Graduate Student Colloquium An introspection on the graduate student colloquium series... Every academic year, our department organizes the graduate student colloquium series. The colloquium series is a forum for speakers both to announce their progress in their thesis projects and to practice delivering public presentations concisely. This translates to practice for the oral component of generals examinations, professional conferences, committee meetings, and job interviews. There is no other opportunity that is universally available for all the graduate students to talk to such a broad audience, except for the annual retreat. In addition to benefiting the speakers, the colloquium series also benefits the audience by providing an opportunity to 'scout out' the research opportunities offered by the department and to catch up on the latest research projects of the department. It's really true that the colloquium exists because of the students and for the students. In many ways, the colloquium embodies our sense of the scientific community and projects our vision of the most thrilling frontiers in molecular biology. Seminars World-class biologists regularly present seminars to the Princeton biology community. Graduate students are encouraged to meet one-on-one or in groups with invited speakers during each guest's visit. Retreat The Molecular Biology departmental retreat is an annual scientific and social gathering in which graduate students give talks, present posters, socialize, and interact with each other and other members of the Department. Symposia Graduate students organize a symposium every other year; past topics have included "The Genetics of Sex," "RNA Today," and "Mechanisms of Pathogenesis." Students have also organized meetings focused on careers in science and feature presentations from former students. Other Research Groups Many research groups with overlapping interests hold weekly meetings. A few examples are the Bacterial Signaling Meeting, CellBio Club, Developmental Colloquium, Neuroscience Lunch, Worm Club, and Yeast Meeting. These discussion groups foster opportunities for scientific collaboration between research groups on campus and often lead to new interdisciplinary research projects. Writing Support Every writer needs a reader, and the Writing Center has a reader for every writer! Trained to respond to writing from a variety of genres and disciplines, Writing Center Fellows offer free, one-on-one conferences about writing at any stage in the process. Located in New South, the Writing Center welcomes undergraduate and graduate students working on any kind of writing project, as well as postdocs and faculty working on writing related to their research. If you wish to make an appointment, please visit the Writing Program scheduling system.
