The Minority Travel Award Program is viewed by the ACNP as an effective means for stimulating and encouraging postdoctoral minority professionals to become involved in research careers in the neurosciences. The ACNP Annual Meetings exposes an awardee to the excitement of cutting-edge science, the charisma of distinguished teachers and researchers and provides the wardee the opportunity for developing a life-long professional relationship with at least one senior scientist in the field- -their mentor at the Annual Meeting. The rich and varied experience provided by the scientific meeting, the opportunity to attend meetings over a five-year period and to present a poster at each and the recognition accorded by the award being funded by the NJMH can play a decisive role in strengthening and finalizing an awardee's decision to enter a career in research and teaching. If the awardee is already committed to a career in neuropsychopharmacology, the experience of attending the ACNP Annual Meetings will expand his/her research horizon and in very real ways further his or her career in this field. The present proposal requests a five-year extension of the current grant. As of December 1993, twenty (20) minority travel awards have been granted. Six had an M.D. degree and 14 a Ph.D. degree. Thirteen were men and seven were women. The awardees took full advantage of the opportunities the program offered. Awardees were given the option of attending four additional Annual Meetings beyond the award year at their expense with only the registration fee waived. Of the 15 awardees who were able to exercise this option, four attended one additional meeting, four attended two, and one attended three meetings. Travel awardees also took advantage of the privilege to present posters at the scientific meetings. Of the 10 awardees, nine presented one poster, four presented posters at two meetings, and two awardees presented posters at three Annual Meetings. The rate at which the awardees exercised their option to attend additional meetings and the number of posters presented attests to the high caliber of the awardees and the positive impact of the Award Program on them. The awardees also book advantage of the mentoring program. More than half of the awardees and mentors had contact with each other at subsequent annual meetings and between meetings. In the opinion of the ACNP, continuation of the Minority Award Travel Program would be in the public interest. The College does not anticipate any difficulty in filling five slots a year over the next five years.
