What is a Young Investigator Symposium?

The Young Investigator Symposium, similar to the nanosymposia offered at the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting, is an exciting opportunity for young investigators to organize a podium session at the ARO. Talks are given from the platform every 15 minutes with 10-12 minutes of presentation followed by questions. The key differences between a regular podium session and a Young Investigator Symposium are:

• Proposed and organized by the participants rather than by the program committee
• Restricted to junior investigators: Assistant Professors, Faculty < 5 years, and Post-docs
• The talks are thematically related, not just a collection of presentations.
• A minimum of 5 topically related talks are required to create a session.
• To promote diversity, no more than two presentations from any one lab should be included 

How do the submitted symposia abstracts differ from normally submitted ARO abstracts?

The abstracts submitted as part of a Young Investigator Symposium will not differ in any way from abstracts normally submitted for the annual meeting, but an earlier submission will allow us to designate these presentations as a Young Investigator Symposium. If your symposium is accepted you will still be required to submit your abstract through the ARO website at the normal time but we will specially designate these abstracts after submission so they are grouped together. If your symposia proposal is not accepted you will still be able to submit your individual abstracts through the normal ARO submission process.   

• The NIH National Institute of General Medical Sciences Website, Resources for Applicants to Promote Biomedical Workforce Diversity: http://www.nigms.nih.gov/Training/Diversity.htm 
  
  
• The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) website: http://www.faseb.org/Policy-and-Government-Affairs/Science-Policy-Issues/Training-and-Career-Opportunities-for-Scientists/Resources-to-Enhance-Diversity-in-Science.aspx
  
  
•  The NIH Blueprint for Enhancing Neuroscience Diversity through Undergraduate Research Education Experiences (BP-ENDURE)programs serve several institutions and also recruit mentors  for neuroscience research training: http://www.nigms.nih.gov/News/Results/20100924.htm
  
  
•  UC Irvine programs:  http://port.bio.uci.edu/Default.htm
  
  
•  Faculty can attend Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students as mentors and judges and receive financial support for their efforts: http://www.abrcms.org/reviewers_judges.asp

The Minority Affairs and Diversity Committee aims to increase the early exposure of undergraduates to the field and encourages members to seek opportunities to supervise and mentor undergraduates from URM backgrounds.

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