Download CBI RCR on “Mentoring”

CBI RCR on “Mentoring”
Nov. 20, 2013
facilitated by Brian Bahnson
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In Greek mythology, Mentor was the son of
Heracles and Asopis. In his old age Mentor
was a friend of Odysseus who placed Mentor
and Odysseus' foster-brother Eumaeus in
charge of his son Telemachus, and of
Odysseus' palace, when Odysseus left for the
Trojan War.
• 
When Athena visited Telemachus she took the
disguise of Mentor to hide herself from the
suitors of Telemachus' mother Penelope. As
Mentor, the goddess encouraged Telemachus
to stand up against the suitors and go abroad
to find out what happened to his father. When
Odysseus returned to Ithaca, Athena appeared
briefly in the form of Mentor again at
Odysseus' palace.
- Wikipedia
NIH recommended RCR Subject Matter:
• conflict of interest – personal, professional, and financial
• policies regarding human subjects, live vertebrate animal subjects in
research, and safe laboratory practices
• mentor/mentee responsibilities and relationships
• collaborative research including collaborations with industry
• peer review
• data acquisition and laboratory tools; management, sharing and
ownership
• research misconduct and policies for handling misconduct
• responsible authorship and publication
• the scientist as a responsible member of society, contemporary ethical
issues in biomedical research, and the environmental and societal
impacts of scientific research
Our past RCR workshops
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Fall 2009, Publication and Authorship (Koh);
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Winter 2010, The Sanctity of Data (Simmons);
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Summer 2010; Peer Review (Hanson);
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Fall 2011, Conflict of Interest (Fox);
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Spring 2011, Collaborative Science (Roberts);
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Summer 2011, Whistle Blowing; benefits and risks (J. Koh);
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Fall 2011, Data Sharing (P. Green);
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Winter 2012, Mentor-Mentee Responsibilities (Duncan, M.);
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Spring 2012, The Lab; Avoiding Research Misconduct (Grimes);
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Summer 2012, Communication and Difficult Situations (Bahnson);
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Fall 2012, Reviewing, Citations and Responsibility (Thorpe);
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Winter 2013, Collaborative Science (Zhuang);
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Spring 2013, Publications and Authorship (Sullivan);
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Summer 2013, Peer Review (Boyd);
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Fall 2013, Mentoring (Bahnson);
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Winter 2014, TBA (Antoniewicz), Mar. 5, 2014
What is your definition of mentor?
noun
an experienced and trusted adviser.
• an experienced person in a company, college, or school
who trains and counsels new employees or students.
verb
advise or train (someone, esp. a younger colleague).
What are Mentor-Mentee Responsibilities?
Mentees
Mentors
What are Mentor-Mentee Responsibilities?
Mentees
1. Identify career plans
2. Locate prospective
mentors
3. Distinguish between
supervisors and mentors
4. Be clear about needs and
expectations
5. Keep learning about
effective mentoring
Mentors
1. Be available
2. Allow for differences in
personalities
3. Let trainees make their
own decisions
4. Teach by words and
example
5. Keep learning about
effective mentoring
Columbia University RCR - http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/rcr/
CBI s Mentoring Role
What mentor/mentee relationships
exist as part of CBI?
What mentoring possibilities are
missing in CBI and should be added?
Case Study 1 - At Institution X, biological sciences faculty are expected to develop—and
secure outside funding for—research projects in their area of specialization. A junior faculty
member has been fortunate in obtaining a new investigator grant from a federal agency that
has allowed her to support a graduate student as well as a part-time technician. She is
pleased that the graduate student working on this project is both excited about the research
and highly skilled in the laboratory. On the basis of work that the graduate student has been
doing over the past six months on this grant, as well as studies that she conducted prior to her
faculty appointment, the faculty member is preparing to submit a major grant proposal to the
same funding agency. As part of the requirements for this proposal, the faculty member needs
to provide preliminary data to support her stated hypotheses. Consequently she has asked her
graduate student to provide her with his raw data, along with the general conclusions that he
has made as a result of his work.
With the grant proposal deadline looming, the faculty member takes the graduate student s
research materials home for the weekend to read over. During her examination of this material
she is shocked to see that some of his experimental designs have serious flaws. For one
experiment he failed to include a critical control and in another he discounted some data points
that he had labeled as "outliers." The conclusions that the graduate student derived from his
experimental work are now in question, but they are crucial for the grant proposal. The faculty
member agonizes over how to proceed.
On Monday morning the faculty member approaches the graduate student and tells him of her
concerns. Before he has a chance to respond she tells him that he needs to repeat several of
the key experiments, using the appropriate protocols, and that they must be completed this
week, in time to be included in the grant proposal. The graduate student tells her that he had
planned to take part of the week off to attend a family reunion, but the faculty member is
adamant that he remain to carry out the required studies. The graduate student storms out of
the lab and the faculty member returns to her office to determine what her options are.
Case Study 1 questions
•  Did the faculty member act as a proper mentor to
the graduate student?
•  Did the student fulfill his responsibilities as a
mentee?
•  What issues need to be resolved moving
forward?
•  What would be your advice to the faculty
member?
•  What would be your advice to the graduate
student?
case study from:
https://www.unh.edu/rcr/Mentoring-CaseStudyGoTo02.htm
9
Case Study 2 questions
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1: It appears early on that Dr. Michaels may have low expectations of Susan, or that he
is, for other reasons, relatively passive with regard to Susan s progress. What is Susan s
responsibility in this situation?
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2: Dr. Michaels has many responsibilities as a professor, and he is also running a
business. What is his responsibility as Susan s supervisor and mentor?
• 
3: Susan s work on behalf of Dr. Michaels business is diverting her attention from
meeting her own academic needs. Whose responsibility is it to insure that this does not
happen? Is it ever appropriate for a graduate student to perform, on behalf of a faculty
member, work that is not related to the student s own academic work?
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4: Is it appropriate for a lab director to advocate for a graduate student who is in a
difficult academic situation? If so, what form should that advocacy take?
• 
5: Whose responsibility is it to call committee meetings? What are the committee
members responsibilities in this situation? Should anyone monitor the supervisor-trainee
relationship?
• 
6: Does Dr. Chen have any responsibility after Susan comes to talk to her?
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7: Should Susan take any further actions with regard to Dr. Michaels and his lab before
she decides to transfer?
• 
8: Is Dr. Michaels acting reasonably in response to Susan s request for a letter of
recommendation? What other options did Susan have in attempting to handle this
situation?
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9: What departmental policies might prevent, or help address, such a situation?
Questions for further reflection
•  What can be done to understand mentoring better? What
quantitative and/or qualitative studies might be undertaken?
•  Mentoring is a highly useful tool. How can it be made a higher
priority in your institution? What guidelines or programs are in
place to promote mentoring in your lab, department, school or
institution?
•  If a trainee believes that he or she has been seriously injured by
something a mentor has done, how can the trainee seek
redress? How should he or she proceed?
•  To what extent is empathy necessary on the part of the mentor?
What about cultural or other differences when they interfere with
understanding?