This proposal seeks support for an interdisciplinary predoctoral training program in Neuroscience and Behavior at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The Neuroscience and Behavior (NSB) Program is an interdepartmental doctoral program that provides broad-based instruction and research training to prepare students for careers in academia, industry, and related areas within the health sciences. NSB Program faculty are drawn from seven different departments and form five clusters of research focus: (1) Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience, (2) Neural and Behavioral Development, (3) Neuroendocrinology, (4) Animal Behavior, Learning, and Computational Neuroscience, and (5) Sensory and Motor Systems. Many faculty members are associated with more than one of these research clusters. Trainees in the proposed program will be supported for their first two years of predoctoral work. During this time, they will participate in two to three laboratory rotations and will take required coursework including a 1-year intensive core course in neuroscience, a proseminar that introduces the students to the program and teaches other skills such as grant writing, a newly developed course in the responsible conduct of research, and at least one course in quantitative methods. Other resources available to NSB Program students include the NSB Colloquium series, a noon-time seminar series, and journal clubs organized around a variety of topics. Other programs that contribute to NSB student training are the Center for Neuroendocrine Studies, the Molecular and Cellular Biology (MCB) Program, the Organismic and Evolutionary Biology (OEB) Program, and the UMass Amherst - Baystate Medical Center Collaborative Biomedical Research Program. Together with NSB, these programs provide an extremely rich intellectual environment as well as state-of-the-art research facilities for predoctoral students in the life sciences at the University of Massachusetts. The proposed training program will enable the NSB Program to continue to attract highly qualified applicants and it will enable the best students to conduct their rotate laboratory rotations without the time commitment required by a teaching assistantship. The training program will be managed by an NSB Training Executive Committee, which will have full responsibility for trainee selection and evaluation throughout the period of predoctoral training.
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