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From left, David Crouse, Ph.D., Rubens Pamies, M.D., Jeanne Ferbrache and Jamboor K. Vishwanatha, Ph.D. |
Rubens Pamies, M.D., UNMC vice chancellor for academic affairs and dean for graduate students, said the opening of the new office is the culmination of the collaborative vision of David Crouse, Ph.D., associate vice chancellor for academic affairs and associate dean for graduate studies, and Jamboor K. Vishwanatha, Ph.D., assistant dean for graduate studies and professor and vice chairman of UNMC’s department of biochemistry and molecular biology. Dr. Vishwanatha wrote the original plan for the Office of Post-Doctoral Education and has been appointed assistant dean and director of the new office.
“They recognized a number of years ago that, while we do an excellent job of recruiting, supporting and tracking our graduate students, no efforts are made at an institutional level to recruit, support and track post-doctoral research associates – the backbone of all of our research projects,” Dr. Pamies said. “Just as UNMC strives to move into the upper tiers of the nation’s research institutions through our expanding grant volume, we also need to recognize that those grants cannot be fulfilled without an ever expanding body of qualified post-doctoral fellows. We now join a list of only 19 medical institutions that have created a formal program for the post-doctoral experience.”
Dr. Crouse explained why, even in a post-doctorate-friendly environment such as UNMC, the very nature of the post-doctoral work can too easily lead to feelings of inequality.
“Most post-docs are traditionally ‘hired’ by a principal investigator to work on a specific funded research project,” Dr. Crouse said. “Their support is thus linked to the project that pays their salary and each lab or department has somewhat different practices regarding ‘their’ post-docs. Many post-docs feel significant pressure (real or self-imposed) to work hard on the project and be as productive as possible in the publication of papers and other scholarly activities that will establish their credentials as marketable for faculty or private/government positions.
“Post-docs have reputations for working hard and saying little, as far as requesting more benefits and attention to their particular needs, because they are dependent upon strong letters of recommendation from their mentors for their future careers.”
Dr. Vishwanatha has personally trained a number of post-doctoral fellows. He has first-hand experiences with both their achievements and the problems they face, especially those post-docs who are minorities or come to UNMC from overseas nations.
For the past 10 years, Dr. Vishwanatha has taken initiatives to develop interactions with minority institutions and increase the number of minority students attending UNMC’s medical and graduate schools. He has brought underrepresented minority undergraduate students from Texas, Georgia and South Carolina to the university’s undergraduate research program – some of whom have returned to UNMC for their Ph.D. and M.D. programs.
Recently, Dr. Vishwanatha was appointed as a member of the American Association of Medical Colleges GREAT Group (Graduate Research Education and Training Group) “Task Force on Underrepresented Minorities in Biomedical Sciences.” He has given research presentations at different minority institutions throughout the nation and represented UNMC at numerous national conferences focusing on developing more minorities in medical research.
“In simple terms, the purpose of UNMC’s Office of Post-Doctoral Education is to provide post-doctoral research associates here with the skills, knowledge and experience necessary to pursue and excel in their future career positions,” Dr. Vishwanatha said.
“But a great number of post-doctoral fellows at UNMC are from international institutions, and this is their first exposure to American life. The problems they face are different from American post-docs. Many of them come with families and face numerous problems in getting their lives started here.
“I have dealt with post-docs who cannot buy a car or get electricity to their apartment because they do not have established credit. It is very important for us to provide a forum for the post-docs to come together and share their cultures and experiences.”
When the Office of Post-Doctoral Education opens, Dr. Vishwanatha will be working closely with his newly appointed program coordinator, Jeanne Ferbrache, former director of academic records. They will create a Council of Post-Doctoral Education that will consist of senior and junior faculty members and senior and junior post-doctoral research associates. This Council will meet regularly and deal with recruitment and training of post-docs, organize career development and training workshops, and begin the process of tracking the progress of the university’s post-docs.
Ferbrache will help post-docs understand and comply with the network of policies and procedures that govern their position on campus; centralize some of the activities of the many independent summer undergraduate research programs on campus; and create a database that will assist the tracking and follow-up with both post-docs and undergraduate researchers.
“I also hope to provide more personalized services and community contacts for our post-docs to assist them in getting settled in Omaha,” Ferbrache said. “We are even considering a monthly newsletter to keep post-docs informed about their group and what their peers are doing around the nation.”
Dr. Pamies noted that economic surveys indicate that for every million dollars in grant funds, approximately 212 new jobs are created — a third of which are probably in support of the grant, which translates into many more post-docs being needed to fulfill research projects on UNMC’s campus in the coming years.
“When a student graduates from med school, he or she now has to learn the fine art of communicating with patients and the details of their specialty,” Dr. Pamies said. “We envision the Office of Post-Doctoral Education as essentially a ‘residency’ for researchers.”
Post-docs in the program will learn the fine art of scientific presentations and public speaking; portfolio development; biomedical communications such as electronic blackboard and PowerPoint; mentoring and conflict resolution; resume writing and interview skills; and how to develop career opportunities and teaching opportunities, including promotion within UNMC.
“By making the post-doctorate fellow feel valued and enfranchised, by extending better compensation and benefits, and helping them become more productive and competitive on the job market, UNMC will benefit many times over,” Dr. Pamies said.
“We will receive increased productivity, improved graduate student training from high quality post-docs, enhanced recruiting and retention of high-quality post-doctoral research associates and an exponential rise in our current outstanding reputation for post-doctoral training.”