Ambika Mathur, Ph.D., professor of Pediatrics for the Wayne State University School of Medicine and dean of the WSU Graduate School, has been invited to speak at the annual meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, the world's largest and most respected eye and vision research organization.
"Dr. Mathur will speak at the career forum organized by the Members-in-Training Committee of the ARVO," said Ashok Kumar, Ph.D., assistant professor of WSU Ophthalmology and of Anatomy/Cell Biology. Dr. Kumar is a member of the MIT Committee and the organizer of the workshop. Members-in-training are ARVO members who are students and/or trainees in the early stages of their career.
ARVO has nearly 12,000 members from more than 75 countries. The annual meeting will take place May 3-7 in Denver, Colo.
"The committee monitors the issues facing members-in-training and recommends ways for ARVO to respond. Our goals are to enhance the experience of MITs at ARVO and to help provide avenues for them to learn about ways in which they can build successful careers in ophthalmology and vision research," Dr. Kumar said. "This includes targeted events and workshops at the annual meeting, opportunities for networking with colleagues, and information about funding and professional development.
"The career forum is a very popular event among the MITs, and every year we invite both ARVO and non-ARVO members to speak on different topics relevant to career development," Dr. Kumar added. "Dr. Mathur's nomination as a potential speaker was unanimously approved by the committee as we felt that she will bring different perspective to our trainees when choosing their career paths. I had several opportunities to work with Dr. Mathur in organizing workshops and symposiums for WSU trainees and postdocs when she was the director of the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs. I really appreciate that Dr. Mathur accepted our invitation despite her busy schedule, especially at the end of the academic year."
"I'm very pleased to have this opportunity to share my ideas of diversifying the biomedical research workforce among vision researchers, as well as providing multiple career opportunities for researchers both in and beyond academia," Dr. Mathur said. "I am grateful to the MIT Committee and Dr. Kumar for extending the invitation. I very much look forward to attending the ARVO."
Dr. Mathur secured a five-year, $1.8 million grant as part of the National Institutes of Health's Broadening Experience in Scientific Training, or BEST, awards. The grant will create training programs to prepare biomedical pre- and postdoctoral trainees for careers outside of traditional tenure-track, faculty positions. The goal of WSU's BEST program is to broaden the research scientific careers of graduate students to include industry, government and entrepreneurial pursuits.
Most research programs have traditionally focused on preparing students for postdoctoral training and careers in academia. National trends, however, indicate that less than 25 percent of doctoral students obtain tenure-track faculty positions. The BEST program seeks to place students in diverse careers in addition to academia, and to educate the biomedical community that such diverse careers are viewed as desirable and successful outcomes of doctoral research training.
The BEST grant is one of only 10 awarded nationwide.
Dr. Mathur also received the NIH Director's Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity Award. She is the only principal investigator to hold both the BUILD and the BEST grants in the country.
"I will be sharing our strategies and early outcomes of the BEST and BUILD grants at ARVO," she said.
The $21.2 million Research Enhancement for Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity program — known as REBUILD Detroit —aims to create a program that will encourage more undergraduate students from underrepresented and economically disadvantaged backgrounds to pursue careers in biomedical research. The program involves a consortium that includes Marygrove College, University of Detroit Mercy and Wayne County Community College District.