In the years since the first cohort of postdoctoral fellows entered the NIGMS Pharmacology Research Associate (PRAT) program in 1965, the program's alumni have become leaders in pharmacology, neuroscience, cell biology and related fields across multiple career sectors, including academia, government and industry. On November 6, we'll mark the accomplishments of the more than 400 PRAT alumni in a full-day scientific symposium on the NIH campus in Bethesda, MD.

The symposium will feature presentations by 10 alumni spanning the duration of the program and is free and open to the public, although we encourage you to register to attend. If you can't be there in person, you can watch the event live or later. If you have comments, anecdotes, historical data or photos from the PRAT program, please let us know by writing a note in the comments box on the meeting registration site or by sending me an e-mail message.

The PRAT Program Today

Although the PRAT program arose to train more individuals in the field of pharmacology, the program broadened over time and had a name change to reflect that. The NIGMS Postdoctoral Research Associate program now supports fellows in all research areas within the NIGMS mission. Fellows work in NIH intramural research program labs and also receive scientific and career mentoring and professional development training in areas such as oral presentation skills, grant writing and leadership.

If you know of graduate students or early postdoctoral scholars who may be interested in the PRAT program, please encourage them to contact me, read my previous Feedback Loop blog post and visit the PRAT Web site for more information.

The due date for Grants.gov submission of applications for the 2016 incoming class of PRAT fellows is October 2.