OMV Workshop 2015

“Preparing Yourself for a Non-academic Career in Science”

Jon Hamilton from NPR’s Science Desk discusses his career path “From Nabokov to Neurons”.

The Ohio Miami Valley Chapter of the Society of Neuroscience held its second annual day-long professional development workshop on January 27, 2015. The meeting was a terrific success with over 70 participants in attendance throughout the day. The theme of the workshop was developed and implemented by a small committee of faculty, post-doctoral fellows, and graduate student members of OMV-SfN.

The day began with a plenary session where we heard talks from NPR science correspondent Jon Hamilton and NIH science writer Christopher Thomas, PhD. They described career odysseys which brought them to their current positions and informed the audience about necessary skills and experience needed to be a science communicator in print or radio media.

Christopher Thomas, Ph.D. from NINDS describes the opportunities he had and decisions he made to reach his current position as a science writer.

A panel discussion then took place with the science writers and others representing the pharmaceutical industry, a government research laboratory, a technical equipment representative, a medical/scientific instructor, a professional career consultant, and a lecturer in English for international students.

Following lunch, Dr. Joel Beetsch, Vice President for Patient Advocacy at CelGene Corporation, spoke at our second plenary presentation. Dr. Beetsch described how his interest and passion for clinical patient care was the primary motivator which drove his career transition from a bench research scientist to his present position.

Shannon Romer, Ph.D. leads the panel discussion on non-academic careers in science. From left to right are Dr. Romer, Jon Hamilton, Dr. Thomas, Dr. Beetsch, Carleton Barwick, Dr. Hemminger, Dr. Mahle, Dr. Graham, and Catherine Crowley.

The remaining time in the afternoon was devoted to small group interactive workshops organized by the speakers of the plenary sessions and panel discussion. One workshop used a small group format to acquaint participants with a variety of non-academic science careers including science instructors, patent officers, government laboratory researchers, and others. Additional workshops focused on preparing for the job interview, using news, electronic, and social media in the sciences, and the challenges facing the international student and mentor.
Materials and links to other online information provided by the panelists are at the bottom of this article.