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2009 Trainee Advisory Committee Report
Trainee Survey
In 2007, the TAC revised the survey and the survey was implemented online in
September 2007. As was done in 2004, each Section representative to the TAC
sent an email via their Section listserv, requesting trainees to complete
the online survey. Recipients were encouraged to pass the email along to
other trainees and new investigators at their institutions. More than 600
trainees completed the survey including 306 graduate students, 231
postdoctoral fellows, and 80 new investigators. There were three times as
many respondents in 2007 as 2004.
When asked what their interest was in receiving professional development on
different topics, the top choices for all three groups were “mentoring and
being mentored” and “writing grants.” This finding has already been used in
the development of a proposal to NINDS for a grant to support a new APS
Professional Skills Training course on mentoring. In the survey results,
postdoctoral and graduate students also rated “writing scientific
manuscripts” highly. Graduate students also rated “giving a talk/symposium”
highly as a professional development need.
EB Symposia
Online resources from Experimental Biology 2008: Multimedia
presentations for the EB 2008 Trainee Symposium, “Marketing Yourself on
Paper for Academic Positions,” were edited and posted and catalogued at the
APS Archive of Teaching Resources for wide dissemination. The resources
include talks by Ryan Wheeler, The Scripps Research Institute (“Academic
Cover Letters & the Art of Self-Presentation”), James Pawelczyk,
Pennsylvania State University (“Crafting the Research Statement”), and Kevin
Johnston, Michigan State University (“Creating a Teaching Philosophy You Can
Use”).
The 2009 TAC Symposium was entitled, “Mentoring Strategies: Beyond
the Bench,” and was organized by Karen Sweazea and My Helms. It included
presentations on mentoring trainees; supervising employees in academic,
government or industrial settings; capitalizing on diverse personalities;
and conflict resolution. The session speakers were very highly rated by the
attendees.
In 2010, the TAC symposium will focus on “Publish, Not Perish: How to
Survive the Peer Review Process.” Talks will be based on the APS
Professional Skills Course on Writing and Reviewing for Journals.
Trainee Web Page: In 2008, the TAC worked to reorganize the webpage
to provide drop down menus, information and links for each APS Section, a
scrolling list of announcements, and rollover graphics at the bottom of the
page offering instant synopses and hyperlinks to information on awards,
symposia, professional development opportunities, and more. Each Section’s
trainee-relevant activities are highlighted for one month at the top of the
website.
Trainee Facebook Site: In 2008, the TAC launched a Facebook page for
APS Trainees to provide “… a place for you [physiology trainees] to stay in
touch with other trainees, ask questions, and get important information
about grants, awards, meetings, and other career-related info.” As APS
expands its Facebook presence, the APS Trainee page will associate closely
with the APS fan page.
Trainee Community and Professional Service Award: The TAC received
eight complete applications for the award in 2009, its second year. The
Committee was extremely pleased to note that the applicant pool was highly
competitive. Although all eight candidates were high quality candidates, the
Committee agreed that Rudy M. Ortiz, Assistant Professor of Natural
Sciences, University of California, Merced, was the most outstanding
candidate. Dr. Ortiz received his award at EB 2009 and will prepare an
article for a future issue of The Physiologist.
TAC Outreach to Undergraduates: The Committee was very pleased that
the Membership Committee proposed and received approval from Council and the
membership to allow undergraduates to be student members in the Society. To
aid the Membership Committee, the TAC subcommittee on undergraduate outreach
has compiled a list of suggested benefits that will be relevant to new
undergraduate members in APS. These were forwarded to the Membership
Committee for their consideration. TAC members attended the EB 2009
Undergraduate Poster Session and engaged many of the undergraduate students
in discussions of their research. The Committee also collaborated with the
Career Opportunities in Physiology Committee on the 2009 EB Undergraduate
Orientation Session, presenting some of the orientation talks and
interacting with undergraduate students at the session tables. The TAC plans
to continue these activities in 2009-2010. Finally, the TAC will expand the
TAC survey to include undergraduates when it administers the next survey in
2010.
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