New Speaker Exchange Program

In the recent competitive renewal submitted in 2012, we proposed a new component to our IMSD program called the  Speaker Exchange Program where IMSD graduate programs at other institutions would host IMSD graduate students from UMBC and UMB as presenters of scientific talks.  While visiting the host institution, IMSD graduates are to also select 3-4 mentors to meet with during the visit.  The goal  of this exchange is to expose IMSD Fellows to the exceptional research being conducted in academic labs outside of their own institutions.  Institutions with IMSD graduate programs at Brown, Emory, UNC Chapel Hill and Baylor are participants of the Speaker Exchange Program.  In the spring 2013, Lola Brown, PhD candidate in the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology program and Nicole Barkley, PhD candidate in the Biological Sciences Program gave talks at Brown University and UNC Chapel Hill respectively.  Both Fellows will defend their work and begin postdoctoral positions at Yale University (Lola Brown) and North Carolina Central (Nicole Barkley) this fall.  Finally, we plan to invite other IMSD graduate programs to participate in the Speaker Exchange Program.  Cedric Uytingco, a PhD candidate in the Graduate Programs in Life Science (GPILS) Neuroscience Program has expressed an interest in visiting Rutgers University this spring.