A group of the IGP students find a more suitable place to discuss an ethical case study at the retreat last week.(Photos by Jena Briggs)
Chastity Bradley and Cheryl Overton, two of the incoming IGP students, take to the waters to canoe during a break from lecture and group discussions.
The Interdisciplinary Graduate Program (IGP) welcomed 73 new students last week. Two students entered the new Chemical and Physical Biology Program (CPB).
The IGP recruits and educates graduate students who are interested in biological and biomedical research. The CPB focuses its efforts on students with a quantitative sciences background who wish to pursue research in areas that span the boundaries of the chemical, physical, and biological sciences. Both programs are responsible for organizing the training of these students during their first year at Vanderbilt. Subsequently, the students choose a mentor and a department to pursue their studies.
IGP mentors include faculty members in the seven basic science departments of the Medical Center, the Neuroscience graduate program, and the department of Biological Sciences in the College of Arts and Science. The CPB program includes a subset of IGP faculty interested in structural and chemical biology as well as members of the departments of Chemistry, Mathematics, and Physics.
This year’s graduate student orientation offered a new twist — a two-day retreat where students fulfilled NIH-required “Responsible Conduct of Research” training while at the same time getting to know each other better through teambuilding activities. The retreat was held at the Joe C. Davis YMCA Outdoor Center in Antioch.