Progress towards understanding mechanisms of hearing, and the treatment of hearing deficits, requires an integrated effort from multiple disciplines within the field of hearing research. The Center for Hearing Research (CHR) at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) maintains an interdisciplinary training program that takes advantage of the breadth and depth of hearing research at UCI to train new scientists broadly across multiple disciplines as well as deeply in one. The 17 training faculty in CHR span six departments in four Schools (Biological Sciences, Engineering, Medicine and Social Sciences) with research interests that cover a broad range of levels (genes, molecules, cells, systems and behavior) and experimental approaches (cell and molecular biology, neurophysiology, psychoacoustics, computation, human imaging, medical devices). Thus, CHR is well-positioned to offer interdisciplinary training. We request support for three predoctoral students and two postdoctoral researchers including medical residents from Otolaryngology. The didactic core of the training program is a course in Auditory Neuroscience, which covers the auditory system from cells to psychoacoustics, the cochlear to the cortex, and basic and clinical aspects. Mandatory features of the training program that encourage interdisciplinary interactions are participation in all CHR activities (e.g., seminar series, journal club and two annual conferences) required oral and poster presentations to scientifically diverse audiences on three occasions per year, and regular meetings with basic and clinical scientists. The normal period of support is two years for pre- and post-doctoral trainees (1-2 years for residents). Predoctoral trainees normally enter the program in their second year of graduate study and are required to take a course on grant writing and submit an NRSA proposal. The program is managed by the Program Director and an Executive Committee, and will foster development of trainees' intellectual, technical and professional skills needed to pursue successful careers in hearing research.
To fully understand how we hear, and design effective treatments for hearing deficits, requires knowledge of multiple disciplines, such as biology, medicine and engineering. This program trains junior scientists to be experts in one discipline and familiar with several, so that they are able to focus the tools and techniques of multiple disciplines on the problems to be solved.
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