Goals and Objectives

The main purpose and ultimate goal of the Training Program is to provide high quality training and research experience for predoctoral trainees who will be thoroughly competent in the scholarly pursuit of independent careers in neuroscience research and teaching, especially as they relate to developmental neuroscience in mental health and disease. The specific objectives of the Program include the following:

1. To develop and nurture an interactive and productive training environment for predoctoral trainees to learn and conduct research. Research training will be provided by 16 preceptors from various departments and disciplines, constituting the Program Faculty, who have in common a keen interest in predoctoral training in developmental neuroscience. All members of the Program Faculty hold full-time primary faculty appointments in the Medical Center or the College of Arts, Sciences and Engineering, and their laboratories are in proximity within the compact University of Rochester campus. The physical proximity facilitates cross-fertilization of research methodologies, ideas and training opportunities.
2. To enrich the graduate experience of predoctoral trainees by tailoring training and research to the needs of individual trainees in developmental neuroscience.
3. To support developmental neuroscience seminars, journal clubs and survival skills workshops.
4. To optimize quality mentoring of predoctoral trainees by fostering close communication among trainees, their peers, their preceptors and the Training Program. Program. In addition to the activities described above, the Training Program will participate in sponsoring collateral enrichment activities in coordination with the Neuroscience Cluster and the Interdepartmental Graduate Program in Neuroscience.