Junior Scientist Training Program from FAES/NIH

The goal of the Junior Scientist Training Program is to provide quality training program at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that bridges the gap between the level of laboratory skills biology graduates have acquired, to the proficiency level needed to effectively compete for a laboratory technician position. Ideal candidates are fourth year biology majors, recent college graduates or those in the sciences who need to strengthen their laboratory skills.

Program Description:

Using the FAES's Bio-Trac training resources at the NIH, selected students will attend a nine month workshop encompassing fifteen hands-on laboratory sessions (seventy-five contact hours) covering the latest relevant laboratory techniques in molecular biology. These selected methods have been identified by NIH scientists and private industry representatives to be techniques that research technicians would implement on a day-to-day basis.

Participants would also be required to view online, selected lectures (approximately thirty hours) that are part of the current FAES Bio-Trac curriculum offered at the NIH. These lectures, which are taught at a graduate level by local researchers, will cover many areas of biotechnology that will introduce and reinforce the subject matter given in the laboratory.

Participating researchers will be available to serve as mentors for interns who participate in the program.

Students will gain extensive experience in laboratory techniques that are necessary to excel in the sciences once completed. Upon conclusion of the program, participants would receive six graduate credits from the FAES, have increased their competitive value for positions such as a research technician and strengthened their graduate school or internship application if persuing graduate studies.

Deadline: The program starts in September 2011, and registration is currently open.

Website: http://www.biotrac.com/pages/Tracs/Trac_Junior_Scientist_Training_Program.html