The Post

Growth in the trainee population without a concomitant increase in future employment opportunities presents a Malthusian dilemma for biomedical research. One way to reduce this pressure is to move away from research primarily conducted by trainees to a system that depends more on professional staff scientists. This session will explore the benefits of a greater dependence on professional staff scientists, and the cultural and institutional barriers that stand in the way of this shift. Current staff scientists will describe their roles and opportunities for career advancement. Faculty and administrators will describe their experiences working with staff scientists, and the institutional reforms needed to expand these ranks. The invited speakers will also engage the audience on ways to overcome roadblocks to employing more staff scientists.

The transition to any leadership position comes with new challenges and unknowns. This especially holds true for starting one’s own lab where there is no one set of guidelines or ways to go about it. This panel will provide insight and guidance for trainees on how to find and start their own labs at an R1 university. Participants will learn about the different aspects of starting and running a lab, such as interviewing and hiring, budgeting, mentoring, how to recruit students and postdocs, and much more.