This document discusses mentoring trainees in research, focusing on PhD/non-MD perspectives. It defines trainees as those undergoing temporary training, such as postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduate students. The role of mentors is to facilitate trainees' transition to the next stage. Mentoring involves research training, communication skills development, and career guidance. The document provides guidance on mentoring different trainee types, including focusing postdocs on independent research, giving PhD students opportunities to explore new ideas, providing well-defined projects for masters students, and exposing undergraduates to research. It also discusses generalizable skills and tools to support effective mentoring.

1. Mentoring Trainees in Research
The PhD/non-MD Perspective
Peder Larson
Associate Professor
@pezlarson

2. Mentoring Trainees in Research2
What is a Trainee?
(PhD/non-MD)
 “A person undergoing training for
a particular job or profession”
 Inherently a temporary position
 Postdocs, graduate students,
undergraduate students
 Our role: facilitate their transition
to the next stage

3. Mentoring Trainees in Research3
What is Mentoring in Research?
 Education: theoretical principles
 Research training: technical/lab skills, data analysis
skills, project development, collaborative research,
project management
 Communication Skills: abstracts, papers, grants,
talks, how to use Zoom
 Career Development: options awareness, CV,
networking, references

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Mentee Types: Postdoc

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Mentoring Postdocs
 Goal: Progression from more to less supervised research
 Education
- Typically informal, can provide support by connecting with experts, attending
conferences
 Research
- PhD gives them foundation for cutting-edge research
- Support continued development of skills, but with progression to independent
research with increased ownership
- Develop collaborative research skills (critical for modern biomedical research)
through working across teams and providing them opportunities to managing
teamwork

6. Mentoring Trainees in Research6
Mentoring Postdocs
 Goal: Progression from more to less supervised research
 Selecting a Research Project
- Usually hired to support an ongoing, funded project
- Give substantial responsibility in project: successful postdocs will rise to the
challenge
- Provide opportunity to develop their own ideas: this is what they need to succeed
in independent research position
- Should be able to manage multiple projects at once
- My philosophy: start with 75-100% on ongoing lab project, and then transition to
increased independent work (can be based on rate of success in projects and
securing fellowships)

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Mentoring Postdocs
 Goal: Progression from more to less supervised research
 Communication
- Should be proficient in paper writing and have some oral presentation skills
- Become more active in grant writing, especially their own (e.g. postdoctoral
fellowships, investigator status for more senior postdocs)
- Provide them with opportunities to present their work at meetings, conferences,
etc.
 Career Development
- Most postdocs are interested in academia
- Make them aware of different options in academia
- Help them navigate the academic job market
- Provide access to networks

8. Mentoring Trainees in Research8
Mentee Types: PhD Students

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Mentoring PhD Students
 Goal: Develop skills to do cutting-edge research, Broad literacy with
specialized expertise
 Education
- Formal coursework for ~2 years
- Learning from experts (other grad students, postdocs, researchers)
 Research
- Critical time to develop research skills, starting with technical/lab and analysis,
and building up independence
- Provide necessary them the necessary resources and infrastructure to succeed
- Access to collaborators and learn how to do team-based research, but with
caution not to overwhelm

10. Mentoring Trainees in Research10
Mentoring PhD Students
 Goal: Develop skills to do cutting-edge research, Broad literacy with
specialized expertise
 Selecting a Research Project
- They have 3-5 years committed to research, which provides great opportunity to
explore bigger new ideas or directions
- Focus on a single project/idea
- Initial scope of project should be well-defined
- Qualifying Exam is a wonderful opportunity to flush out project ideas, and have
them scrutinized by your peers

11. Mentoring Trainees in Research11
Mentoring PhD Students
 Goal: Develop skills to do cutting-edge research, Broad literacy with
specialized expertise
 Communication
- Teach them how to write a research paper
- Teach them how to present your work
 Career
- Awareness of career options (connect with previous graduates in different paths)
- Provide access to networks in industry and academia

12. Mentoring Trainees in Research12
 Specialized expertise
 Mentored, original, bold
research
 Broad literacy and
perspective
 Team-based research
 Math/statistics/computation
skills
 Three “Tools of the trade”
- Identify Important problem
- Design experiments
- Select Results for follow-up
 Working familiarity with
career options
Keith Yamamoto
https://www.nationalacademies.org/event/05-28-2015/docs/D641B5DAC0F83BC9CE059B13B560EB2196EDD5B10F61

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Mentee Types: Masters Students

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Mentoring Masters (MSBI)
Students
 Goal: Develop more specialized skills (biomedical imaging)
 Education
- Formal coursework for 9 months
- Embedded learning in research
 Research
- Often getting first exposure to research
- Develop technical/lab and analysis skills
- Create thesis relatively quickly

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Mentoring Masters (MSBI)
Students
 Goal: Develop more specialized skills (biomedical imaging)
 Selecting a Research Project
- Time is short! 3 unit research elective in spring to develop project idea and
establish some foundation, then 2-3 months in summer full time to complete.
Think carefully about the scope
- Best to have strong supervision from you or other lab member
- Many students will stay beyond the thesis which can extend the scope and results
of the project

16. Mentoring Trainees in Research16
Mentoring Masters (MSBI)
Students
 Goal: Develop more specialized skills (biomedical imaging)
 Communication
- Present thesis project
- Contribute to abstract or paper
 Career
- Academics: support PhD application
- Professional school: support MD application
- Industry: Networking (we should promote our graduates since they can offer
unique skills to companies with imaging components)

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Mentee Types: Undergraduate Students

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Mentoring Undergraduate
Students
 Goal: Provide exposure to research
 Education
- Embedded learning in research. Often requires extra effort since coursework has
not yet provided sufficient preparation
 Research
- Often getting first exposure to research
- Develop a technical, lab or analysis skill with a well-defined and clearly
supervised task

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Mentoring Undergraduate
Students
 Goal: Provide exposure to research
 Selecting a Research Project
- I have not been very successful in choosing undergrad projects
- Skill set for many advanced imaging research is not yet developed, and it is hard
to develop on the side as an undergrad
- Ideas: directly apply skills learning in courses (e.g. machine learning, filter design,
software) in a well-defined research task

20. Mentoring Trainees in Research20
Mentoring Undergraduate
Students
 Goal: Provide exposure to research
 Communication
- Help them to learn to read scientific papers
- Look for opportunity for them to present their work(e.g. summer research
symposium)
 Career
- Academics: support PhD application
- Professional school: support MD application
- Industry: Networking

21. Mentoring Trainees in Research21
Generalizable Skills for Trainees
 What is Research? How to identify and/or approach a new
problem. We offer this skill to trainees
- Assess state-of-the-art
- Acquire knowledge
- Propose and scrutinize possible solutions
 Hard skills
- Software (establish GitHub presence)
- Engineering (fabrication, testing)
- Wet Lab skills

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Tools for Mentors
 Individual Development plans (IDPs) https://career.ucsf.edu/IDP
- written list of goals mapped to a timeline, and includes goal setting for research
projects, skills development, and career planning
 Meetings
- Regular opportunities for research and mentoring updates
- Annual/Semi-annual review of overall progress
 UCSF Office of Career and Professional Development
 Bioengineering Graduate program – Head Graduate advisors
 MSBI – Program Directors

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Happy Mentoring!