Your success is our success. Therefore, we provide training and resources to assist in the development of the "survival skills" needed for success in biomedical research and related careers. These abilities include being able to publish research articles, to obtain funding, to make effective oral presentations, and to teach and mentor the next generation. Throughout each year, graduate students and postdocs are offered a series of intensive workshops involving a combination of lectures, discussions, readings, written exercises, and practical experiences to enhance their professional development. These events include:
IBS 620 Scientific Writing I
This course will help students to strengthen their scientific writing skills. We will review the standards and expectations of scientific discourse, focusing on the scientific paper as a refined tool for conveying research findings in a clear, objective fashion and positioning the author/s within a specific research community. Sequenced writing assignments will address the functions and conventions of the various forms of scientific communication, from short correspondences to full research reports to review articles. The proper use and presentation of graphs and illustrations will also be covered.
IBS 684 Professional Skills and Ethics II
Two-day intensive workshop involves a combination of lectures, discussions, readings and writing exercises, and practical experiences to enhance the professional development of advanced graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty. Topics include career choices, job search strategies and skills, fellowship/grant applications and research ethics.
Grant Writing Workshop
This is an opportunity for Predoctoral students and Postdoctoral Fellows to develop their grant writing skills. A one-half day workshop entitled, Write Winning Grants, focuses on research proposals in the biomedical sciences, specifically as it pertains to NIH funding. Topics include:
- How to Develop an Irresistible, Fundable Idea
- Fundamentals and Principals of Successful Grant Writing
- The Review Process and Its Psychology
- Before You Begin To Write
- Tips on Writing for Reviewers
- Specific Aims: The Master Plan for Your Application
- Practical Exercise Evaluating Model Specific Aims Sections for Strengths and Weaknesses
Dr. Stephen Russell of Grant Writers Seminars and Workshops conducts the seminar. Dr. Russell has held grant support from the National Institutes of Health as a principal investigator since the early 1970s, including individual, group, center, and training grants.
Eastern Student Research Forum (ESRF)
This is a four-day international symposium held at the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine. ESRF selects medical, graduate, MD/PhD students, and resident physicians from throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Central and South Americas to present original basic science and clinical research in multiple biomedical fields.
Practical Bioinformatics Workshops
The Bioinformatics Program at UMs Center for Computational Science offers a series of educational workshops. The aim of these workshops is to teach graduate students and postdocs how to use publicly available bioinformatics databases and tools as relevant to research in genomics and molecular biology. The students will learn about Information Retrieval and Data Analysis. Useful pre-requisites are some basic knowledge of gene structure (promoter, UTR, exon, intron, SNP, etc), and the basic concepts of the central dogma (transcription, translation). More specialized workshops for Promoter Analysis and Microarray Analysis are made available separately.
Poster Workshop
More and more, presentations at meetings are not talks--they are posters, and the posters must be effective. Posters are an important means of presenting information. They also help to establish you in your scientific community. They invite interactions with those in your field, from potential mentors to potential collaborators. The workshop is hands-on. It begins with a talk that graphically illustrates how to succeedand how to failin generating a compelling poster. You will critique sample posters and then work in pre-assigned groups to prepare a dynamite poster. At the end, your poster will be assessed by your peers.
Creativity Forum (Gables)
The Research and Creativity Forum is a student run organization which provides students an opportunity to practice and experience what its like to give a research presentation at a science meeting.
Helpful Links From Outside the University:
- Office of Research Integrity, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services:
- Information on research misconduct and responsible conduct of research
- The Lab: Avoiding Research Misconduct (interactive video): You decide on the conduct of various actors in a research misconduct telenovela.
