As an “I Am Intramural” Blog reader, you likely know that the IRP is comprised of more than 6,000 scientists conducting basic, translational, and clinical research in more than 50 buildings on six different IRP campuses around the U.S.But, do you know the answers to the questions in the following IRP Pop Quiz?
Researchers at the NIH IRP have access to:
a) Laboratory equipment sales, rental, repairs, and maintenance b) Plants and marine organisms for research c) High-throughput DNA sequencing d) A and C e) All of the above
In Greek mythology, Mentor was the person whom Odysseus left in charge of his son Telemachus before leaving to fight in the Trojan War. According to Homer’s Odyssey, Athena, the goddess of wisdom, disguised herself as Mentor and visited Telemachus several times to advise him while his father was away. Today, the term “mentor” denotes someone who passes his or her knowledge and wisdom to somebody with less experience.
I was super excited when I got invited for my first in-person interview. If you have gotten invited for an interview, congratulations! Getting selected for an interview is a huge accomplishment and the first step towards securing an academic position. Your odds of getting the job at this point are also much higher as departments typically interview three to eight people for each position. Take a day or two to celebrate, and then you should really start to prepare for the interview. Before you go on any interview there are three important things that you need to do in advance to prepare.
What is a rare disease? And how rare is “rare”? When I began my research at the NIH, I had a textbook understanding of rare diseases, but now, after four years as a postdoc in the IRP, I understand a bit more of what it means to the patients and researchers who try to help them.
As a child I liked robots. Growing up in Korea, I liked cartoons and movies where people were on a mission to save the world with the robots they invented, and I wanted to develop a superhero robot someday, too. While my robot isn’t yet complete, the path I followed in pursuit of my goals eventually led me to explore data analysis.
And here I am, a postdoc at the NIH—probably the largest healthcare research institution in the world—in the Imaging Biomarkers and Computer-Aided Diagnosis Laboratory led by Dr. Ronald M. Summers. Our lab is part of the Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences at the NIH Clinical Center.
Waiting to hear back from places that you submit job applications to is always a very stressful experience! There really is no general rule of thumb in terms of the timeline for when you can hope to hear back. For one school, I was invited for an interview one week after the application was submitted, but for other places it was a little over two months. I know a friend who submitted an application in September and did not get invited for an interview until February, but in the end was offered the job!
Using real-time MRI, Dr. Keith Horvath's group at the NIH's National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) can precisely implant a replacement porcine heart valve using a collapsible stent more safely and quickly than with standard techniques.
"The reason for using [real-time] MRI is three-fold," Dr. Horvath explains...
When I was growing up, my grandfather would visit and try to teach me thermodynamics. At the time, I thought that this was normal conversation between a grandfather and a little girl. It was several years before I realized that he was an eminent scientist in his home country. My grandfather would always ask me, “How is your science?”
Following on the successful launch and continued expansion of the IRP Web site, we turned our attention to developing a new, allied Web site to give people a broader view of the programs overseen by the Office of Intramural Research (OIR). The new site (oir.nih.gov), which is officially making its debut today, is intended to provide “one-stop shopping” regarding the oversight and coordination of the research, training, and technology transfer activities that take place within each Institute’s and Center’s intramural program, across all of our research campuses nationwide.
