Summer Academy- The Global Researcher Term2

This course is designed to inform you about the wide range of research being conducted in the biological and biomedical sciences at Duke University, from genetics and evolution to pharmacology and neurobiology. In addition to learning about pioneering research, you will acquire skills to navigate the process of becoming a scientist through the discussion of topics such as mentoring, ethics, scientific communication, and discovering your scientific passion. Because science is highly collaborative, you will work in teams to process and understand the scientific literature. Along the way, you will learn how to develop and experimentally question a hypothesis, critically evaluate research outcomes, and develop strategies for translating science into action that will lay the foundation for scientists’ role as global citizens. We will have frequent guests – including faculty, postdocs, as well as undergraduate and graduate students – who will participate in discussions about their research, but more importantly who will share their stories about how they became passionate scientific researchers. You will also have an opportunity to tour Duke’s world-class laboratories and visit research labs in the private sector. For your culminating class project, your team will develop a research question, generate a hypothesis in response to this question, and formulate rigorous methodologies to test your hypothesis. Your team will then communicate its research strategy and findings to scientists from Duke and their peers from around the world via a poster presentation on the final day. Tomorrow's researchers will solve some of the most pressing social and scientific problems. Could one of those researchers be you?