Student Invited Seminar Series: Mission and Goals
Mission: To create a successful and sustainable program in which dissertation-level
students invite Neuroscience related faculty to speak in the MINS seminar series 2-4
times per year. Students will participate in a seminar-related journal club in which they
discuss a recent paper produced in the laboratory of the invitee (much like first year
journal club). Students will host the speaker, introduce them at the seminar and have
the opportunity to meet directly with them about their research (1/3 – ½ of meeting slots
will be set aside for students depending on interest). The hope is that this will benefit
our student body and especially dissertation students in the following ways:
1. Networking opportunities and research feedback through direct interaction with
great faculty from outside PENN (student-invites are rarely rejected.
2. Increased exposure to the breadth of Neuroscience research
3. Increased cohesion amongst Neuroscience students
4. Constructive review/feedback for those presenting at the pre-seminar journal club
1. Who is going to be on the committee? How many people? How will we divide the
work amongst those on the committee? Will there be titles?
Currently there are 8 members of the committee based on interest sparked by an
NGG community-wide e-mail. We would like to maintain this size, but think that the
committee can fluctuate between 6 and 10 depending on interest. We would like the
committee to reflect the breadth of scientific diversity within Neuroscience and to include
members at different stages of their graduate school career. We will maintain the
committee by replacing members when they choose to leave. We will try to replace
leaving members with members from a similar scientific background.
In regards to titles, we will have a chair and representatives. The chair will be
responsible for organizing and facilitating meetings and writing up the minutes from
those meetings. Representatives are primarily responsible for encouraging NGG
graduate students in their year and sub-discipline to participate in the series by
suggesting speakers to invite and attending associated journal clubs, in addition to
providing evaluation and constructive feedback for the Journal club presenter.
2. What is the role of this committee in regards to defining speaker candidates? How will
we choose speakers to invite? Who will invite the speakers? How do we interact with
the MINS seminar series committee in this process?
Committee members will solicit speaker suggestions from NGG graduate students via
two mechanisms: 1. two personalized e-mails (1 to students within their year and the
other to students within their discipline) and 2. Actively engaging students, postdocs and
faculty members in personal discussions to define potential speaker candidates. The
committee will generate a list of candidates that they will then cull down to 10-15 names
that representatives will discuss with the current NGG Graduate Group Chair. Through
this discussion, we will define candidates that are not only known to be good speakers
with an interesting and exciting body of work, but are also committed to graduate
student education and will be excited to talk directly with graduate students about their
research in individual or small group settings. The committee will then ask the NGG
student body to vote on ~10 candidates, and will take the top ~5 names to the MINS
seminar series committee for consideration (ideally these candidates will also represent
the breadth of neuroscience research).
We want every student to have the opportunity to invite a speaker, should they be
interested. Therefore, the student(s) that nominated the speaker will have the
opportunity to invite the speaker and will take on associated responsibilities (see below
under Student Inviter’s responsibilities). These students will work with a committee
representative to organize the invitation and associated journal club. The invitation
process will be streamlined but personalized. There will be a template for the invitation
that the inviting student will tailor to invite the nominee. If a speaker declines the
invitation, we will move to other candidates as approved by the MINS seminar series
committee. If the student who nominated the speaker does not wish to take on the
associated responsibilities, then the opportunity to invite the speaker will be delegated
by the committee to a student within the sub-discipline of the speaker who is interested
in inviting the speaker. Where applicable, 1st or 2nd year students who wish to take on
the responsibilities of Student Inviter may work with a more senior (ie 4th or 5th year)
student as a co-host to ensure a high degree of professionalism in the process.
3. How will we create enthusiasm for this program and get more of our student body
involved (journal club, food, advertisement)?
The primary method that we will use to generate enthusiasm for this
program is through personal appeals. This program will be sustainable if we, as a
committee, work diligently to advertise and build excitement amongst our peers. This is
a great opportunity, and if we present it to our peers, they will participate. In building
towards our mission, we will organize a student led journal club for every invited
speaker. This journal club will occur approximately 1 week prior to the speaker’s talk
and will include the added incentive of food and beer (Financing and management TBD,
potentially through GLIA/MINS). This journal club should be an interactive opportunity
for NGG students from diverse backgrounds to ask questions and discuss areas of
neuroscience outside of their expertise.
4. What role do we have in defining the speaker's schedule when they come and what
kinds of interaction will students have with the speaker when they come (1 on 1
meetings; introducing the speaker; going to dinner with the speaker)?
We will work together with Jacqueline Fowlkes to determine the speaker’s
schedule. We will reserve up to two scheduled meetings in which graduate students can
meet individually or in groups of up to 3 with the invited speaker. The committee will
work with the student who nominated the speaker to select NGG students for private
meetings with the speaker (the goal will be to define 4-6 students to meet with the
speaker).
After the speaker’s seminar, the speaker will go to dinner with a group of
students (final number to be defined by interest and how many are allowed). Priority will
be given to the student who invited the speaker and students who have similar scientific
interests and backgrounds to the speaker.
5. How will we integrate this program with the first year journal club?
We will not formally integrate the student invited seminar series’ journal club with
the NGG first year journal club. First year NGG students will be encouraged to attend
both the student invited seminar series’ journal club in addition to the first-year journal
club. Several first-year students have expressed that this would be helpful and is
preferable.
6. What can we do to make this program run smoothly and efficiently and incorporate
feedback from our students? (ultimately we want this to be sustainable).
After each student invited seminar, we will solicit feedback from NGG students in
relationship to the quality of interaction with the speaker during one on one meetings
and dinner. We will also use standardized surveys to define how we can improve both
journal clubs and the series in general.
7. What is the role of the student inviting the speaker?
The student inviting the speaker will have the following responsibilities:
1. Personalize and send invitation to the speaker and follow up with the speaker to
define date of seminar. (with the help of the committee chair)
2. Organize the presentation of a key article that reflects the speakers expertise and
is widely accessible to an NGG student audience (may be in conjunction with a
co-presenter).
3. Introduction of the speaker prior to the seminar (the committee will vet this
introduction for quality control).
4. Organize the speaker’s meeting schedule and dinner after the seminar.
8. Yearly schedule for Student invited Seminar Series Committee.
Representatives and Chair should commit to a two-year appointment. After
resignation, the Chair will act in an advisory role to the new chair/committee the
following year.
Late Fall (ie October/November): SISSC chair will go to first-year journal club,
describe SISSC and solicit interest for new members.
Late November/Early December (to early January): Emails to NGG, representatives
email classes and groups to get nominations for the following year’s speakers, as well
as solicit interest for new SISSC members. Members that wish to graduate/resign in the
near future should state their intentions and seek a replacement. Current
representatives send e-mails to respective cohorts soliciting speaker nominations from
all NGG students. Representatives should be pursuing conversations with as many
NGG students as they can to develop a list names for the nominations.
Late December/Early January: SISSC chair meets with incoming representatives to
explain in further detail what they will do as part of SISSC. If they are interested in
joining, bring them up to speed on what their role is and what they can expect at the
January meeting. If interest in joining SISSC is substantial/too great, this will be come a
selection process based on the diversity/field needs of SISSC.
Early/Mid-January: Nominations are compiled and distributed to committee for
evaluation. Nominations are distributed to 2 members, one within their field and one
outside. Representatives will rank the nominations based on strength of work, location
of speaker, diversity, degree of interest to broad audience, recent talks at Penn (within
~3 years automatically excludes.) Specific information from faculty should be sought
out by the representatives for their top 3-4 rankings. The rankings will be brought to the
meeting below.
Late January/Early February SISSC meeting. (over lunch dinner, food provided if
possible/funding available). New members will be more formally introduced to the
committee, and new chair selected/voted from members who have already served for 1
year. Representatives will present their 2 selected nominations. The top 2 nominations
from each representative will be added to a semi-final list, which will then be reduced to
~6-9 as a committee. Selected nominations should explicitly include faculty feedback
about whether the speaker gives good talks and is good with students.
Early-Mid February: List of 6-9 nominations goes to NGG for voting, ~2 weeks in
duration and aim to see at least 50-75 votes from NGG. Contact NGG or MINS chair to
determine date of MINS committee meeting.
Early March: MINS Committee meeting (variable date), ie final list of speakers is
determined. Current and future SISSC Chairs aim to attend.
Mid-Late March: Student hosts contacted; invites drafted, vetted, and sent out
Early-Mid April: Email NGG with selection process, results, speakers/hosts/dates for
upcoming year
Mid-Late August. Determine Journal Club funding and dates. Order food/beer ~1
month in advance of each Jclub. Re-announce student invited speakers for the year,
student hosts and dates of associated journal clubs.
?? Early September (Late October this year): Fall meeting of the Student invited
Seminar Series Committee, introducing new members to the process.