Career Development

The CEHS provides a broad range of opportunities for the advancement of its members at all stages of their careers. From research resources, to career coaching, to global opportunities for outreach, the CEHS provides resources that promote success and enable community engagement in environmental health.

  • Mentoring
  • Financial Support
  • Research Resources
  • Grant Proposal Writing Workshop
  • Page One Program
  • Speaking Opportunities for Junior Faculty
  • Translational Research Support
  • Outreach Opportunities
  • Global Program in Public Health

Mentoring: Junior faculty are connected to individual mentors who review all aspects of their work twice annually. Senior faculty are selected who have like interests and can therefore share relevant information about grant opportunities, meetings, teaching opportunities, sources of internal funding and local and global outreach opportunities. Senior faculty additionally provide guidance regarding budgetary decisions. By connecting junior faculty to senior faculty, important networking opportunities develop that can play an important role in the career development.

Financial Support: Funding to support Junior faculty activities come in several forms. The CEHS has made significant contributions toward the startup funds of new faculty, in some cases enabling the purchase of critical equipment. In addition, the Pilot Project Program provides opportunities for innovative research and these awards are made preferentially available to Junior faculty.

Research Resources: The Core Facilities of the CEHS provide critical research support for the CEHS community. The utility of the Cores makes them in high demand. To ensure that Junior faculty get the service they need in a timely fashion, Junior faculty are given preferential access. In addition, valuable instructional opportunities are available in the Animal Models Core, the Genomics and Imaging Core, and the Bioanalytical Core facilities. Expert guidance provides Junior faculty as well as Postdocs the opportunity to learn cutting edge approaches to propel their research.

Grant Proposal Writing Workshop: This workshop is open to researchers at all phases in their career development. The workshops are led by faculty who typically have served on NIH Study Sections. The goal of the workshop is to provide knowledge about current funding opportunities and to provide a detailed discussion of grant proposal format in order to ensure that Junior faculty are aware of expectations and have strategies to meet them. Guidance on technical writing skills is provided, as well as discussions of feasibility and how to avoid an overly ambitious proposal.

Page One Program: This program is specifically designed to provide custom feedback for Junior faculty members. The focus here is on the Specific Aims page, page one of a grant proposal. Recognizing that this is perhaps the most important page of a proposal, Senior faculty offer Junior faculty detailed feedback on critical factors such as writing a compelling introduction and managing the scope of a work plan. The program includes a group of Senior Faculty Mentors who are on hand to advise. Junior faculty would submit their Specific Aim page and it would be reviewed by two Senior faculty members. Junior faculty member can then benefit from editorial comments with the option to meet with the Senior faculty members to discuss their proposed aims. Assuring that aims are solid and a compelling case has been put forth contributes to success for Junior faculty. Attached is the announcement of this program.

Speaking Opportunities for Junior Faculty: The CEHS Friday Forum Seminar Series provide a vital speaking opportunity for Junior faculty members. The Friday Forum seminar is held once a month and is well attended by the broad CEHS community. The format includes a time for socializing and networking prior to the talk followed by a 30 minute informal presentation. These seminars are geared to the broad representation of the CEHS community and has such prompt lively discussion during and after the presentation. Every season, an effort is made to provide speaking opportunities to Junior faculty members prior to opening the opportunity to more senior members of the CEHS community.

Translational Research Support: Translational research plays a critical role in the impact of CEHS on public health. To support translational efforts, the CEHS provides both an Animal Models Facilities Core and also an Integrative Health Sciences Facilities Core (IHSFC). The Animal Models Facilities Core provides support for all aspects of animal research, from experimental design to image analysis. Researchers at all stages of their career development benefit from this valuable resource and are given priority access to sample processing. The IHSFC provides expertise in experimental design and development and approval of protocols involving human subjects. The IHSFC is particularly helpful to Junior faculty who have not had prior experience developing a human subjects protocol. Additionally, the IHSFC plays a key role in enabling networking of CEHS researchers with physicians in local area hospitals. Collaborations that stem from the IHSFC are pivotal to the success of translational efforts in the CEHS.

Outreach Opportunities: The CEHS Community Outreach Education and Engagement Core (COE2C) has a history of success in translating CEHS activities into impact on public health. Researchers at all stages of their careers have opportunities to be involved in bidirectional communication between the community and CEHS researchers. The COE2C provides opportunities for engagement with: i) local area young people to provide them with experiences that inspire an interest in science; ii) teachers who are able to expand on what they offer using tools and techniques developed by the COE2C; iii) nurses who learn fundamental scientific concepts that contribute to their understanding of disease treatment and prevention; and iv) members of our community concerned about water, soil, and air quality and contaminated sites. CEHS faculty at all career stages who have been involved in these efforts have benefited from both sharing their expertise, and from learning about key public health challenges that influence their own research.

Global Environmental Health Sciences Program in Public Health: Researchers at all stages of their careers have exciting opportunities to participate in global outreach efforts in environmental health. Through a long-standing connection with the Chulabhorn Research Institute (CRI), CEHS members have been participating in both educational and research efforts in Thailand. In terms of educational outreach, members of CEHS have participated in developing and offering courses as part of the Applied Biological Sciences, Environmental Toxicology and Chemical Biology Programs at the CRI. In addition, CEHS members have multiple research collaborations that link MIT to the CRI. Junior faculty have benefited from the opportunity to teach at the CRI, CEHS postdocs have been involved in fostering research at the CRI, and undergraduate students have been involved in an exchange program called ThaiROP (Thailand Research Opportunities Program). CEHS members additionally have opportunities for community engagement through the CEHS’s global efforts.