Wednesday–Thursday, August 3 & 4
Virtual Summer Poster Day
The event will be hosted on Fourwaves. All visitors and participants must register on the event website to attend.
If you are a summer intern, Summer Research Presentation Week is your time to share the research and creative projects you have been conducting at the NIH with the broader NIH community and your family and friends! At the same time, you will develop your communication and networking skills. More information about the event is available at the OITE Virtual Summer Presentation Day website.
Wednesday, August 3, 1–2 PM
The Graduate School Search and Application Process
For those of you applying to graduate school, join us for the next session of our Annual Postbac Seminar Series, “The Graduate School Search and Application Process,” led by Dr. Erin Walsh, Director of the NICHD Office of Education . We will discuss:
- Different career paths requiring PhD training
- Types of graduate programs
- The process of searching for and ranking graduate programs that align with your interests, career goals and values
- How to find suitable labs (and mentors!) for your graduate training
- How to determine if you should consider taking the GRE
Please email Ms. Veronica Harker (veronica.harker@nih.gov) to register for this session.
Thursday, August 11, 1–4 PM
NICHD DIR Tenure-Track Investigator Virtual Symposia Series
“Biophysics of lipids in development and disease”
Hosted by Alex Sodt, PhD
This series provides tenure-track investigators within NICHD the opportunity to organize a virtual mini-symposium to showcase their area of science to the NICHD DIR and larger NIH intramural community. These symposia are open to all faculty, trainees, and staff at the NIH.
Join the symposium at https://nih.zoomgov.com/j/1605758868.
Wednesday, August 17, 1 PM
Discussion with Tenure-Track Investigators
Jeffrey A. Farrell, PhD
Sarah E. Sheppard, PhD, MS, MD
The Office of Education is offering an exciting career development activity on Wednesday, August 17th, at 1 p.m. (via Zoom).
Join us for a discussion and Q&A session to hear from two tenure-tracks currently working at NICHD. This will be an informal, small-group discussion (virtual, via Zoom), in which Drs. Farrell and Sheppard (biographies are below) will give an overview of their work, share their personal/professional background and answer questions about the academic application/interview process and NICHD tenure-track experience.
We would like the fellows to walk away from the session with a sense of what academic search committees are looking for, the types of questions they ask, tips for interviews and chalk talks, what skills are most needed to be successful, what fellows can do during their NIH training to be most prepared, and what life is like on the tenure track.
Please email Ms. Veronica Harker (veronica.harker@nih.gov) if you plan to attend. The Zoom link will be provided to you a few days before the session.
Jeffrey A. Farrell, PhD
Jeffrey A. Farrell, PhD, is an NICHD Stadtman Investigator, heading the Unit on Cell Specification and Differentiation. He received his BA in biochemistry from Columbia University in 2006 and then completed his graduate work at the University of California, San Francisco in the lab of Patrick O’Farrell. There, he found that the dramatic slow-down of DNA replication at the Drosophila mid-blastula transition was triggered by regulated proteolysis of Cdc25 and a resultant drop in Cdk1 activity.
Dr. Farrell continued on to postdoctoral training in the lab of Alexander Schier at Harvard University (in deep collaboration with the lab of Aviv Regev at the Broad Institute). There, he worked on developing and applying single-cell RNAseq approaches for studying developmental biology, including one of the first approaches for spatial inference from single-cell RNAseq data (Seurat), an approach to find transcriptional trajectories during development (URD), and one of the first whole-embryo single-cell RNAseq developmental atlases. His postdoctoral work was featured as part of Science ’s 2018 Breakthrough of the Year.
Sarah E. Sheppard, PhD, MS, MD
Sarah E. Sheppard, PhD, MS, MD, is a 2021 NIH Distinguished Scholar and clinical investigator, heading the Unit on Vascular Malformations at NICHD. She graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science in nuclear science and engineering and then attained her medical degree and doctorate through a combined MD PhD program at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. During her doctorate, Dr. Sheppard studied post-transcriptional regulation of vascular development in the zebrafish in the laboratory of Dr. Nathan Lawson. She then completed her combined pediatrics and clinical genetics residency at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).
Following her clinical training, she practiced as a clinical geneticist in Division of Human Genetics, the Comprehensive Vascular Anomaly Program, and the Jill and Mark Fishman Lymphatic Center at CHOP. She completed a Masters of Translational Research at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Hakon Hakonarson in the Center of Applied Genomics at CHOP. Her postdoctoral work focused on improving diagnosis and treatment for patients with a type of lymphatic disorder called central conducting lymphatic anomaly.
Her accolades include the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Distinguished Research Trainee Award (2019) and the Association for Clinical and Translational Sciences Outstanding Post-Doctoral Trainee Award (2020). In addition to the NIH, her research has been funded by the American Heart Association, the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, the Institute of Translational Medicine and Therapeutics at the University of Pennsylvania, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Uplifting Athletes, and the Lymphangiomatosis and Gorham’s Disease Alliance.
Thursday, August 18, 1–2:30 PM
Job Interviewing Workshop
Led by Public Speaking Coach Scott Morgan
During this session you will learn tips for perfecting the broad interviewing skills needed to secure scientific positions (job talks, chalk talks, and the interview itself) and increasing your comfort level and confidence. You will have the opportunity to analyze expected questions, themes, and dilemmas through interactive exercises and peer review.
- Tips to help you prepare for your interviews and present yourself professionally
- Types/examples of questions you can expect
- Strategies for delivering your best answers
- Types of questions to ask your interviewers
- Adapting your interviewing skills to virtual platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic
Participants will also have the opportunity to schedule an individual one-hour coaching session with Scott prior to a scheduled job interview.
Please contact Ms. Katherine Lamb (katherine.lamb@nih.gov) to register. The Zoom link will be provided a few days before the session.
Ongoing Events Around Campus
NIH-Wide Office of Intramural Training and Education Events
For more information and registration, please visit Upcoming OITE Events.
NIH Library Training and Events
For more information and registration, please visit the NIH Library Calendar.