Mentoring trainees in research

Mentoring Trainees in Research
The PhD/non-MD Perspective
Peder Larson
Associate Professor
@pezlarson

Mentoring Trainees in Research2
What is a Trainee?
(PhD/non-MD)
 “A person undergoing training for
a particular job or profession”
 Inherently a temporary position
 Postdocs, graduate students,
undergraduate students
 Our role: facilitate their transition
to the next stage

What is Mentoring in Research?
 Education: theoretical principles
 Research training: technical/lab skills, data analysis
skills, project development, collaborative research,
project management
 Communication Skills: abstracts, papers, grants,
talks, how to use Zoom
 Career Development: options awareness, CV,
networking, references

Mentee Types: Postdoc

Mentoring Postdocs
 Goal: Progression from more to less supervised research
 Education
- Typically informal, can provide support by connecting with experts, attending
conferences
 Research
- PhD gives them foundation for cutting-edge research
- Support continued development of skills, but with progression to independent
research with increased ownership
- Develop collaborative research skills (critical for modern biomedical research)
through working across teams and providing them opportunities to managing
teamwork

Mentoring Postdocs
 Selecting a Research Project
- Usually hired to support an ongoing, funded project
- Give substantial responsibility in project: successful postdocs will rise to the
challenge
- Provide opportunity to develop their own ideas: this is what they need to succeed
in independent research position
- Should be able to manage multiple projects at once
- My philosophy: start with 75-100% on ongoing lab project, and then transition to
increased independent work (can be based on rate of success in projects and
securing fellowships)

Mentoring Postdocs
 Communication
- Should be proficient in paper writing and have some oral presentation skills
- Become more active in grant writing, especially their own (e.g. postdoctoral
fellowships, investigator status for more senior postdocs)
- Provide them with opportunities to present their work at meetings, conferences,
etc.
 Career Development
- Most postdocs are interested in academia
- Make them aware of different options in academia
- Help them navigate the academic job market
- Provide access to networks

Mentee Types: PhD Students

Mentoring PhD Students
 Goal: Develop skills to do cutting-edge research, Broad literacy with
specialized expertise
 Education
- Formal coursework for ~2 years
- Learning from experts (other grad students, postdocs, researchers)
 Research
- Critical time to develop research skills, starting with technical/lab and analysis,
and building up independence
- Provide necessary them the necessary resources and infrastructure to succeed
- Access to collaborators and learn how to do team-based research, but with
caution not to overwhelm

- They have 3-5 years committed to research, which provides great opportunity to
explore bigger new ideas or directions
- Focus on a single project/idea
- Initial scope of project should be well-defined
- Qualifying Exam is a wonderful opportunity to flush out project ideas, and have
them scrutinized by your peers

 Communication
- Teach them how to write a research paper
- Teach them how to present your work
 Career
- Awareness of career options (connect with previous graduates in different paths)
- Provide access to networks in industry and academia

 Specialized expertise
 Mentored, original, bold
research
 Broad literacy and
perspective
 Team-based research
 Math/statistics/computation
skills
 Three “Tools of the trade”
- Identify Important problem
- Design experiments
- Select Results for follow-up
 Working familiarity with
career options
Keith Yamamoto
https://www.nationalacademies.org/event/05-28-2015/docs/D641B5DAC0F83BC9CE059B13B560EB2196EDD5B10F61

Mentee Types: Masters Students

Mentoring Masters (MSBI)
Students
 Goal: Develop more specialized skills (biomedical imaging)
 Education
- Formal coursework for 9 months
- Embedded learning in research
 Research
- Often getting first exposure to research
- Develop technical/lab and analysis skills
- Create thesis relatively quickly

Students
- Time is short! 3 unit research elective in spring to develop project idea and
establish some foundation, then 2-3 months in summer full time to complete.
Think carefully about the scope
- Best to have strong supervision from you or other lab member
- Many students will stay beyond the thesis which can extend the scope and results
of the project

Students
 Communication
- Present thesis project
- Contribute to abstract or paper
 Career
- Academics: support PhD application
- Professional school: support MD application
- Industry: Networking (we should promote our graduates since they can offer
unique skills to companies with imaging components)

Mentee Types: Undergraduate Students

Mentoring Undergraduate
Students
 Goal: Provide exposure to research
 Education
- Embedded learning in research. Often requires extra effort since coursework has
not yet provided sufficient preparation
 Research
- Often getting first exposure to research
- Develop a technical, lab or analysis skill with a well-defined and clearly
supervised task

Students
- I have not been very successful in choosing undergrad projects
- Skill set for many advanced imaging research is not yet developed, and it is hard
to develop on the side as an undergrad
- Ideas: directly apply skills learning in courses (e.g. machine learning, filter design,
software) in a well-defined research task

Students
 Communication
- Help them to learn to read scientific papers
- Look for opportunity for them to present their work(e.g. summer research
symposium)
 Career
- Academics: support PhD application
- Professional school: support MD application
- Industry: Networking

Generalizable Skills for Trainees
 What is Research? How to identify and/or approach a new
problem. We offer this skill to trainees
- Assess state-of-the-art
- Acquire knowledge
- Propose and scrutinize possible solutions
 Hard skills
- Software (establish GitHub presence)
- Engineering (fabrication, testing)
- Wet Lab skills

Tools for Mentors
 Individual Development plans (IDPs) https://career.ucsf.edu/IDP
- written list of goals mapped to a timeline, and includes goal setting for research
projects, skills development, and career planning
 Meetings
- Regular opportunities for research and mentoring updates
- Annual/Semi-annual review of overall progress
 UCSF Office of Career and Professional Development
 Bioengineering Graduate program – Head Graduate advisors
 MSBI – Program Directors

Happy Mentoring!

Mentoring trainees in research

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