Biomedical Ph.D. Career Development Trends: Implications for Workforce Development & Diversity

Wednesday, October 22, 2014 at 3:00 – 4:00 PM Location: Memorial Union, MUII room (2nd floor)

Target Audience: STEM faculty, postdocs, and students

Recent biomedical workforce policy efforts have centered on the twin challenges of enhancing career preparation for graduate students and postdocs, and increasing diversity in the research workforce & professoriate. Dr. Gibbs will discuss results of his work that has focused on the graduate and postdoctoral training experiences and career-decision making of recent Ph.D. graduates, and whether/how these differ across lines of race/ethnicity and gender.

Specifically, Dr. Gibbs will share from a focus group study (see reference below), and national survey of 1500, recent biomedical PhD graduates (including 276 from URM backgrounds).

“What Do I Want to Be with My PhD? The Roles of Personal Values and Structural Dynamics in Shaping the Career Interests of Recent Biomedical Science PhD Graduates” Kenneth Gibbs Jr and Kimberly A. Griffin, CBE Life  Sciences  Education, 2013,  p  711-723. 

For more info and to RSVP: http://goo.gl/forms/IScrjZUBrE

Kenneth Gibbs, Jr., PhD, is a Cancer Prevention Fellow at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Dr. Gibbs conducts policy-relevant research aimed at strengthening the research enterprise. His work focuses on:

Biomedical Graduate and Postdoctoral Training, Workforce Development & Workforce Diversity. (See more at: www.linkedin.com/in/stemphdcareers/)
Developing methodologies for evaluation and dissemination of best practices in “team science”.

Prior to the NCI, Dr. Gibbs completed an AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowship at the National Science Foundation. Dr. Gibbs completed his PhD in Immunology at Stanford University, and received his BS in biochemistry and molecular biology summa cum laude from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County where he was a Meyerhoff, MARC, and HHMI scholar. Dr. Gibbs also serves on the Board of Directors for the National Postdoctoral Association, and has written about career development for Science Careers.