The Career and Networking Committee Newsletter: September 2007

As students approach the advent of their own scientific careers, their advisors and recruiters as well as articles about finding that “perfect” job often convey the importance of networking. The value of networking certainly does not diminish over time, even though its end goal changes. However, the idea of simply walking up to an esteemed investigator can be very daunting for scientists early in their career. To help overcome this barrier, the Career and Networking Committee provided several opportunities for interactions between early career and established scientists at the 21st Symposium of The Protein Society, a role it has played since the formation of the committee in 2001, when it was named the Young Protein Scientist Committee.

New to this year’s events were two breakfast career discussion sessions held on Sunday, July 22 and Monday, July 23. Meeting attendees were invited to join established members of industry and academia over breakfast to ask career-related questions. Despite the early hour of these meetings, both sessions were well attended, with about ten undergraduates, graduate students, and post-doctoral fellows each morning. Sunday’s discussion focused on careers in industry with: Jessica Anderson, Promega; Mark McAlister, AstraZeneca; Ann Aulabaugh, Wyeth; and Judith Klein-Seetharaman, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Department of Structural Biology.
Monday’s breakfast provided insight into academia and biotech with: Robert Lazarus, Genentech, Inc.; Andrea Cochran, Genentech, Inc.; Dikran Aivazian, Biogen; Judith Klein-Seetharaman; Juliette Leconte, Pennsylvania State University, Department of Chemistry; and Carl Frieden, Washington University School of Medicine, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics and recipient of the 2007 Hans Neurath Award.
On Monday evening, the Career and Networking Committee hosted a mixer open to early and established career scientists. The informal atmosphere allowed students and post-doctoral fellows to meet scientists from industry, biotech and academia and to chat about opportunities and challenges of careers in these fields. We sincerely thank The Protein Society for their financial support of the Career and Networking Mixer.

The annual NSF/NIH Funding Workshop was held on Monday, July 23. Ellis Bell and Kamal Shukula from NSF and Ravi Basavappa, Salvatore Secchi, and Paula Flicker from NIH were on hand to share insight into the grant application and review process and to field questions from the audience. Judith Klein-Seetharaman chaired the Career Panel on Tuesday, July 24.
Representing a range of positions across industry and academia, the panelists were: Susan Sonej Pochapsky, Associate Research Professor, Director of Superconducting Magnet Facility, Brandeis University; Ada Yonath, Weizmann Institute, Professor of Structural Biology; Lila M. Gierasch, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Departments of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and Chemistry; John A. McLean, Vanderbilt University, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, Vanderbilt Institute of Chemical Biology; Mark Gerstein, Yale University, Professor of Biomedical Informatics, Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, and Computer Science; and Grace Wong, Actokine. In response to questions from the audience, the panelists expressed their views on making the choice between pursuing a master’s or doctoral degree and between academic or industrial post-doctoral positions, Important aspects to consider when choosing a doctoral or post-doctoral advisor were also discussed.

The Career and Networking Committee again assisted with the selection of abstracts to provide early career scientists the opportunity to share their research during the main sessions each day. As always, the twenty-one Young Protein Scientists Talks presented high-caliber research and stimulated great interest with the audience. The speakers were: M. Junker (University of Notre Dame), S. Kathuria (University of Massachusetts Medical School), A. Keating (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), E. Gardner (University of Pittsburgh), N. Fitzkee (Johns Hopkins University), T. Mittag (The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto), P. Huang (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Y. Lu (California Institute of Technology), L. Luheshi (University of Cambridge), N. Yeung (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), J. Ellis (University of Wisconsin-Madison), V. Albanese (Stanford University), T. Grove (Yale University), S. Patel (Princeton University), P. Sénéchal (University of Montreal), D. Termine (Baylor College of Medicine), E. Gur (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), A. Senes (University of Pennsylvania), C. Soendergaard (University College Dublin), G. Tartaglia (University of Cambridge), and E. Monsellier (University of Florence).

For several years, the Education Committee has encouraged and provided opportunities for undergraduates to participate in The Protein Society and its Symposia. This year the Career and Networking Committee organized the first Graduate Program Fair to offer undergraduates a look at training programs in protein science. The twenty-one graduate programs from across the U.S. and Canada represented this year were: University of Arkansas, Tufts University School Medicine, Virginia Tech, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Case Western Reserve University, University of Massachusetts Medical School, University of Toronto, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Brandeis University, University of Massachusetts, Stony Brook University, Johns Hopkins University, Yale University, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, University of Montana, Boston University School of Medicine, Vanderbilt University, Cold Spring Harbor Lab, University of California at San Francisco, Wake Forest University, and University of Pittsburgh. We look forward to expanding this program in 2008.

As we plan for the 22nd Symposium in 2008, the Career and Networking Committee is hoping to reformat some events and add a few new ones. If you would like to be involved, please contact the committee chair, Judith Klein-Seetharaman, by email jks33@pitt.edu or <click here> to fill out and return to the Protein Society an information request form.

Written by Melissa V. Turman, University of Vanderbilt

Career Panel (seated from left to right) Panelists: Susan Sonej Pochapsky, Associate Research Professor, Director of Superconducting Magnet Facility (Brandeis University); Ada Yonath, Professor of Structural Biology (Weizmann Institute); Lila M. Gierasch, Departments of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and Chemistry (University of Massachusetts-Amherst); John A. McLean, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, Vanderbilt Institute of Chemical Biology (Vanderbilt University); Mark Gerstein, Professor of Biomedical Informatics, Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, and Computer Science (Yale University); and Grace Wong, (Actokine) (at podium) Judith Klein-Seetharaman, Ph.D., Assistant Professor (University of Pittsburgh Medical School) – Chair, Career & Networking Committee
	Career & Networking Committee Mixer More than 300 people attended the mixer, which was organized by the Committee with support from The Protein Society.
Graduate Program Fair (left) Judith Klein-Seetharaman, Ph.D., Assistant Professor  (University of Pittsburgh Medical School) – Chair, Career & Networking Committee and Shafaq Jameeel (MIT student)
	Graduate Program Fair The newest event organized by the Committee, the inaugural Graduate Program Fair, held at the 21st Symposium, was a great success; 21 Graduate Programs throughout the U.S. were represented and 74 undergraduate students registered