Centers

The Center’s Career Development Program, directed by Dr. Joseph Graziano, provides financial support, mentoring, and training for a highly selective group of junior faculty members whose current research interests complement the Center’s themes and disease focus areas. The goal is to foster their development as independent investigators in environmental health science, while furthering the overall mission of the Center and the NIEHS.

Selection of Candidates

In order to attract promising young investigators to the Center whose expertise complements that of current Center members, and whose research lends itself to the testing of new hypotheses concerning environmental components of human diseases, we provide $50,000/year of support to the research programs of each of two junior faculty members for 2 years.

Candidates are solicited from various department chairs, division heads, and other leaders who are asked to submit one to three names of possible candidates for support, along with brief biographical sketches and descriptions of their anticipated career trajectories.

The Executive Committee selects the candidates for support. The selection criteria used include the following: a) the appropriateness of the candidate’s research of interest to the mission of the Center and the NIEHS; b) an evaluation of a personal statement by the candidate; c) previous training; d) the likelihood that Center support and involvement will cultivate an appropriate NIEHS research proposal; e) a letter of recommendation from the nominating senior faculty member; and f) past research achievements.

Mentorship and Oversight of Career Development

Each junior faculty member chosen to receive Center support is guided by a three-member mentorship team consisting of Dr. Graziano and two other senior faculty members, one with expertise in the faculty members pre-existing area of expertise, and the other with expertise in an appropriate sub-area of environmental health sciences. Mentorship teams meet with the junior faculty members every four months to monitor research progress and assess the overall progression of their career development, and to offer advice as needed.

Activities of Awardees

Trainees are taught about the various K-awards available across the NIH, as well as R01 grant mechanisms and appropriate Study Sections for their applications. Trainees are also taught to comprehend research grant financial statements, negotiate all of the idiosyncrasies inherent to the Columbia system and become proficient at grant budget management.

They attend the Centers outstanding seminar series that combines a world-class series of outside experts in environmental health science with seminars by Center scientists. In order for the supported trainees to learn new skills and take full advantage of the resources provided to investigators by the CEHNM, each trainee conducts a short rotation in each of the facility cores.

In particular, the Exposure Assessment Facility Core offers an opportunity to learn basic skills concerning the appropriate collection and management of environmental samples. The Integrative Health Science Facility Core provides the opportunity to learn about collection of questionnaire data and biological samples, as well as data management. These rotations will allow trainees to appreciate the range of expertise available in the Center that could be incorporated into their own research; the Trace Metals Core Laboratory may also be of interest to a selected number of trainees.