Being a PhD Student at the Institute of Molecular Medicine

By etavares On 31 March, 2009 Research and Advanced Education | 2009 Comments Off No tags

“Join up, they said…” bemoan the unfortunate Roman soldiers in the Asterix stories who, having been tempted into belonging to a strong army and a good life, cyclically end up in the hands of the bold Gallic heroes.

“Join up, come and do a PhD in the IMM”, we challenge. But unlike the Roman soldiers, we do not expect to hear disappointment from the mouths of the young researchers who choose the IMM to carry out their PhD projects.

Along with becoming a member of excellent research groups, being a PhD student at the IMM means belonging to a team that is highly motivated towards carrying out science and contributing to the advancement of biomedical research, as well as having access to a broad complementary training. It also means being up to such a challenge… For this reason, in the IMM we are committed to providing our PhD students with a global programme, that allows them to take utmost advantage of the culture of research and enterprise that is breathed in the institute. And we have lived up to expectations: our students show a strong identification with the IMM and have been committed to answering the challenges we set them.

Our programme of activities currently includes 67 Portuguese and foreign students who are developing their PhD projects at the IMM in one of the institute’s three research programmes: Cell and Development Biology; Immunology and Infectious Diseases; and Neurosciences.

Each student develops an individual scientific programme based on clinical research or laboratory practice, with their training being closely accompanied by their scientific orientator (a lead researcher at the IMM) and by the student’s Thesis Committee. The committee is made up of two researchers from the scientific area of the PhD project, with one of them chosen by the student among the main researchers at the IMM to be their Tutor.

Besides the individual scientific project, the students’ training is complemented by three essential components: nanocourses (or complementary training courses); an annual encounter and seminars.

The objective of the nanocourses is the students’ scientific, technical and personal training. The choice of the nanocourses to be attended is up to the student, after agreement with the scientific orientator, and it aims at granting the students a solid but flexible training in line with each student’s requirements. The nanocourses are organized by the programme team with the scientific support of the institute’s main researchers and guest orators, covering specific areas of biomedical sciences and general areas of techniques of personal development.

Another component of the programme is the Annual Encounter of IMM PhD Students, in which each student presents their work. This type of events creates an environment favourable to the exchange of ideas, knowledge and contacts, fundamental aspects in the building of a successful scientific career. The Annual Encounter also aims at helping students to reflect on issues inherent to scientists’ professional activities: What is making science? What are the best options for following a good scientific career? How does publishing scientific works function?

The Encounter is organized by the students themselves, who define the issues to be dealt with and who the guest speakers are. The last Encounter of IMM PhD Students was held in September 2008 and was attended by several internationally-renowned scientists, such as the Nobel for Medicine of Physiology for 2006 – Professor Craig Mello (see figure).

Also in the programme there is a PhD Students Committee, made up of volunteer students. In accepting this challenge, students have the opportunity to work in a group, plan the organization of events and manage the resources available for the programme according to the scientific interests of all the students at the institute. This group is responsible for managing some of the tasks that involve students and organizing annual events like the Annual Encounter and also the Annual Student Retreat. On the weekend Retreat, students and PhD researchers carry out leisure and scientific activities in a group in a relaxed atmosphere. The aim is to stimulate social and scientific interaction within the institute’s community.

Besides the components belonging to the Programme, every week there is a series of scientific seminars at the IMM which students are strongly advised to attend. These are presented by researchers from the institute or invited from other Portuguese and foreign institutions. Whenever there is a guest orator, the IMM provides a lunch with the PhD students for them to get to know the guest and discuss science in an informal atmosphere. The Onboard Talks are another type of scientific meeting at the IMM, for which the PhD students are exclusively responsible. These are informal presentations in which each student shares the difficulties, curiosities or new solutions found in the daily activity of their PhD project.

The organization the PhD students’ programme of activities is carried out by the IMM Communication and Training Unit, orientated by the Programme Director, Dr António Jacinto, and the Scientific Committee, made up of Dr Ana E. de Sousa and Dr Isabel P. Martins.

The programme’s aims, however, are shared by everyone at the IMM: to contribute to a team spirit in which the will to be among the best motivates the students to each day commit themselves to the curiosity and reward of better understanding the world.