I am writing to express my interest in applying for an NIH BEST travel award to attend professional development seminars and workshops at this year’s International Society for Neurochemistry meeting in Montreal, Canada. In 2016, I had the opportunity to attend the American Society for Neurochemistry meeting to give a talk on my undergraduate research, and I was thoroughly impressed by the collaborative and supportive environment, particularly towards young investigators. This August, the American Society for Neurochemistry meeting will be held jointly with the International Society for Neurochemistry meeting, allowing top scientists in my field from around the world to congregate and not only share their research with each other, but also offer professional development training opportunities to younger scientists. I find this opportunity comes at a pivotal timepoint in my graduate career as I plan to advance to candidacy in the summer, and therefore, of high importance to me is career planning and the development of transferable skills that will facilitate my success in any biomedical career I choose, whether in academia or other sectors of research. 

A select few professional development opportunities of particular interest to me are the seminars and workshops in ‘Young Scientist Career Perspective’ and ‘Women in Neurochemistry.’ I’m passionate about increasing research impact on society by increasing international research collaboration. In these workshops I will learn about how young scientists from all over the world see the prospects for the future of our field, and furthermore, we’ll have the opportunity to discuss how we can build and maintain international collaborations. I think what is particularly important, beyond having a space where neuroscientists from around the world can have these critical discussions in person, is that the focus in the respective workshops will be on maintaining these collaborations in various research careers, which include within academia and a variety of non-academic settings. This will help expose me to many different career paths in science and to get a better sense of how my values and overarching career goals can take form in these different settings. Furthermore, the scientists chairing and speaking at these seminars and workshops are women, at different stages in their careers, who are involved with work that I’m very interested in, more specifically at the intersection of medicine and science. For example, Dr. Marion S. Buckwalter is an MD, PhD at Stanford who is a neurosurgeon and a neuroscientist and is passionate about increasing diversity in the sciences. This travel award will provide me with an opportunity to not only gain perspectives and tools on overcoming obstacles to achieve success in my scientific career as a woman, but will also provide an opportunity to network and gain valuable mentorship.

This travel award would alleviate part of the financial burden of attending these seminars and workshops, as the grant I am covered under has minimal funding for professional development opportunities. I have estimated the flight ($722), board ($600 split between two people), and registration ($200) costs to be approximately $1,522.00, making financial assistance imperative for me to be able to attend. Thank you for your consideration.