Professional Development Activities

PEB Career Series - exploring careers with a Ph.D. in Physics, Engineering, or Biology

It is important for graduate students to be thinking about what they will do after graduate school. More so than ever, science Ph.D.s are employed in virtually all job sectors, including academia (both as faculty/lecturers and as staff), industry (both as scientists and in marketing/business development), government (whether at a National Lab as a researcher or at the NIH or non-profit as a program officer), consulting, law, finance, etc.

Therefore, in PEB, it is our goal to ensure that our graduate students have regular opportunities to learn about various job sectors that Physics, Engineering, and Biology Ph.D.s work in, and to get to interact one-on-one with such folks.

Many of our speakers/panelists are Yale alumni.

 

 

 

Careers in Academia - November 15, 2016

Our panel about careers in academia featured lecturers and assistant professors in a variety of disciplines from a small college as well as large universities.

Our panelists were:

Ann Miller, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology

​Unive​rsity of Michigan

Rona Ramos, Ph.D.

Lecturer

Department of Physics

Yale University

Michael Murrell, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Department of Biomedical Engineering

Yale University

Emily Tarsis, Ph.D.

Lecturer

Department of Chemistry

Connecticut College

PEB students enjoyed lunch with the panelists after the discussion.

 

Careers in Industry - June 28, 2016

Our goal with the career panel in industry we put together in June, 2016, was to feature a range of jobs and experience-levels within industry.

Our panelists were:

Rachael Felberbaum, Ph.D.

Senior Director, Business Development

Protein Science Corporation

Fran Perler, Ph.D.

Senior Research Scientist

New England Biolabs, Inc.

Gerald Hodgkinson, Ph.D.

Principal Scientist - Technical Fellow

Medtronic

Meghan Griffin, Ph.D.

Development Scientist I, Late Stage Purification Development

Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

After the panel discussion, PEB students went to dinner with the panelists.

 

 

Communication

We believe that one of the most important skills to learn as a scientist, which will be useful in any career, is the ability to communicate effectively. How can you get your message across, clearly, concisely, and in a way that no matter who your audience is, they will understand and be engaged?

As part of this effort, we have interwoven a range of opportunities to allow PEB students to present to both science and lay audiences. For example, the Integrated Workshop features a session on communicating science, all second-year PEB students give short talks on their proposed thesis work at the Sackler Discussion Group, and we have a rich selection of outreach activities, with a strong relationship with Yale’s Science Diplomats. We have also supported Robert Bazell, in his efforts to put together a short science communication course that focuses on presenting science to the general public.