Postdoctoral Training

Program Components

The training experience will include four separate, required components individualized according to the background of each trainee.

1. Research Experience

All trainees will have a primary assignment, of their choice, to a research team or lab of one of the core faculty mentors. This experience will vary across trainees from an independent project supervised by the mentor to a major role in an ongoing research project. The aim of this experience is to develop substantial expertise in the content area and methods of a particular area of research. Trainees will be expected to present research at the NDRC Investigator Forum as well as other local and national venues. Successful trainees will complete a first authored, original research paper during the second year of the training fellowship.

2. Core Didactic Experience

Weekly Readings Seminar (four semesters)
All trainees will participate in a 2-hour Weekly Readings Seminar covering topics relevant to neurodevelopmental disorders and led by training program faculty or selected invited seminar leaders. The aim of this seminar is not to provide an in-depth coverage of any one area of post graduate study (e.g., molecular biology), but rather to cover commonalities across perspectives that will enable potential collaborative interactions among trainees and provide a basis for further readings by trainees in areas of interest.

Ongoing NDRC Seminars
Trainees will be expected to attend monthly NDRC Investigator Forums, and quarterly research colloquia where center investigators and others will be invited to present their research.

3. Related Didactic Training

Each trainee will be a member of a department or center and will have available to them a range of ongoing educational opportunities including regular seminars e.g., the Weekly Neuroscience Seminar; Brain Imaging and Analysis Center (BIAC) Seminar, Departmental Grand Rounds etc.

4. Individualized Additional Training

Clinical Experience
On completion of the fellowship each trainee will be expected to have a working knowledge of research in the area they have chosen and to have a broad appreciation of the relationship of this and other research to clinical issues in neurodevelopmental disorders. In order to accomplish this goal supplementary training experiences will be arranged for trainees without any clinical background and for those who want additional, focused, supplementary clinical experiences. This experience will be ongoing throughout the two years of training and will consist mostly of attendance/observation regularly at one of a number of clinical opportunities.

Selected Basic Research and Didactic Experiences
Both basic and clinical researchers will identify areas that they desire basic training or didactic learning experiences. For example, clinicians developing expertise in research approaches may want to attend graduate courses in biostatistics or epidemiology. Basic science trainees may have specific training needs that will require attendance in other laboratories.