Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Receives Award from Burroughs Wellcome Fund
In recognition of its innovative efforts to prepare the next generation of physicians and scientists, the Postdoc Executive Committee at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai was recently awarded a grant by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, a private foundation dedicated to advancing biomedical sciences, to enhance the Postdoctoral Training program. The grant will fund Mount Sinai’s Future Leaders in Science Education and Communication Training Program, which will be one of just seven programs across the United States to receive this prestigious award.
“Effective science communication and education is a gateway to diverse careers in academia, teaching, and science, but practical, hands-on training in these areas can often be difficult to achieve – an obstacle that we look to address through our Future Leaders program,” said Alison P. Sanders, PhD, postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Preventive Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, who leads the program along with postdocs Eric S. Sweet, PhD, and Ryan J. Cummings, PhD. “We’re thankful to the Burroughs Wellcome Fund for recognizing and supporting our work.”
The Future Leaders in Science Education and Communication Training Program, which began last year, is designed to enhance teaching and science communication skills for postdoctoral fellows. It includes courses that give trainees practical skills in active teaching methods; classroom-based science literacy and enrichment in the Boys & Girls Harbor after-school program for fifth graders; and the opportunity to guest lecture in classes under the guidance of a faculty member from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Fifteen outstanding postdoctoral fellows from more than eight academic departments completed the short-course component of the program in November 2015, and are currently teaching in both fifth grade and graduate-level courses. A second cohort will be selected for training starting in May 2016. Applications are due April 25, 2016. Drs. Sanders, Sweet and Cummings hope to continue the successful training program in future years. “This program fills a gap in the postdoctoral training program here at Mount Sinai, since there are few teaching opportunities available to postdocs,” said Dr. Sanders. “We are truly impressed with the wide breadth of scientific expertise represented in this cohort and their passion for sharing science with others.”
About the Mount Sinai Health System
Mount Sinai Health System is one of the nation’s leading integrated academic health systems and one of the largest in the New York metropolitan area. Its comprehensive system includes seven hospitals, more than 400 outpatient practices, over 600 research and clinical laboratories, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, and the Mount Sinai Phillips School of Nursing. Together, the Health System comprises approximately 48,000 employees, more than 9,000 physicians, and 8,600 nurses.
As a leading learning health system, Mount Sinai combines clinical expertise with scientific discovery to improve patient care while training the next generation of health care and biomedical leaders. The Health System provides care across every stage of life, from prenatal care through geriatrics, while advancing personalized medicine through artificial intelligence, data science, and biomedical research.
Mount Sinai is consistently recognized among the nation’s leading academic health systems for patient care, research, and education. The Mount Sinai Hospital is ranked No. 1 in New York by Newsweek and No. 5 on the magazine’s World’s Best Hospitals list. The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai ranks No. 11 among U.S. medical schools and No. 1 among freestanding medical schools for National Institutes of Health funding, reflecting the strength of its scientific enterprise and leadership in biomedical research.
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