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How does mentoring work in the world of academic research? How do I find a research mentor? If I wish to be a mentor, how do I let young investigators know this? What is expected of each person in a mentor-mentee relationship? What skills can be learned (and taught) via a mentoring relationship and what are its limitations?

The July CCTS Forum on “Mentoring Across the Career Spectrum” will explore these questions and more, providing tips on how to find a mentor (or become one), align expectations with your new mentor/mentee, and maintain effective communication. The importance of creating an Individual Development Plan (IDP), a training tool strongly encouraged by NIH for all grad students and postdocs supported by an NIH grant, will also be addressed.

The forum will also highlight mentoring resources available at UAB and beyond. Among these resources is the UAB Training Interdisciplinary & Emerging Research Scholars (TIERS) program, which offers career planning and development support to pre-professional students, postdocs, and early career faculty in “a relaxed environment structured to promote collaborative learning, networking, and problem solving.”

Featured speakers include CCTS Training Director David D. Chaplin, MD, PhD, professor, Microbiology; CCTS Mentored Career Development and Predoctoral Training programs Director Kenneth S. Saag, MD, MSc, professor of medicine, UAB Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology; UAB Associate Dean for Physician Scientist Development Robin Lorenz, MD, PhD; UAB Associate Dean for Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs Lisa Schwiebert, PhD; and Program Director Ann Smith, Division of Preventive Medicine and member of the National Research Mentoring Network.

Refreshments will be served at the July Forum, which will take place Wednesday July 6th from 4:45-6pm at UAB’s PCAMS Building. You may also attend via GoToMeeting (for additional info visit our Monthly Forum page).  More