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Highlight: Join us for Game Night on March 31: experience Questionary!


All BioMed Grad Students and Postdocs are invited to participate in a rousing game of Questionary on March 31! Questionary is a game of surveys based on the popular TV game show Family Feud.

As always there will be food, drinks, prizes and fun! Register your team (max 5 members), or register yourself and get matched up on game night.

Hosted by the BioMed Office of Graduate & Postdoctoral Studies. Please register by March 25 at bit.ly/Questionary2016

Thursday, March 31, 2016
7:00 - 10:00 PM

Robert Center Underground, 75 Waterman Street

Save the Date: Career Exploration Panel on Careers in Higher Education Administration for Science PhDs

Tuesday, April 5 at 4 pm

Do you love working at a university, but aren't sure a faculty career is in your future? Or, are you hoping to land a faculty position and get involved with shaping programs and policies? The Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies is hosting a panel discussion featuring PhDs who are currently working in different capacities as administrators at universities across the Northeast. Come hear about how they came to hold their positions and what you can expect if you go into this field. Keep reading the Weekly Update for panelist information to be announced soon!

Notices

Grantsmanship I: The Fundamentals of Grant Writing
This workshop will present the fundamentals of grant writing, including identifying priorities & avoiding pitfalls when applying for the NIH’s project grants. Presented by Dean Elizabeth O. Harrington, PhD, it is open to all BioMed graduate students, postdocs, and faculty. Please register here. Tuesday, March 15 from 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM in J. Walter Wilson, Room 401, 69 Brown Street.

ASBMB Hill Day Application Now Open!
The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology is now accepting applications for our annual Student/Postdoc Hill Day! Every year, the ASBMB brings trainees from across the country to meet with their Congressional leaders in Washington, D.C. This fully-funded opportunity gives trainees the chance to help promote scientific research by directly interacting with policymakers. The deadline to apply is March 25; the event will be April 27-28. Click here to apply to attend. Have questions about the event? Contact Torrey Truszkowski, current Neuroscience PhD student and attendee at last year's Hill Day.

Explore Brain Week Rhode Island 2016
Cure Alliance for Mental Illness, a national non-profit organization based in Rhode Island, invites you to explore the first annual Brain Week Rhode Island. Complete with pub nights, discussion panels, theatrical performances, movie nights, and the Brown Brain Fair, some people are calling it the “restaurant week” of brain science. Come join us for free and educational entertainment! For a full schedule of events and to reserve tickets, please visit the Brain Week website.

National Research Mentoring Network Grantwriting Coaching Group
Applications are now being accepted for postdocs and junior faculty preparing grant submissions to the NIH to participate as mentees in one of the upcoming Northwestern University Model Grantwriting Coaching Group for Mentees. Applicants should be US citizens and have a moderate amount of grantwriting experience; for more information and to register, please visit the event's website.

Campus Events

Getting Started in Data Visualization
Poised to plunge into data visualization, making the latest-and-greatest fancy interactive extravaganzas? Well, hang on -- before plunging into the tools, let's take a step back and think about some basic principles of visual perception, design and representation, and communicating to an audience. Please register here. Monday, March 14 from 3:00 - 4:30 PM in the Rockefeller Library - Patrick Ma Digital Scholarship Lab, 10 Prospect Street.

Data Science Initiative Lecture with Raghu Ramakrishnan
Come hear Raghu Ramakrishnan, PhD, CTO for Data and Technical Fellow in the Cloud and Enterprise (C&E) Division, Microsoft, talk about "Big Data at Microsoft." Please register here. Monday, March 14 from 4:00 - 5:00 PM in the List Art Building, Room 120, 64 College Street.

Providence Area Aging Research Forum (PAARF)
This event will feature talks by Jill Kreiling (Sedivy Lab) - "Don't mess with my heterochromatin" and Nicole Seah (Lapierre Lab) - "Limiting lipid secretion promotes lipophagy and longevity." Tuesday, March 15 from 6:00 - 7:00 PM in the Alpert Medical Building, Case Study Room 270, 222 Richmond Street.   

HUGs + STEM Conversation with Karine Gibbs
This informal discussion with Professor Karine Gibbs (Harvard) presents an opportunity to learn more about her experiences as a researcher of molecular and cellular biology, and talk about challenges faced by women and other historically underrepresented groups (HUGs) in STEM fields. Lunch will be provided; please RSVP by Monday, March 14 to csrea@brown.edu. Wednesday, March 16 from 12:00 - 1:00 PM, CSREA Conference Room, Hillel 303, 80 Brown Street.

Thinking Out Loud: Sociality and Identity in a Bacterial World
Bacterial cells in our body outnumber human cells. We identify ourselves as human, but what do our friendly inhabitants identify as? Like animals, bacteria can cooperate to form colonies or battle to gain dominance -- all social behaviors fueled by a somewhat mysterious ability to recognize self from other. Come hear how Karine A. Gibbs, Associate Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University, is solving that mystery. Please register here. Wednesday, March 16 from 5:30 - 7:00 PM in Salomon Center, Room 001, 69-91 Waterman Street.

2016 Rhode Island NIH IDeA Symposium
The RI NIH IDeA Symposium is a gathering to share best practices and better coordinate the translational research and faculty development programs across the state. The keynote address will be given by Mark Gillespie, Chair of Pharmacology at the University of South Alabama. The event will feature talks from guest speakers representing each RI COBRE and the RI INBRE as well as poster presentations and a reception. Please register here. Thursday, March 17 from 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM in the Alpert Medical Building, Lecture Hall 170, 222 Richmond Street.

Zipher Medical Affairs Information Session
Graduate students, postdocs and medical students in Life Sciences are invited to attend an informational session on Medical Affairs offered by Zipher Medical Affairs. Medical Affairs is relatively less known area in Pharmaceutical industry, attractive to scientists who have in-depth scientific experience, and want to go into the Pharma industry in a non R&D role. Thursday, March 17 from 12:00 - 1:00 PM at CareerLAB, 167 Angell Street.

Hacking the Academic Job Market, Program and Book Signing
Dr. Karen Kelsky - well known for her on-line site, The Professor is In - is coming to Brown! Dr. Kelsky has just published her book, The Professor Is In: The Essential Guide to Turning Your PhD Into a Job. Join us for her talk on Hacking the Job Market, as Dr. Kelsky leads us through the complicated process of securing a tenure-track position! Friday, March 18 from 12:00 - 1:00 PM at CareerLAB, 167 Angell Street.

Brown Brain Fair
The Brain Fair will feature a wide range of interactive demonstrations that will educate audiences of all ages about the mind and brain. Saturday, March 19 from 10:00 - 2:00 PM in Sayles Hall, 79-81 Waterman Street.

Grant Finding
Do you need money for your research? Will external grants allow you to travel more and improve your job prospects? Are you interested in notifications about potential awards, fellowships and honors in your field? This training session will provide participants with an overview of the most comprehensive grant finding tools available to the Brown University community: Pivot and the Foundations Directory Online (FDO). Please register here. Tuesday, March 22 from 12:00 - 12:50 PM in the Rockefeller Library's Hecker Room, 10 Prospect Street.

Designing and Delivering Scientific Presentations
Gain insight and practice in effective oral communication of scientific results. Learn how to frame and structure a poster or oral presentation to communicate with your intended audience.
Dates: March 28, 30 & April 1, 2016
Time: 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Place: BioMed Center, 171 Meeting Street, Room 305
Faculty Trainer: Elena Oancea
Senior Scholar: Vérida Léandre
Registration: http://goo.gl/forms/oUqHY5vBkE

For more information about events, visit the University Calendar

Events Outside Brown

Commercialization Career Paths Panel
This Futures in Life Science program will bring together experts across a wide range of disciplines and functional areas within the life science industry, who detail their roles and provide a rich context for the audience to gain a clear understanding of the skills, aptitudes, competencies, and personalities that thrive in their particular functions. This event will provide an overview of career paths in the commercial areas of the life science sector including marketing, business development, alliance management and product management. Attendance for this program is open to current graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and medical residents. Tickets are $20; for more information and to register, please visit the event's website.
Tuesday, March 22, 2016, 5:30 - 8:00 PM
MassBio Office
300 Technology Square, 8th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02139

2016 NHLBI/NIDDK Mitochondrial Biology Symposium
The fourth in a series of conferences focusing on mitochondrial biology, this symposium titled 'Novel Roles of Mitochondria in Health and Disease' will build on the success of previous conferences and focus on the following: Genetics of Mitochondrial Diseases, Mitochondria and Aging; Mitochondria Genetics and Genomics; and Mitochondrial Genetics in Health and Disease. This symposium will bring together the leading thinkers in these areas of research to present the newest findings. We envision that these presentations will spark debate and foster collaborations among participants, with the goal of filling existing gaps in knowledge and advancing this fast-moving field. The call for abstracts is open until April 8; science awards and oral podium presentation awards are available on a competitive basis. For more information and to register, visit the event's website.
May 19-20, 2016
NIH William H. Natcher Conference Center
45 Center Drive, Bethesda, MD 20814

7th International Regional Stress and Behavior Conference
This is an annual international event gathering scientists and psychiatrists from around the world to share an interest in stress-evoked brain disorders in both humans and animals. Topics include: neurogenetics of stress; neuropsychopharmacology and neuroendocrinology; translational research in biological psychiatry; biomarkers of stress; and more. For more information and to register, visit the event's website.
June 22-24, 2016
Miami Beach, FL

CrawFly Invertebrate Neurophysiology Workshop
This workshop is based on topics explored in the “Crawdad Project,” a 3-year program funded by the National Science Foundation to promote the use of invertebrates in undergraduate physiology and neuroscience lab courses. It provides teachers hands-on experience with invertebrate preparations that demonstrate basic principles of nervous system physiology, and can easily be incorporated into laboratory courses back home. The courses costs $1,000; 3 scholarships are also available--click here to apply. For more information and to apply to attend, visit the event's website.
June 22-26, 2016
Cornell University
B150 Comstock Hall, Ithaca, NY 14850

Community Events

Egg Hunt Safari at the Zoo!
Join this “eggcellent” safari at Roger Williams Park Zoo! Follow the clues to different locations around the Zoo to get a special egg stamp on your scavenger hunt card. When your hunting is through, collect a treat and enjoy the rest of our festive spring activities, or head to the Carousel Village with your completed scavenger hunt card for a free ride on the carousel (one ride per card; valid only during Visits with the Easter Bunny). This event is free with Zoo admission. Sunday, March 20 from 10:00 AM -  3:00 PM at the Roger Williams Park Zoo, 1000 Elmwood Avenue, Providence.

Policy & Pinot: RIPR’s Political Roundtable
This event, co-presented with RI Public Radio, is a timely conversation series on vital issues facing our state. On March 22, RIPR political reporter Ian Donnis, political analyst Scott MacKay, and URI Professor of Political Science Maureen Moakley will gather at the Political Roundtable to assess Election 2016. Free and open to the public, reservations required; contact Jed Thorp, jed@ripr.org or 401-351-2800 for reservations. Tuesday, March 22 from 5:30 – 7:30 PM at the Providence Athenæum, 251 Benefit Street.