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By Wells B. LaRiviere Note: Sex refers to the biological assignment of reproductive anatomy, while gender refers to a spectrum of social and cultural roles associated with sex. This post touches on both, but for the sake of brevity, I will not explore this complex subject further. On the afternoon [...]

By Andrew M. Harrison In 1902, Bertrand Russell wrote, “Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty—a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture, without appeal to any part of our weaker nature, without the gorgeous trappings of painting or music, yet sublimely pure, and capable of [...]

As trainees, we are faced with a frustrating reality-- the job market cannot meet the increasing supply of PhDs. We know this and most of us decide to pursue further postdoctoral training in order to become more qualified for the limited positions. Unfortunately, the few years we anticipate for postdoctoral [...]

By Ibrahim Garba, MA, JD, LLM In a Philosophy and Medicine course I took in graduate school, the professor spent the semester comparing two models of medicine: the biomedical and the humanistic. Broadly speaking, the biomedical model is based on a view of persons being measurable, empirical entities that can [...]

I would like to thank my fellow Diversity Blog editors for their helpful advice and input for this blog post. As summer begins, my first year of graduate school comes to an end. The fact that my first year of graduate school has come to a close brings mixed [...]

By Rielyn R. Campbell I think Jackson Katz said it best in his Ted talk from November 2012, “A lot of men hear the term “women’s issues” and we tend to tune it out, and we think, “Hey, I’m a guy. That’s for girls.” Or “That’s for the women.” And [...]

On June 15, 2012, the Obama administration announced the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which provides deportation relief for a period of two years to qualified undocumented youth who came to the United States as children. While deferred action does not confer lawful status in the United States, [...]

Editor’s note: This article was first published in the Spring 2014 edition of the Berkeley Science Review. It has been re-posted to the Mayo Clinic Diversity in Education blog with the direct, written consent of the original authors. You may view the original article here.

By Stephen C. Ekker, PhD High angst for a PhD student in life sciences today. From the mea culpa ‘Rescuing US biomedical research from its systemic flaws’ in published in PNAS by Drs. Alberts, Kirschner, Tilghman, and Varmus, to the high uncertainty of public funding of science, it is understandable [...]

By Carl T. Gustafson and Andrew M. Harrison Last Tuesday, the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine’s Office for Diversity held its third Discussions in Diversity event. The four panelists were Ann M. Farrell (Mayo Clinic Librarian and Secretary of Mayo Clinic’s LGBTI Employee Resource Group), Joseph D. Gallego (student, Mayo [...]

Time vanishes so quickly! While you’re busy with experiments, reading journal articles, and preparing for presentations, the home stretch reaches you before you know it. Now it is time to write your thesis and defend your dissertation. We have advice and perspectives from Mayo Graduate School (MGS) graduates and faculty [...]

“Whatever America hopes to bring to pass in the world must first come to pass in the heart of America.” –Dwight Eisenhower I recently got my passport, and the above quote is inscribed on pages 7 and 8. I read it and immediately translated it to “Whatever the Ph.D. student [...]

By: Robin Willenbring On a monthly basis, medical and graduate students receive an email from the Brainwaves team with the subject line containing some phrase including “Brainwaves Event”. Let’s be honest; a good portion [...]

By Matthew J. Borgo From February 23 through March 1, 2014, I had an experience which I will not soon forget. I had the great fortune of being able to travel to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, spend time with the Gynecology/Obstetrics/Oncology team at Zewditu Memorial Hospital, and attend the 50th Annual [...]

I never considered myself diverse. I know this may sound contradictory considering I’m writing for the Education in Diversity Blog, but let me explain. I grew up in El Paso, TX, one of the many cities along the U.S.-Mexico border. The border encompasses Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California on [...]

During this time, most graduate students are busily wrapping up their last laboratory rotations and thinking about which one to choose. Some students have an easier time deciding which lab to join, but other students such as myself have a harder time making this decision. Committing to a lab is [...]

By Fareed Khawaja NOTE (AMH): This post has been re-posted after the addition of new material. However, no removal of or changes to the original content were made. There have been many successes for gay rights in the United States lately. With the recent strides made in both Utah and [...]

by Ian C. Clift 75% of graduate students in a recent survey have reported dealing with stress in the past year. The main source of stress is the pressure to produce. And why not? With deadlines, classes, experiments, and presentations, graduate students are under a lot of pressure to produce. [...]

“The good thing about science is that it’s true whether or not you believe in it” – Neil deGrasse Tyson Last year, on a whim, I volunteered at the Rochester Regional Science Fair. Growing up, I was never in science fairs, and it’s fair to say that when I [...]

 I always consider New Year's Day as a great time for self-introspection: to look back into what I have accomplished in the previous year and think of ways to improve myself. One of the consistent subject for assessment is how I divide my time among my myriad of responsibilities, and [...]

By Joshua J. Faucher I returned two weeks ago from the Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) 2013 Annual Meeting, which took place on November 2nd in Boston, MA. It was the third PNHP Annual Meeting I have attended, and my first as a student member of [...]

By Wells B. LaRiviere Perhaps one of the best pieces of advice I have ever been given came during my final year at Reed College. In the midst of a departmental meeting, a professor exhorted the seniors to select a thesis topic that we cared so deeply about that we would work tirelessly on it, even “during the darkest days of February,” to see through its completion. It helps to have lived in Portland to understand just how deeply he felt about motivation, because it gets really dark in the depths of the Portland winter. Still, even if you have never set foot in Oregon, I think it’s easy to relate to his words. In education, there is a sense that one is constantly trying to catch up; running a gauntlet of never-ending hurdles, each yet higher than the last. Each mistake or misstep seems crushingly disappointing, and often there is the temptation to surrender to self-doubt. No matter how dark February gets in your part of the world, pursuing academics is always an inherently difficult task.

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"Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality. When we recognize our place in an immensity of light-years and in the passage of ages, when we grasp the intricacy, beauty, and subtlety of life, then that soaring feeling, that sense of elation and humility combined, is surely spiritual...The notion that science and spirituality are somehow mutually exclusive does a disservice to both." – Carl Sagan Close to 100 scientists and religious community members gathered in Geffen Auditorium this past Monday night to hear evidence from Dr. Fazale “Fuz” Rana describing the logical intimacy of science and religion. Listeners embraced the challenge of identifying their own beliefs and were encouraged to evaluate the framework through which they orientate their lives. Although I cannot do justice to the complexity of arguments in this summary, I hope to mirror the theme of the presentation and challenge all readers with the question, “Are science and religion mutually exclusive?” Intentionally, many of us have discrete answers arising from years of experience reconciling each space. However, I ask you to read the first sentence of this post again and consider your reflexive interpretation of the phrase “scientists and religious community members.” Did you originally perceive this to describe unique individuals in attendance with competing viewpoints, people who identify singularly with science or religion yet inform their worldview with the other, or a single group of people unified in their beliefs. I believe our response is indicative of our current perspective. Much like being a “father and husband” does not preclude one from the other, Dr. Rana proposes being a scientist and believer are entirely complementary foundations granted by God.

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Graduate students including Mayo Clinic’s Molecular Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics Ph.D. candidate, Alfreda Nelson, planned on attending the 2013 NIH National Graduate Student Research Conference, but due to the lapse in government funding, the conference has been canceled. This is just one of the many examples of the lapse in government funding which has and will continue to affect research. The shutdown has cut off access to myriad of electronic resources which many researchers depend. Websites that were not operation include the National Science Foundation the Education Department’s research arm, the Institute of Education Sciences1. Many sites such as PubMed, a free repository of biomedical and life science research maintained by the National Institutes of Health, are operational but a notice on the site warns users that it would not be updated during the shutdown. Some researchers are setting up mirror websites to keep forms to apply for grants from the National Science Foundation accessible2. This creates the perfect opportunity to ask professors and students how the government shutdown impacts research. How is the government shutdown affecting your work on campus? 

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By Carl T. Gustafson King Solomon, reputed by Biblical lore to be the wisest man that ever lived, once commanded us to “go to the ant…consider her ways and be wise...” This man, the wisest man, knew we had a thing or two to learn, even from ants. This past summer I took my Written Qualifying Exam, which is, in essence, a tiresomely long and nearly comprehensive test that determines whether I stay in graduate school or not. Every Ph.D. student that ever existed has had to take a test similar to this. During this summer I studied like I have never studied before and was essentially blind to the outside world. When I emerged from the gloomy caverns of dose response curves and receptor binding kinetics, I realized what I had missed. There was conflict in Syria. People were upset about marriage rights. My nephew had learned to walk. I had even missed Shark Week of all things. It had been less than two months since I had even attempted to lend an ear to anything other than research methods and experimental designs, but I was way behind. I had missed a lot and I hadn’t even noticed it when I was missing it. It was too easy to fall behind and so very hard to get caught up. I’m still kinda bummed about Shark Week.

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