In addition, once or twice a week there is a Program-wide research meeting. The speakers for these seminars are students, postdocs and faculty from participating labs. It is also the case that the thesis committees are designed to provide expert, practical advice for the trainees. Students are encouraged to seek out thesis committee members for suggestions on techniques and interpretation of data. In sum, the department can be characterized as extremely open and interactive.
All members are interested and involved in the activities of all of the labs.
We believe this to be a tremendous advantage for the training environment and we will continue to foster these and other forms of collaboration and interaction. Seminars, Journal Clubs, and Symposia. For graduate students, regular attendance and participation in these seminars rivals formal academic work in importance and students are strongly encouraged to attend and participate. Journal Club is a forum for reviewing important recent papers. Every Monday noon a student, postdoc, or faculty member describes, analyzes, and criticizes a recent paper.