Seminars and Journal Clubs
In addition to coursework, student's knowledge base is built through attending seminars and journal clubs. Developing the ability to understand and evaluate a broad range of neuroscience research is an essential component of our training program and therefore students are strongly encouraged to attend the Neuroscience seminar series as well as any other seminar or journal club related to their interest.
Weekly seminar series are offered by the Department of Neuroscience, the Behavioral Neuroscience program, the Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology, the Center for Perceptual Systems, the Waggoner Center for Alcohol and Addiction Research, the Department of Molecular Biosciences and the Division of Pharmacology & Toxicology. In assition, the Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program offers the monthly Neuroscience Dialogues seminar series. Attending these seminars allows graduate students to hear outstanding lectures given about cutting-edge research and to meet and talk with these scientists individually. Students also participate in a monthly student-only seminar in which students present their research to their fellow students.
Journal clubs in which students and faculty present results from recent literature to each other, are a means of keeping up with progress in the neuroscience literature and of developing critical thinking and oral presentation skills. There are several standing journal clubs within the Institute with topical areas of focus, such as Learning and Memory, Ion Channels, and Cellular Neurophysiology that are attended by INP faculty, students, postdoctoral fellows and technicians.