BE Board:Academic career mentoring events

Purpose
In order to better inform Biological Engineering students and post-docs about pursuing a career in academia, a series of academic career mentoring events will be organized throughout the year. These events will be structured as informal discussions on relevant topics with a panel of faculty members from within and outside MIT. Generally, the faculty panel will be invited to make a few informal remarks to initiate discussion and then the rest of the time will be devoted to Q&A.

Contacts

 * Academic Committee of the BE Board

Teaching Skills Workshop
August 23, 2007

Sanjoy Mahajan of MIT's Teaching and Learning Laboratory will hold a Teaching Workshop on August 23 from 3-5 pm in room 4-231. The workshop will be split into two parts: Part 1: 3-4 pm: Teaching Skills and Mentoring Part 2: 4-5 pm: Applying for Teaching Positions

Curriculum Chat -- 20.109: Laboratory Fundamentals in Biological Engineering
May 22, 2007

Natalie Kuldell will discuss the creation of the undergraduate lab course 20.109, as well as what challenges have been faced implementing this course.

Faculty Search
IAP 2007

Professors on the current and past faculty search committees will discuss what the committee looks for in applicants, how the search is conducted, as well as other topics.

Post-doc Talk
November 15, 2006, 6-8 pm

A panel of post-docs will lead a discussion on post-doc life including: How to approach the search for a post-doc, what to consider before accepting a position, and how is a post-doc different than being a graduate student.

BE Women in Academia
Thursday May 25, 7-9pm in 56-614

Based on the success of last year's event, we are holding another discussion with women faculty in Biological Engineering and related fields about academic careers. Suggestions for potential topics are welcome: contact Reshma Shetty or Shawdee Eshghi.

Faculty in attendance: Bevin Engelward, Linda Griffith, Natalie Kuldell, Kim Hamad-Schifferli, Galit Lahav, Susan Lindquist and Kristala Prather

Curriculum chat -- BE.320: Biomolecular Kinetics and Cell Dynamics
Wednesday, January 25, 2006 6-7:30pm 56-614

Please join us for an informal discussion with Forest White and Doug Lauffenburger about the content of the undergraduate course, BE.320, and about curriculum development in general. We think this session will be a good opportunity for graduate students to experience curriculum development and to provide suggestions and feedback for a future MIT course.

Organized by Jason Kelly, the BE Board Undergraduate Curriculum liason.

What are the big unanswered questions in Biological Engineering and Biology?
Wednesday January 18, 2006 7:00-9:00pm 56-154

This session seeks to discuss what are the next set of major open questions in Biological Engineering and Biology. As students and post-docs select research projects and contemplate what labs/institutions to move to next, it is useful to think about what are the major problems in the field that need to be solved. Many thanks to Pam Silver for suggesting this topic. Please try to come to the session with some ideas in mind for key research areas/ideas in the future (no matter how crazy they might be!) to facilitate discussion.

Faculty in attendance: George Church, Doug Lauffenburger, Phil Sharp and Pam Silver.

Curriculum chat -- BE.180: Biological Engineering Programming
Thursday, November 3, 2005 6:00-7:30pm 56-614

An informal discussion with Drew Endy about the content of the new undergraduate course, BE.180, and about curriculum development in general. We think this session will be a good opportunity for graduate students to experience curriculum development and to provide suggestions and feedback for a future MIT course.

This event was planned in coordination with Jason Kelly, the BE Board Undergraduate Curriculum liason.

Drew's presentation can be found here

What you can do now to prepare yourself for an academic career.
Monday October 17, 2005 12-1:30pm 56-614

An informal discussion with several faculty members about what you (as a graduate student or post-doc) can do now to prepare yourself for an academic career. The session also seeks to address the question of what are faculty search committees looking for in prospective job candidates. The faculty panel will be composed of a mix of new (or soon to be) faculty who have recently undergone the faculty job search and more senior faculty who have participated on faculty search committees.

Faculty in attendance: Sangeeta Bhatia, Kevin Janes, Bruce Tidor and Dane Wittrup

BE Women in Academia Mentoring Event
Monday April 25, 2005 7-9pm 56-614

An informal discussion with several women faculty members about how to succeed in academia. We will hear from women faculty both within and outside the Biological Engineering Division about how their careers developed and any insight they have acquired along the way. Discussion will include strategies for selecting post-doctoral labs, applying for faculty jobs, obtaining promotions/tenure and more.

Faculty in attendance: Cathy Drennan, Linda Griffith, Kimberly Hamad-Schifferli, Amy Keating, Pamela Silver

I have an idea for an event, what should I do?
E-mail be-academic at mit dot edu.

Are these events only for women?
No, the first event that we organized was geared towards women, but the success of that event made us realize that there was a general need for more events for those contemplating a career in academia. Thus, the vast majority of mentoring events are designed for all graduate students and post-docs.

I really liked the BE Women in Academia event, will there be another?
Yes, in light of the fact that several of the students and faculty who attended the event gave us positive feedback, we will likely organize another similar event. We anticipate holding one of these events per year.

Feedback
We welcome both positive and negative feedback about these events. Feel free to let us know what you've thought of past events or how events could be improved in the future. You can contact us via email (remiller AT mit DOT edu or b_huang AT mit DOT edu), via posting on this wiki or in person.

Acknowledgements
These events would not be possible without the generous support of the Department of Biological Engineering Student Board.

Many thanks also to the faculty (past, present and future) who participate in these events. On behalf of the graduate students and post-docs, we appreciate your willingness to sacrifice your spare time and energy to attend these events.

Other resources

 * Tomorrows-professor mailing list information subscribe
 * A mailing list maintained at Stanford for those interested in academic careers in science and engineering
 * MentorNet


 * Professional Development Series on Academic Careers


 * MIT Career Services Office


 * Univ of Illinois Career Services