SEEDS You Choose Leadership Awards
The next applications are due November 1, 2012.
Download the application.
Click here for a representative NSF-style CV.
About the award: The SEEDS "You Choose" program makes several annual awards of $2,500 each. The competition targets tenure track and research track faculty, to support activities designed to improve the environment for the career satisfaction and success of a diverse faculty. The type of activity is not pre-specified: For instance you may propose to mount a career skills event, develop a seminar series, take advantage of a leadership opportunity, visit another lab to establish collaborations, bring in a speaker or collaborator, or fund personal research or publication, course buy-out, etc. The activity is up to you: You Choose!
Eligibility: Applications are limited to faculty with tenure- or research-track appointments. Proposals are welcome from all units in RSMAS, Engineering, Miller School of Medicine and College of Arts and Sciences. Applications focusing on research must be pursing basic (not clinical) research. Those focusing on developing career resources for a community are welcome regardless of research area.
| You Choose Award winners 2011 |
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Bill Browne, College of Arts and Sciences, to host two collaborators bringing skills vital to a transcriptome-based forward genetic screen designed to identify genes associated with the first restriction of developmental potential in a ctenophore, an emerging model system for understanding development, particularly the initial acquisition of differential cell fates. Cost share provided by Biology. |
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Nurcin Celik, College of Engineering, for a three-semester seminar series that invites distinguished women faculty in Systems and Industrial Engineering who focus on simulation and modeling of sustainable systems including energy power systems. This series will create opportunities for junior faculty to meet and mingle with female role models of the engineering profession who share the similar career goals and have experienced (and somehow passed) the same barriers during advancement to tenure. Cost share provided by Dean Tien. |
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Carla Hurt, College of Arts and Sciences, for a research project that will engage three female scientists at different points in their research career. They will calibrate the rate at which DNA mutations accumulate across the nuclear genome in a system that provides well-dated fossil record as a reference point. This work will help to establish a molecular clock for nuclear DNA. Cost share provided by Biology. |
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Mary Lou King, Miller School of Medicine, with Lina Shehadeh, Research Assistant Professor, to fund a commercial proteonomic analysis of germ plasm isolated from Xenopus, to gather preliminary results for a collaborative grant proposal targeted toward understanding the gene network underlying germ cell totipotency and fate. |
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Angela Knapp, RSMAS, to bring a speaker for the larger university community to discuss “stereotype threat,” how the perception of stereotypes can limit the achievement of a vulnerable individual, and also how simple changes, both in the actions of non-vulnerable and vulnerable individuals, can mitigate the damage caused by stereotype threat. |
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Cynthia Levy, Miller School of Medicine, for a workshop focused toward underrepresented minorities in academia, to focus on three aspects: negotiation skills, communication skills and mentoring. The workshops will be led by a high-powered female faculty from UM and two outside speakers. Cost share provided by Marc Lippman. |
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Fulvia Verde, Miller School of Medicine, to bring in a collaborator and his graduate students for two visits, to combine microscopic and mathematical modeling to extend a project currently under review in Science, and provide impetus for a grant proposal. This activity will foster the careers of two assistant professors and a postdoc, in a cross-disciplinary research effort between physics and cell biology. |
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Sonia Yoo, Miller School of Medicine, to establish a formal mentoring program in her department that will pair junior women faculty with more senior faculty. The program will have three formal sessions during the year, followed by a pairing of mentors with mentees. |
You Choose Award winners 2010.
For inspiration, download their winning applications.
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Andrew Baker, RSMAS, for his application to organize a one-day communications workshop to teach oceans scientists effective methods for communicating their research to policymakers, the public and the media. pdf | |
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Laura Bianchi, Miller School of Medicine, for her application to bring in prominent women in Physiology and Biophysics to give research seminars and engage in mentoring activities. pdf | |
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Villy Kourafalou, RSMAS, for her application to participate as a leader in the international science team meeting for global ocean data assimilation and experiment OceanView. pdf | |
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Wen-Hsiang Lee, Miller School of Medicine, for her application to host educational forums aimed at navigating the promotions and tenure process. Each forum will consist of a presentation by members of the Promotion and Tenure Committee, a panel discussion, a networking event and a follow-up evaluation. pdf | |
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Pamela Monje, Miller School of Medicine, for her application to mount a Workshop on Group Support to Accomplish Success in the Academic Environment, led by Dr. Ellen Daniell, author of the book “Every Other Thursday”: Stories and Strategies from Successful Women Scientists pdf |
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Blythe Nobleman and Helena Solo-Gabriele, College of Engineering, for their application to organize a one-day writing workshop led by Judith Swan of Princeton that will be particularly focused on effective writing for faculty and postdoctoral associates as well as for writing mentors. pdf |
Winners, Spring 2009
Winning proposals were superb and ranged widely in their goals and scopes, from those with pivotal importance for individuals to those with potential to enhance entire communities: a seminar series of eminent engineers, collaborative research in Mexico on Mayan cultures, organizing an international workshop, participating in a career development workshop, forums with NIH program officers focused at under-represented populations, and a career skills workshop on scientific writing for the UM community. Winners speak about their awards and experiences in our annual UM-wide SEEDS events. The winners were:
Traci Ardren, Anthropology
Lisa Beal, Meteorology & Physical Oceanography
Eunji Lim, Industrial Engineering
Joy Lincoln, Molecular & Cellular Pharmacology
Tulay Koru-Sengu, Biostatistics, Epidemiology
Paquita Zuidema Meteorology & Physical Oceanography
Eunji Lim |
Joy Lincoln |
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Paquita Zuidema |
Lisa Beal |
Tulay Koru-Sengul |
Traci Ardren, Associate Professor, Anthropology proposal (pdf)
SEEDS funding is awarded to Dr. Arden to foster a scientific collaboration between her and Dr. Vera Tiesler, a physical anthropologist working in Mexico. SEEDS will support a visit to Tiesler’s osteological laboratory that now houses human materials that were recovered in 2006 during an archaeological field project directed by Arden. During the visit, they will plan, draft, and finalize a joint publication. Collaboration in person will enhance the quality of the research experience and facilitate Dr. Arden’s potential long term professional relationship with a senior female scholar in her field. Because travel for such purposes is not covered by her NSF grant, SEEDS funding fills a key gap. The goals are clear and the likelihood for a successful academic product that will enhance her CV is high. tardren@miami.edu
Eunji Lim, Assistant Professor, Industrial Engineering. proposal (pdf)
SEEDS funding is awarded to Dr. Lim to host a series of seminars in the School of Engineering at the University of Miami, consisting of three invited talks by distinguished scholars who work in areas complementary to Dr. Lim's research in Industrial Engineering areas. The goal of her project is two-fold: 1) To communicate and exchange research ideas with leading researchers with an aim to publish in peer-reviewed journals. 2) To network with diverse speakers. She intends to invite researchers who are from under-represented groups further supporting diversity initiatives. This speaker series will enhance Dr. Lim’s connections with underrepresented engineers around the country, thereby enabling her to advance her research in a general sense as well as to enhance her department's contacts. Dr. Lim, Engineering faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates will all profit by having contact with leading researchers who themselves faced barriers (or perhaps continue to do so) in their careers. lim@miami.edu
Joy Lincoln, Assistant Professor, Molecular & Cellular Pharmacology proposal (pdf)
SEEDS funding, with cost share by Dr Bookman’s office, is awarded to Dr. Lincoln to host several forums on navigating the NIH system. Each forum includes a presentation by an invited Program Officer from an NIH Institute, an interactive Panel Discussion, and a social event. Follow-up questionnaires will assess the value and impact of these events. Although grantsmanship already receives attention at UM, her forums target underrepresented groups and aim to provide them with essential tools for furthering their careers. Obtaining grants from NIH is essential for a successful career in biomedical sciences yet requires knowledge and insights typically gained only through networking with funded peers and officials at NIH itself, which often bypasses under-represented groups who lack avenues of access to these key people at NIH. Demystifying the granting process and giving attendees direct, informal access to NIH program officers is expected to significantly enhance their ability to win grants, as well as provide them with ethos that may translate into other professional interactions (for example, by enabling them to provide informed advice to junior colleagues about the granting process). Moreover, she has enlisted several colleagues at the Miller School in her proposal, all of them also underrepresented. In this very act, she has enhanced her connections with colleagues, establishing a vital support system for future research and scholarship. jlincoln@med.miami.edu
Paquita Zuidema, Assistant Professor, Meteorology & Physical Oceanography proposal (pdf)
SEEDS funding is awarded to Dr. Zuidema to host a day-long career skills course on writing by bringing in Dr. Judith Swan, a known expert and teacher on effective scientific writing, co-author of The Science of Science Writing (pdf). Writing is a skill that can mean the difference between a fulfilled career and one lacking in opportunities. Effective communication is essential, and under-represented groups are often particularly reluctant to ask for help in upgrading such skills. Despite the importance of a facility in writing, writing is not traditionally taught to scientists: English classes are never a requirement in a scientific graduate curriculum. Skill in communication serves as one ʻgate keeperʼ to increasing the participation and advancement of a diverse population in science and engineering. The goal of her proposal is to help entry-level scientists learn how to bridge the gap, and to resensitize in more mature scientists a more conscious approach to writing. Advertising for the speaking event will reach beyond RSMAS to the rest of the UM community. pzuidema@rsmas.miami.edu
Lisa Beal, Assistant Professor, Meteorology & Physical Oceanography
proposal (pdf)
SEEDS funding is awarded to Dr. Beal to organize and attend an international workshop in Kiel, Germany that will form the basis of a new large-scale proposal in the climate change arena that she wishes to write. The event will bring together the diverse international community of scientists who conduct research in the Southwest Indian Ocean. As an international expert on the Agulhas Current system, Lisa Beal was recognized as someone who could lead this effort. This is an unprecedented opportunity for her to take a leadership role and gain international standing. The event will increase the international standing of her own research program, and give her opportunities for high profile collaborative research. The workshop and her role in it could be a major turning point in her career. She also successfully solicited matching funds from Dean Brown’s office for a student to attend the workshop as well. lbeal@rsmas@miami.edu
Tulay Koru-Sengul, Assistant Professor of Biostatistics, Epidemiology
SEEDS funding is awarded to Dr. Koru-Sengal to attend a workshop for the Junior Faculty Health Researchers in Biostatistics on March 13-14, 2009 immediately preceding the ENAR-2009 Spring Meeting (March 15-18, 2009) at San Antonia, Texas (http://www.enar.org/meetings.cfm). The workshop aims to promote the career development of junior investigators by bringing them together with a prestigious panel of senior investigators. Publishing, grant writing, interdisciplinary collaborations, promotion process by providing important information on academic growth will be the themes of the workshop. The ENAR workshop committee awarded her with funding of up to $550 as partial support. If the reader requires further details regarding the applicant and the application, please do not hesitate to contact Dr. Tulay Koru-Sengul either by email (tsengul@med.miami.edu) or phone (305-243-2618)
