As career opportunities for trainees in the biomedical sciences become more diverse, the Health Center is making extra efforts to raise awareness about these possibilities for its postdoctoral fellows and graduate students.

Together, the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs and the Graduate School are running a newly expanded lecture series to show students and postdocs that Ph.D.s can find work in a wide range of settings. The lectures typically draw between 20 and 60 people in the Low Learning Center and via simulcast to the Cell and Genome Sciences Building.

“Our goal is to expose students and postdocs to a variety of career options and career-enhancing skills,” said Barbara Kream, associate dean of the Graduate School, noting that some of the career options that have been featured are nontraditional. “We want students and post-docs to know there are possibilities outside of the lab that require the critical thinking skills and knowledge base of a well-trained scientist,” she added.

Some of the topics covered this year included presentations about improving grant writing skills and using social media to refine job searches. In addition, there were presentations about career options in areas such as regulatory affairs and policy, as well as research in an industry setting. Teaching at a small college and working in a nonprofit organization were also topics.

“People’s personal success stories really grab the attention of students and post-docs,” said Gerald Maxwell, associate dean for postdoctoral and external affairs, noting that the series looks to highlight Health Center graduates who have found unique and interesting career paths.

The last speaker during the spring series was Linda Rice, who completed her Ph.D. in 2000 and returned to the Health Center to talk about her career as a medical writer.

While at the Health Center, Rice studied in the lab of Laurinda Jaffe, professor and chair of the Department of Cell Biology, with a focus on developmental biology and cell biology. After completing post-doctoral studies at the University of California-Santa Barbara, she began working as a medical writer, helping other scientists complete publications for peer-reviewed journals.

She is now employed by the biotechnology powerhouse, Amgen, where she primarily assists with developing peer-reviewed publications on nephrology-related topics.

Rice says her strong science background, coupled with her lifelong interest in writing, provided a solid foundation for her career. She says the best part about her job is that she is always learning new things.

“I feel lucky to have found a field that suits me,” she adds.

Separate from her job at Amgen, Rice continues to collaborate with Jaffe. Every summer, they both participate in a reproductive biology class held at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass. – which is where they first met and what drew Rice to UConn in the first place. During the Woods Hole program, Rice teaches a class laboratory on non-mammalian reproductive biology.

Meanwhile, Kream and Maxwell are already planning the lecture series for the next academic year and expect to bring in more Health Center graduates as well as those from outside the Health Center. More details will be available in the fall.

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