This year, the OFT organized several local and national meetings and educational events. The Annual NIMH/DIRP Scientific Retreat organized by the DIRP Fellows' Committee, was attended by approximately 350 DIRP fellows and faculty, as well as 10 speakers from the extramural research community. This year, the DIRP Investigator Seminar Series featured six DIRP investigators and was particularly well attended and received. The 20th Annual NIMH National Outstanding Resident Awards Program honored 10 PGY-III residents selected from leading academic psychiatry departments throughout the country. The OFT continued to direct the Richard Wyatt, Seymour Kety and Julius Axelrod Memorial Fellowship Programs, and the NIMH Research Career Awards for Transition to Independence. This year, the Office also directed the Summer Research Program which enrolled approximately 85 high school students, college undergraduates, and graduate and medical students. ? ? In 2007, OFT continued the DIRP professional development activities for the fellows and staff which entailed major teaching commitments. In this regard, forty five DIRP fellows, as well as forty one fellows from the NINDS, NEI, and NIDCD were provided with extensive training in Grantsmanship. In addition, OFT provided the DIRP fellows, faculty, and staff with mandatory training in research bioethics which entailed 18 ninety- minute seminars that were attended by 520 investigators, trainees, and staff.? ? In 2007, OFT staff initiated a long-term strategy to attract new MD/PhD students to academic careers in Psychiatry. This plan entailed the organization of the First NIMH MD/PhD Conference to be held as a satellite event to the Society of Biological Psychiatry annual meeting held in Washington, D.C. in May 2008. The Conference provided the opportunity for approximately 42 first and second year MD/PhD students from across the United States to visit the NIH campus to be exposed to the state-of-the-art research being conducted in psychiatry and subsequently attend the SOBP meeting. In addition to the scientific agenda, the students were provided the opportunity to tour the NIH campus and NIMH research facilities and meet with our fellows and faculty. In addition to this new recruitment initiative, OFT once again arranged for a one day NIMH visit for 30 neuroscience undergraduate students from Duke University.? ? During the past year, OFT aggressively pursued efforts in outreach to enhance the diversity of the DIRP training program. In this regard, OFT staff provided talks at several national meetings and visited several University of Puerto Rico campuses. As one indicator of success of these efforts, approximately 30% of the participants in this years Summer Research Program derived from the under-represented minority educational community.
