for writing scientific papers Prof. Bill Gerwick

9.

Mar 06

Review of bad scientific papers

10.

TBD

Review of good scientific papers