PRISE Fellows 2008
WEEK VI announcements:
7/21/2008
FOCUS GROUP PARTICIPANTS: Many thanks to those of you who have signed up to participate in the focus groups being held tomorrow. If you didn't receive information via e-mail, please get in contact with me about the logistic details.
WOMEN IN SCIENCE BARBEQUE: The women of PRISE have been invited to a barbeque hosted by HGWISE, the Women's Center, and HILS tomorrow night at 6pm in the BioLabs courtyard, featuring Blue Ribbon Barbeque. This is a great opportunity to meet other women from across Harvard engaging in scientific research over the summer.
SEMINAR SERIES WEDNESDAY: Careers Off the Bench features a conversation among three individuals who received doctoral degrees in the sciences and pursued related interests in the private sector. Mary Lynne Hedley is the Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer for MGI Pharma, Incorporated, where she is a member of the executive management team and is directly responsible for research, clinical and product development, program management and global drug safety and pharmacoviglenece. Stacie Weninger, Ph.D. '99, is the director of science programs at Fidelity Foundations, and has prior experience as a senior scientist for the journal Neuron (Cell Press). Brenda Jarrell is a partner with Choate, Hall, and Stewart, and practices intellectual property law specifically for scientific enterprises. The three make a great panel and have terrific stories to tell about graduate school, their trajectories as scientists, and how they got to where they are now. The panel will be upstairs at Dudley House, Wednesday night at 7:30. See you there!
MANDATORY MEETING OF THE COMMUNITY: This Thursday evening's Distiguished Speaker Series brings, Professor of Medicine and Dean of Education at Harvard Medical School, Thomas Michel, to PRISE. This talk is open to the campus community, so feel free to bring your lab partners and invite your Pis to the talk. Thursday, July 24 at Sever Hall 113.
PRISE PRESENTATION PRACTICUM: Now that you have had the opportunity to participate in the public speaking workshop and hear Professor Kosslyn speak about slide preparation, you will have the opportunity to put theory into practice at the PRISE Presentation Practicum, run by the Program Assistants, next Monday night. Table assignments and instructions will be sent to you via e-mail later this week. Please plan to participate in this mandatory event, as the place at your table is reserved expressly for . . . YOU!
I hope you have a terrific week--stay cool!
Yours truly--Greg Llacer.
WEEK V announcements:
7/14/2008
DINNER REMINDER: Don't forget that dinner will close at 7:00pm this evening only. Trays should be returned by 7:20 to prepare for tonight's seminar, which will be held in the dining room. Thanks for your help getting to the dining room early tonight.
SEMINAR SERIES TONIGHT: Tonight's presentation features Rebekah Maggor of the Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, to provide information about public speaking and presentation strategies, the first event this week to prepare your own talk for the end of PRISE. The seminar will begin at 7:30 and feature practical tips on speaking and an opportunity for some of you to do some impromptu practicing at the podium.
ACTIVITY LOTTERY: The lottery for tickets to see Walk with the Dinosaurs at the TDBankNorth Garden Wednesday night will expire at 9:00am Tuesday. There are a very limited number for this Fellow-initiated event, so please refer to the e-mail instructions if you would like the chance to get a ticket.
MANDATORY MEETING OF THE COMMUNITY: This Thursday evening we are pleased that Dean of Social Sciences and Professor of Psychology Stephen Kosslyn, will be our Distinguished Speaker, providing valuable tips on how to develop interesting slides that are both appealing and logical to the audience. Specifically, he will present material from his book 8 Psychological Principles for Compelling PowerPoint Presentations. See you at Sever Hall 113 at 7:30pm.
PRISE PRESENTATIONS: Be on the lookout this week for e-mail from me with details about PRISE presentations, which will be held the last week of the program. You may want to start thinking about your topic for this 12-15 minute talk (followed by up to five minutes for questions).
FACULTY CHATS: The availability of dates for Faculty Chats are dwindling. I really do encourage you to consider inviting your PI for an informal meeting with Fellows. Don't let too much time go by before you get yours organized!
I hope you have a fun, productive week--see you tonight!
Yours truly--Greg Llacer.
WEEK IV announcements:
7/7/2008
SEMINAR SERIES TONIGHT: "Managing Expectations in the Lab" is the subject of this week's seminar, featuring Craig Rodgers from the Bureau of Study Counsel. Now that you have had several weeks under the belt, it's a good time to take stock: what is working out well, what could be working better? Scientific investigation is a constant give-and-take, and recognizing the need to recalibrate one's own expectations amid sometimes unexpected results is a valuable tool. Understanding the value of trial and error is critical in research, as is how to develop strategies for success in your relentless pursuit of compelling research questions that require patience and fortitude, among other things (time, resources, arcane theoretical knowledge, unfailing accuracy, cooperation with Pis and lab colleagues, humility, etc.). Craig will provide an interactive approach in thinking about how to assess and evaluate matters in the lab, and how to effectively approach challenging situations. The seminar will take place in the Dudley House common room (upstairs) at 7:30pm.
ALL-SCIENCE SUMMER BARBEQUE: This Wednesday, July 9, Harvard Integrated Life Sciences (HILS) is co-sponsoring with PRISE an all-science summer barbeque, from 4:30pm-7:30pm at the Queen's Head Pub. Please plan on eating dinner at the pub, where there will be grill food, beverages, pub games, and an opportunity for you to network with other science program participants on campus this summer. (Only very limited meal service will be available at Dudley.) Should be fun!
MANDATORY MEETING OF THE COMMUNITY: This Thursday evening we are pleased that Richard Losick, Maria Moors Cabot Professor of Biology, will be our Distinguished Speaker. The Losick lab studies development in the spore-forming bacterium Bacillus subtilis. B. subtilis undergoes an elaborate cycle of cellular differentiation that culminates in the formation of a dormant cell type, the spore. Spore formation involves the transformation of a vegetative cell into a two-compartment sporangium by asymmetric division. The compartments receive an identical chromosome yet have dissimilar developmental fates involving differential expression of distinct sets of genes. We seek to elucidate the entire regulatory circuit that governs entry into sporulation, cell-specific gene expression, and the linkage of gene expression to landmark events in morphogenesis. Other topics of interest are protein subcellular localization, chromosome segregation, intercellular signaling, and the formation of architecturally complex communities of cells. One of the great advocates for undergraduate science research experience at Harvard, Professor Losick was named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor in 2002. This Distinguished Speaker talk is open to the whole campus community--please be sure to invite your friends and lab colleagues, 7:30pm, Thursday, July 10, at 7:30pm.
NE AQUARIUM/WHALE WATCHING: Tickets for a vist to the New England Aquarium and the annual PRISE whale watching trip will be available at dinner on Thursday. Please sign up for tickets using the regular lottery protocol to prise@fas.harvard.edu, although this will be to reserve a space and not enter a lottery.
PRISE PRESENTATIONS: Be on the lookout this week for e-mail from me with details about PRISE presentations, which will be held the last week of the program. You may want to start thinking about your topic for this 12-15 minute talk (followed by up to five minutes for questions).
FACULTY CHATS: I have seen some traffic on the mail list about faculty chats, which is great. If you need a faculty chat form to complete, please let me know and I will be happy to resend the file to you.
I hope you have another terrific week--see you tonight!
Yours truly--Greg Llacer.
WEEK III announcements:
6/30/2008
PROPOSALS SCHEDULING MEETING TONIGHT: Tonight the proposal authors will meet with me at 7:30 in the upstairs commons room in Dudley House to map out the calendar for the rest of PRISE. Everyone whose proposals were accepted, regardless of whether or not they need to be plotted on the calendar, should attend this meeting to learn about logistics and administrative details.
MANDATORY MEETING OF THE PRISE COMMUNITY: On Wednesday evening Professor Jenny Hoffman from the Department of Physics will deliver this week's Distinguished Speaker lecture. Once again, we will meet at 7:30pm in Sever 113. Please join me in welcoming Professor Hoffman to her first PRISE event!
PRISE SURVEY: A very small minority of PRISE Fellows STILL have not completed the survey. Please, the survey will close in the next couple of days and we need to get everyone's responses in before the data analysis begins.
PRISE BLOGS: We have some enterprising historians among us, collecting stories about this summer on several blogs. Alissa D'Gama is writing a blog for OCS, PA Stephanie Lo continues her photoblog from last summer, and Jack Li has put together his own project. Check them out, and get in touch with them if you are out and about and want your activity captured for posterity (or just to have the pics).
INVITE YOUR LAB HOST TO DINNER REMINDER: Don't forget that you can invite your faculty research host to dinner anytime during PRISE. All you need to do is: 1) Invite your mentor and pick a date; 2) Contact Laura about getting a visitor swipe card; 3) Escort your mentor to Dudley and eat!; and 4) Return the swipe card. I will be sending an invitation directly to faculty sponsors as well, but it would be a nice gesture on your part to invte them and help draw faculty into the PRISE community.
FRIDAY IS THE FOURTH OF JULY: This week is short due to the 4th of July holiday on Friday. Please remember that there will be no meal service that day. If you never have experienced a Boston Fourth, I encourage you to get out to somewhere along the Charles early to stake your claim on space as it gets to be quite crazy. Have a fun, safe time with the multitudes!
Have a great week--I look forward to seeing you at Professor Hoffman's talk Wednesday night.
Yours truly--Greg Llacer.
WEEK II announcements:
6/23/2008
PROPOSALS MEETING: Tonight is the hugely anticipated proposals meeting, at 8:00pm in the G-spot (if it gets crowded and weather permits, we may move this out to the courtyard). I look forward to your proposals and presentations--please remember to use the .pdf form as the proposal-of-record.
MANDATORY MEETING OF THE PRISE COMMUNITY: Tomorrow night we welcome our first regular distinguished speaker of the summer, Professor Erin O'Shea, at 7:30pm in Sever 113. Please make sure you conclude your dinner by 7:20pm to give yourself time to get to Sever and find a seat before the talk begins. Your participation at this meeting is mandatory; if for some reason you will not be in Cambridge that evening, please notify me or Laura.
PRISE SURVEY: Due to a technical issue, the PRISE survey has been postponed until this week. I would appreciate it when you get the e-mail notice with the URL to complete the survey that you dive right in. Your input is extremely important, so please take the few minutes to respond.
INVITE YOUR LAB HOST TO DINNER: Did you know that you can invite your faculty research host to dinner anytime during the summer? All you need to do is: 1) Invite your mentor and pick a date; 2) Contact Laura about getting a visitor swipe card; 3) Escort your mentor to Dudley and eat!; and 4) Return the swipe card. I will be sending an invitation directly to faculty sponsors as well, but it would be a nice gesture on your part to invte them and help draw faculty into the PRISE community.
SEMINAR SERIES THURSDAY NIGHT: Ever read a really bad fellowship or research proposal? Think you can spot a winner? You will get your change Thursday night at our first PRISE seminar of the summer, on research and fellowship proposal writing. The conversation will center on proposal writing strategies, but will also touch on other important matters, such as identifying funding sources, how to select your reference writers, how to properly prepare to be competitive, etc. This seminar is for everyone, as there will be information that is worthwhile for those of you considering applying to graduate school this fall. Thursday, June 26, at 7:30pm in the upstairs lounge of Dudley House.
ACTIVITIES LOTTERIES: There will be two activities lotteries open this week: one for the Fenway Park Tour, and another to see professional Soccer at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro where the New England Revolution takes on the Toronto Football Club. Watch your e-mail for the opening of the lotteries and instructions to enter!
STEAMING UP: The National Weather Service is predicting a fairly steamy New England this week--in addition to the G-spot, don't forget you may swipe into F-tower and use the ground floor classroom, which is also air conditioned and set up with wireless service.
DUDLEY LUNCH: Ann Georgi and I tried out the new salad bar lunch at Dudley House (again, attached) and it is great. You have to be careful, though, because with so many ingredients and options we both got a bit carried away and our salads were more expensive that we expected. Still, it is great to have an actual, real salad bar, and I hope you have the opportunity to give it a shot!
Have a great week--I look forward to seeing you a lot during this week's evening activities!
Yours truly--Greg Llacer.
WEEK I announcements:
6/16/2008
CHECK IN AND STORAGE RETRIEVAL: Fellows who did not check in over the weekend should contact Laura Hunter (617-496-3439, hunter2@fas.harvard.edu), about picking up room keys and signing a house contract. Final storage retrieval is available today (Monday, June 16), from 10am-12noon, after which special arrangements will have to be made with Laura to pick up personal belongings.
WEEKDAY LUNCH SERVICE: Although PRISE does not include lunch, you may sign up to have a sack lunch made for you at a nominal price in the Dudley House Dining Hall. Please ask the dining hall staff at the register for the form. ALSO, a new service has been set up for lunch at Dudley House--an "extreme" salad bar, as well as outdoor bistro service (please see attached notices with free drink special). Since Harvard Square is sorely lacking in the salad bar department, this is a very welcome addition to the area's noontime dining choices.
ORIENTATION FOR PRISE FELLOWS IN LONGWOOD: All PRISE Fellows who are conducting research this summer at HMS, HSPH, and the Longwood-area hospitals (excluding MGH) should join me at the Longwood PRISE Orientation on Wednesday, June 18. This orientation is sponsored in part by the Division of Medical Science and HILS (Harvard Integrated Life Scientists), and will include dinner. Please make arrangements with your PI so that you may attend the orientation, beginning at 2:30pm in T-MEC 209. Please let me know if you have any questions, or if for some reason you cannot attend.
ACTIVITIES LOTTERIES: Be on the lookout for your opportunity to join the lottery for free tickets to two great PRISE-sponsored social events this weekend: the Boston Pops on the Edge Concert featuring Dresden Dolls Friday night, and the Baobob Dakar Concert, at the Somerville Theatre Saturday evening. Be on the lookout for a message Laura will be sending to all PRISE Fellows tomorrow with instructions for entering the ticket lotteries.
SOCIAL AND SCIENCE ACTIVITIES MEETINGS: This Tuesday and Thursday evenings you are invited to participate in planning sessions for Fellow-initiated activities during the summer. I encourage you to get involved and help develop these integral pieces of PRISE programming. Social activities planning will take place on Tuesday, and science activities planning will take place on Thursday--both meetings will begin at 8:00pm in the G-spot (ground floor commons room).
PRISE SURVEY: You will be receiving instructions by e-mail shortly about submitting your pre-program survey. This information is critical for the further development of PRISE, so I would appreciate it if you could respond to this message straight away when you receive it in the next couple of days.
INAUGURAL DINNER TONIGHT: I look forward to seeing you all at our first community gathering, the PRISE Inaugural Dinner, beginning at 6:30pm at the Dudley House Dining Hall. You will have an opportunity to meet the PRISE staff, members of the Faculty Advisory Board, and other administrators who helped put PRISE together. In addition, welcome remarks will be made by our host House Master, Professor Howard Georgi, and the Dean of Harvard College (and former Senior Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity), Evelynn Hammonds. The dinner will be a catered, tablecloth-and-flowers affair, but the dress is casual and the atmosphere relaxed.
I look forward to seeing you tonight, and wish you a great first week, both in your lab and in PRISE! If you have any questions, please contact me or Laura.
Yours truly--Greg Llacer.
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WELCOME TO PRISE !!
Move-in – Friday, June 13 through Sunday, June 15
Check-in times are as follows:
--Friday, 1pm-5pm (storage 3-5pm)
--Saturday, 10am-5pm (storage 3-5pm)
--Sunday, 10am-5pm (storage 3-5pm)
Fellows arriving into Boston outside regular hours may pick up their room key from the guard's office in the tower courtyard between 5pm and 12:30am. Fellows arriving after 12:30am should contact Laura so we can make provisions with a proctor. If you arrive after regular check-in hours, you must formally check in and complete your housing contract the next day--and you may retrieve your belongings from storage the next open time that is convenient for you.
Fellows arriving after check-in on Sunday should make arrangements with the office when they arrive to retrieve their belongings from storage. All items should be removed from storage by Tuesday, June 17.
Please keep the building secure—do not prop outside doors open during move in.
Parking is very difficult around the building—park at your own peril! If unloading, please make quick trips so you are not ticketed.
Please report any damage or problematic room conditions to the Proctor/Program Assistant at the check-in table.
Our PRISE Residential Proctors are:
-- Serene Chen
-- Kip Kitur
-- Arjun Manrai
Our PRISE Program Assistants are:
-- Scott Kominers
-- Stephanie Lo
-- Christina Tartaglia
Saturday, June 14, is the Cambridge River Festival, held outside Leverett House on Memorial Drive. Please be especially aware of your belongings as you move in on Saturday!
Meal service begins Monday, June 18 with breakfast (7:30am-9:00am).
The first formal event of PRISE, the PRISE Inaugural Dinner is Monday, June 16 beginning at 6:30pm.
Have a fun weekend checking in and meeting each other. We look forward to seeing you at dinner Monday night!
Yours truly--Greg Llacer.