The Center for Psychiatric Neuroscience - Mentoring and Education Core

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		Ian A. Paul, Ph.D. Mentoring and Education Core Leader Contact Dr. Paul
		Core Personnel: Clinical Mentors Basic Science Mentors

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Core Leader

Dr. Paul serves as the Mentoring and Education Core leader of the Center for Psychiatric Neuroscience (CPN). Dr. Paul completed his graduate training in the neurobiology in 1989, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his postdoctoral training in neuropharmacology at the National Institutes of Health. His research has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the National Alliance for Research in Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD). He is currently funded as coinvestigator on a EUREKA grant. Dr. Paul has served as mentor or advisor for 13 predoctoral, 5 postdoctoral and 12 visiting graduate student trainees as well as numerous undergraduate interns. He is a tenured Professor and Director of the Graduate Program in Neuroscience which he established in 2007. He has a secondary appointment in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology. He is an ad hoc reviewer for the Centers for Disease Control and the Canadian Institute of Health Services.

Core Goals

The Mentoring and Education Core of the Center for Psychiatric Neuroscience (CPN) creates an academic environment that fosters the establishment of independent research programs of junior faculty investigators (Project Principal Investigators). This is accomplished through several different mechanisms:

• Each CPN Project Principal Investigator is paired with both a basic science mentor and a clinical mentor, providing CPN Project PIs with scientific and career advice, as well as training in grants management, from senior faculty who are established researchers in closely related fields of study.
• Holds regular scientific meetings to review the scientific progress of the individual CPN-funded projects. These meetings also facilitate internal collaboration through which the CPN Project PIs benefit from the collective input of all senior faculty mentors.
• Coordinates training in the Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) through a lecture series funded by theCPN.
• Sponsors a Distinguished Speakers Seminar Series with lectures by visiting scientists to further enhance the academic environment of CPN Project PIs.
• Provides training in proposal preparation through funding of attendance for CPN Project PIs to NIH-sponsored workshops, mock proposal submission and review sessions including an NIH study section-like review of the proposal, and regular meetings with mentors.
• Requires mandatory training in other research activities including the use of animals in research, the protection of human research subjects, the handling and disposal of radioactivity, and the handling of recombinant DNA and other microbiological biohazards.
• Sponsors a summer internship for undergraduate students to foster an interest in psychiatric neuroscience at the undergraduate level (Neuroscience Scholars Summer Program).