Grad News Forum

In 2012, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that over one-third of US adults are obese, and that the medical costs associated with obesity in 2008 were estimated at $14.7 billion, with rates and costs expected to increase. The molecular and epidemiological cause of this emerging epidemic in the US and world populations was the basis of the 6^th Annual Integrative Biology Symposium, held on April 24^th. This year’s topic was “Obesity and Human Health.”

The Integrative Biology Symposium was started in 2008, with the goal to “host an interdisciplinary symposium that would help to bring the broader Dartmouth community interested in biomedical research together,” according to Professor Jason Moore. “Another important goal was to provide a forum for students to showcase their work and to interact with national and international leaders.” Past symposia topics have included “Human Microbiome in Health and Disease” (2012), “RNA and Disease: Beyond the Central Dogma” (2011), “Clinical and Translational Research” (2010), “Emerging Technology” (2009), and more generally, the inaugural event covered biostatistics, genomics, bioinformatics, and proteomics (2008).

Of the 200 registrants for this year’s symposium, 98 were students, 14 of whom presented posters at an evening poster session on April 23^rd. Winners of the poster session were graduate students Jeremy Huckins (Psychological and Brain Sciences), Corina Lesseur (Program in Experimental and Molecular Medicine), and Jie Tan (Molecular and Cellular Biology, first year), as well as undergraduate students, Rachael Bornstein (Dartmouth Class of 2014) and Brad Stubenhaus (from Keene State College in Keene, New Hampshire).

Speakers at the symposium consisted of three from the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth: Diane Gilbert-Diamond, PhD, Richard Rothstein, MD, and Benjamin Moyer, PhD, as well as six outside speakers: Pamela Goodwin, MD (Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Canada), Ruth Loos, PhD (Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, New York), Cecilia Lindgren, PhD (Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Oxford University, United Kingdom), David Allison, PhD (University of Alabama, Birmingham, Alabama), Lee Kaplan, MD, PhD (Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts), and the keynote speaker, Joel Hirschhorn, MD, PhD (Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts).

These nine speakers discussed topics encompassing the genetics of obesity, Western diets as agents of obesity, innovative interventions for weight and diabetes management, the application of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to identify potential biomarkers for elevated obesity risk, and many others.

The Integrative Biology Symposium is sponsored by a number of Dartmouth-affiliated groups and programs, including the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Norris Cotton Cancer Center, the Institute for Quantitative Biomedical Sciences (iQBS), the Dartmouth Toxic Metals Superfund Research Program (SRP), the Dartmouth Lung Biology Center, the Children’s Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Center at Dartmouth, and the New Hampshire Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (NH-INBRE). In order to choose the symposium themes, topics are discussed and voted on by the Integrative Biology Committee, which meets monthly to plan and organize the yearly symposium. The theme for 2014 will be “Global Health.” According to Professor Moore, the group tries to pick themes which will broadly appeal to researchers across campus.

It appears that so far, the committee has been successful. Biochemistry graduate student Kelli Hvorecny stated, “I think the Integrative Biology Symposium is a great forum bringing the disparate research disciplines at Dartmouth together for discussion on a topic that touches all of their research. The exposure to techniques and fields of study that I do not encounter on a daily basis triggers outside-of-the-box ideas for my own research, often to my benefit.” When asked to provide a potential topic for a future symposium, Hvorecny suggests, “From molecules to medicine: Integrating the sciences spanning biochemistry to patient care.”

by Jeanine Amacher

photos by Carolee Crossmon

Professor Cottingham, President Folt, Professor Hawley, and Dean Kull

This year’s recipients of the Graduate Faculty Mentoring Award are Professor Kathryn Cottingham and Professor Robert Hawley. Each year the Graduate Student Council (GSC) gives out two Graduate Faculty Mentoring Awards to recognize the exceptional mentoring activities of faculty advisors at Dartmouth. Award recipients are honored for their commitment to fostering the academic and professional pursuits of graduate students and receive $500 to support further mentoring activities. This year the selection committee consisted of Julia Bradley-Cook, the president of GSC, Rich Lopez, the academic chair, and Daniel Durcan, the activities coordinator. President Carol Folt announced this year’s recipients on Wednesday, April 10, at the Graduate Poster Session.

Professor Kathryn Cottingham

Professor Kathryn Cottingham is a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) program. She joined Dartmouth faculty in 1998 and currently mentors two graduate students. Her research focuses on aquatic ecology, in particular the reasons for and results of cyanobacterial blooms in lakes and factors affecting the accumulation of mercury by fish and invertebrates in streams. Her lab has also been involved in examining dietary exposure to arsenic in pregnant women and infants.

In nominating her for this award, graduate students observed that Cottingham plays an important role as a mentor in her department as a whole. A member of the Cottingham lab observed that when she interviewed at Dartmouth “the most common response I received from other graduate students about the Cottingham Lab, was that Kathy may be the ‘official advisor’ to her own graduate students, but she ‘unofficially’ advises all the graduate students.”

Another aspect of Cottingham’s mentoring style that her graduate students appreciated was her ability to balance letting her students work independently, while also providing enough support and guidance to facilitate success in their research. One of Cottingham’s current students observed that her mentoring style “strikes a nice balance between letting me work independently to the extent that I want to” while always being available “to help troubleshoot, design experiments, and address any problems that arise.” Discussing the importance of building research skills in graduate school, several students expressed their appreciation of Cottingham’s guidance in data analysis and in improving their writing skills. One student explained, “I especially appreciate how her mentoring with me has changed through time as I have developed as a scientist, and has focused on everything from scientific writing, how to work in groups, [and] data analysis.”

Professor Robert Hawley

Professor Robert Hawley is an assistant professor of Earth Sciences. He came to Dartmouth in 2008. Hawley leads the Glaciology Research Group at Dartmouth, mentoring five graduate students and a postdoctoral researcher. The group studies the formation and make-up of polar ice sheets to explore issues related to sea level rise and climate change. Hawley developed a new technique for studying polar firn, called Borehole Optical Stratigraphy, which involves lowering a video camera into a borehole in the ice. The camera records patterns of light and dark in the walls of the borehole, which reflect differences in ice grain size and density and facilitate the studying of annual layers.

In their nominations, Professor Hawley’s students expressed an appreciation for his enthusiasm and patience. They observed that his excitement and creativity in his research were inspiring, and these were balanced with his calm and practical approach to problem solving and project management. One of Hawley’s students explained that Hawley’s “ability to bring both perspective and calm is incredible. I cannot recall a challenging ‘moment’ or issue that I could not bring to [his] attention.”

As well as developing his mentees’ skills in academic and proposal writing and teaching techniques, Hawley also encouraged students to engage in service. A member of the Glaciology Research Group wrote, “With regard to citizen-science, [Hawley’s] work with outreach (e.g., Science Pubs at Salt hill) has been an example that I hope to emulate in my own work.” In addition, Hawley encouraged his students to pursue outside learning opportunities, such as participation in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide Ice Core Project. Finally, Hawley’s students also appreciated his willingness to prioritize their ideas and goals. A student described him as “an undeniable exemplification of a masterful mentor-extraordinaire.”

Reflecting on the process of choosing this year’s recipients, Bradley-Cook observed, “We had an impressive collection of nominees—faculty who go above and beyond to challenge, support, and motivate graduate students. Professors Cottingham and Hawley are inspiring role models with mentoring styles that genuinely support graduate students. We are grateful for the opportunity to acknowledge their extraordinary mentorship.”

The Graduate Studies Office congratulates Professors Cottingham and Hawley on their receipt of this award and thanks them for their dedication to supporting graduate students at Dartmouth.

The Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth has named Elliott S. Fisher as the director of The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. An internationally recognized leader in health services research and health policy, Fisher is currently the director for Population Health and Policy at The Dartmouth Institute, as well as the James W. Squire Professor of Medicine and Community and Family Medicine at the Geisel School. He is also co-director of the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care.

Read the full story at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice news.

See the Dartmouth Now coverage.

Ayo Coly has taught Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart in all of her courses since she began as an associate professor of African and African American Studies at Dartmouth six years ago, and she has found that nearly every one of her students read the book in high school.

That is as clear a picture as she can give of the significance of the Nigerian author who came to be known as the father of African literature, and who had numerous ties to Dartmouth. Achebe died Thursday, March 21, 2013, in Boston. He was 82.

Although there is a rich literary history from Africa in both African and European languages, “we can say Achebe is the inventor of African literature because he made it known beyond the borders of Nigeria and beyond Africa,” Ayo says. “I would like to acknowledge the way Chinua Achebe appropriated and transformed the European genre of the novel and conformed it to convey his own culture, his own agenda, as a Nigerian, as an African.”

Achebe was in residence at Dartmouth in 1990 as a Montgomery Fellow. In 1972, under President John Kemeny, Dartmouth awarded Achebe the first of his many honorary degrees.

For the full article go to Dartmouth Now.

The latest event in the Graduate Studies “Becoming a Faculty Member” series was held on February 8. A panel of distinguished Graduate Faculty Mentoring Award recipients was on hand to discuss their mentoring styles. Members of the panel included Dean Madden (Department of Biochemistry), Joseph BelBruno (Department of Chemistry), Ross Virginia (Environmental Studies Program), Thalia Wheatley (Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences), and Gregory Holmes (Program in Experimental and Molecular Medicine). Faculty are nominated by graduate students and recent alumni to receive this award based on their outstanding dedication to fostering the professional and personal development of their students.

The panel was asked to discuss why they felt they had been successful mentors. They emphasized the importance of recognizing that each student is different and of adapting one’s approach to each individual. Ideally, a graduate student will leave school with the ability to confidently convey his or her own original ideas, and a mentor needs to foster this ability to think independently. Professor Holmes remarked that knowing where your students want to go in their future careers greatly helps in mentoring them successfully. If you cannot help them, you should direct them to where they can receive help in achieving their goals. The panel agreed that professional meetings are great places for students to develop their skills and meet potential postdoctoral advisors or employers.

Graduate student attendees asked which mentoring styles worked best for the panel and why. Professors Virginia and BelBruno stated that their methods were more “hands-off,” but accessible, in that they placed responsibility on their students to learn on their own, but made themselves available for discussion when needed. Professor Virginia also added that while he takes this approach, he does spend a lot of time with his students when they are out in the field conducting research. Graduate student, Gilbert Rahme, was intrigued to know if mentoring styles change over time (e.g. with promotions or obtaining tenure), and panelists agreed that tactics may become more relaxed with time. Professor Wheatley commented that you must always be “driven as a mentor to ask questions and find the answers.”

Effective mentors also rely on their postdocs to help in the task of counseling and teaching. Professor Holmes remarked that he expects his postdocs to also be great mentors, and he teaches them this skill by showing them how to choose and design projects and how to properly manage a lab. Professor BelBruno views postdocs as colleagues and expects them to educate themselves about lab research with only minor support. He feels that more focused support should be on how to become a successful professor.

Attendees also sought advice on what to do when challenges arise. Professor Madden encouraged students to find a way to communicate the issue directly to their mentor, since mentors cannot always tell when something is not working well for a student. This can be an intimidating prospect, and it can help to reach out to colleagues for advice on how to frame the issue.

Overall, panelists advised graduate students and postdocs to try to be fair and helpful mentors. Professor Virginia reminded everyone that graduate students are people too, who have lives and families, and an advisor should be prepared to appropriately help in all aspects of their lives. To be a well-rounded mentor, one needs to “know when to acknowledge life.”

by Molly Croteau

Celia Chen, a research professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, who received her undergraduate degree from Dartmouth in 1978 and her PhD in biology in 1994, was recently involved in negotiations in Switzerland as a part of the Minamata Convention on Mercury. Chen represented Dartmouth as a member of the United Nations Environment Programme’s Global Mercury Partnership.

For the full article go to Dartmouth Now.

The second talk in the series “Becoming a Faculty Member” was as informative as the first. Professor Ron Taylor talked to a group of graduate students and postdocs about how to write an effective research paper, something that he and his lab have a lot of experience with.

The hardest part of writing is figuring out where to start. Professor Taylor suggested that writers start with the abstract, which will provide a general overview of what the paper will be about. He did mention that your ideas will probably change as you start writing the paper, but you can always adjust the abstract later. After developing the abstract, the next and most important aspect of writing is looking at the collected data. Professor Taylor suggested actually having the data physically in front of you, so that you can move it around and arrange it into a coherent story. Sometimes more experiments may need to be done before the story is complete. Do you have controls? Is everything labeled correctly? Do the results fit well with what the abstract says? Looking at the data in advance will allow the writer to determine how the paper should develop and what remains to be done.

The next important aspect of writing a paper is determining why other researchers would care about what you are writing. You will want to present your work in a way that interests others in the field and addresses an issue that they find compelling.

Professor Taylor also stressed the importance of remembering basic writing skills, such as making sure each paragraph has a topic sentence. You should correct spelling and grammar before sending the paper off to be read by your advisor—sometimes having a colleague read through the paper in advance can help.

A final consideration when writing a paper is deciding where you ultimately want to submit it. This may change the layout and content of the paper. Some scholars pick journals based on impact factor, while others may submit to a smaller journal, hoping that the paper will be published faster. As Professor Taylor noted, however, it is often worth taking a risk and submitting to a more prestigious journal because, “If you don’t play, you can’t win, and sometimes you can win.”

Overall, Professor Taylor offered a number of helpful pointers to aspiring graduate student and postdoc writers.

by Britney Tappen

At its 2012 conference in Portland, Oregon, in October, the Association of Graduate Liberal Studies Programs (AGLSP) awarded its Annual Faculty Award to Senior Lecturer in the Masters of Arts in Liberal Studies Program, Klaus Milich, PhD. The AGLSP’s Faculty Award recognizes “outstanding faculty who exemplify the qualities of interdisciplinary, liberal teaching and who have participated significantly in teaching or advising students and/or have actively participated in other faculty service in a graduate liberal studies program.” Dr. Milich was recognized for his contributions to Dartmouth’s Masters of Arts in Liberal Studies (MALS) program, and for his work as an advisor for graduate students on campus.

“The AGLSP Prize is intended to recognize extraordinary commitment to mentoring and advising,” says MALS Chair Donald E. Pease, Jr. “From the time I recruited him to teach in the MALS Program in 1999, Klaus Milich has proven himself an exemplary scholar and teacher.” Dr. Milich teaches multiple courses for the MALS program— “Research Methods”, a course designed to help students understand and execute theoretical social science; “Diasporas and Migrations,” which focused on concept and theories related to mass-migration and diasporas across the globe; “Religion and Politics,” and “Theories of Postmodernism.” Dr. Milich also teaches courses in the Jewish Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies programs.

During his acceptance address at the AGLSP Conference, Dr. Milich spoke to the place of theory in graduate liberal studies. “It is of great importance to focus on the theorization of our topics,” said Dr. Milich, who’s own research is focused on analyzing and approaching the classic divide between the humanities and the sciences. “Our students come back from jobs to spend time reflecting. They’ve decided to take time to merge theory and their experiences. This is what graduate liberal studies can offer them.”

The AGLSP’s Faculty Award, however, recognizes more than in-class teaching ability. Indeed, it is Dr. Milich’s approach to advising his graduate students that has set him apart.

“In their annual evaluations, Klaus’s MALS students have praised Klaus for the patience he displays in guiding them through every stage of their thesis projects—from initial formulation to culminating revision,” Pease says. “His students have attested in particular to Professor Milich’s willingness to work late into the evening and over long week-ends to help them to meet deadlines and get over writing blocs. No one is more deserving of this national recognition for exemplary dedication to teaching and advising than Klaus Milich.”

“In graduate studies especially,” Dr. Milich tells us, “the student-instructor relationship ceases to be a hierarchical one. Instead, there must be a mutual interdependence between teacher and researcher. I consider my students to be young research scholars, who embark with me on new projects. They chart their course – I help them as I can.”

“Last year, Klaus was the first reader of my masters thesis,” says MALS grad and former Graduate Student Council President Wes Whitaker. “During the fall and winter terms, I met with Klaus and the other two students in colloquium—Ellen Anderson and Thomas Frohlich—on a weekly basis. At these meetings, portions of Ellen, Thomas and my theses were workshopped by Professor Milich. The feedback provided by Klaus and the other members of my colloquium not only strengthened the final draft of my thesis, but also greatly improved my academic writing.”

During his early years as a student, Dr. Milich studied economics, American Literary and Cultural Studies, German and English Literature. In the first stages of his career, Dr. Milich worked as a management consultant, and then went on to work for German public radio, and various international newspapers, for which he wrote and broadcasted essays, documentaries, interviews, and book reviews on literary, cultural, and social issues. Before coming to Dartmouth, Dr. Milich taught at the University of Frankfurt and Humboldt University Berlin. He has held visiting professorships and visiting scholar positions at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Keele University in Great Britain, and at the David Bruce Center for American Studies at University of California Irvine.

Up in Portland, MALS Director Wole Ojurongbe, himself a MALS graduate, read letter after letter from MALS students, who echoed these sentiments. “Before I met and worked with Dr. Milich, I would have described my life as largely content, settled, and unperturbed,” said 2011 graduate Mary Fratini, “but in my good fortune to meet someone who is equally passionate about his own consistently evolving research and committed to mentoring a new generation of thinkers and scholars, my life has become largely unsettled, consistently perturbed and, ultimately, infinitely more satisfying.”

Indeed, it was Dr. Milich’s commitment to his students, and his very real appreciation for academic research that showed through in Ojurongbe’s remarks and in our interview with him. “Our research,” he told us, “always means an exploration of what we have yet to know. It’s a work in progress. An instructor works with a student, so that both can learn the dual process of learning facts on the one hand, and learning how to continue learning on the other.”

Article and photo by Zach Williams 

From left to right: TDI’s Greg Kotzbauer, Project Manager, Health Policy & ACO; Donald M. Berwick, MD, MPP, FRCP; TDI’s Jessica Johnson, M.Ed; and Holly Russo, TDI MS’96

For the past few months, faculty and staff from The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice (TDI) have been kindling a relationship with Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, and the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine. The collaboration reflects an effort to pursue mutual learning experiences. Capitalizing on a special TDI alumni connection, Alumni Relations Manager Jessica Johnson facilitated a learning exchange that may benefit both organizations, and should have positive ramifications on the larger communities of associated with each program.

In early October, and again in early November, TDI faculty and staff traveled to El Paso, Texas, the site of the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and the Paul S. Foster School of Medicine. Participating in conferences, panel discussions, and small meetings with faculty and staff from the medical school there, the group brought the collective knowledge of TDI to bear on the particular difficulties confronting the border region.

“We used a unique alumni connection to get involved down there,” Johnson said. “That connection created a new channel to a place that could use TDI’s help. The area around El Paso is confronting some major issues, but a lot of these are population health and access problems – that’s something TDI excels at.”   Noting that the region shows high rates of diabetes and obesity, Johnson pointed to a large population of uninsured Americans and the growth of Fort Bliss, a major U.S. Army base, as key hurdles that both sets of faculty have been focusing on.

Back in October, TDI participated in the first annual Mano y Corazón (Hand & Heart) Binational Conference of Multicultural Health Care Solutions.  The highlight of the conference was a Special Roundtable Session held by State Senator José R. Rodriguez, that focused on the impact of the Affordable Care Act on border health. The keynote speaker at the conference was Dr. Donald Berwick, former Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. TDI has a special relationship with the Affordable Care Act – the Institute introduced the idea of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) – which placed TDI faculty in a unique position to offer insight to their colleagues in Texas.

ACOs have become a major issue in modern medical practice. Forbes Magazine recently published an article, detailing the results of an Oliver Wyman report, which claims that the ACO model is now a reality for up to ten percent of the U.S. population. This means that between 25 and 31 million patients each year are receiving care from health care providers who have been rewarded for their efforts to improve care quality and reign in costs.

“TDI’s contribution of ACOs to the Affordable Care Act legislation yet another way TDI has put itself on the map as a leader.” Johnson said. “By way of sharing knowledge with more educational and medical organizations in various regions, we can market TDI and Dartmouth, while simultaneously creating an exchange with these regions that will help them prepare for policies that will be affecting them. This allows them to be leaders themselves.”

A month later, during the first week of November, TDI faculty returned to El Paso for the Border Healthcare Dialogue, a conference that allowed for multiple collaborative learning sessions with faculty from the Foster School of Medicine.

“The two schools deal with equally diverse, if very different populations,” Johnson noted. “This collaboration afforded us an opportunity to expand our thinking here at Dartmouth, and allowed us to pass on some of the conclusions we’ve drawn from the work we’re doing with ACO implementation.

TDI staff and faculty were afforded an opportunity to meet with faculty and students from the Foster School, to discuss the benefits of a new curriculum model that pairs classroom learning with clinical work. “The Foster School is a new medical school,” Johnson continued, “but they’re experimenting with a truly integrated curriculum that’s showing some really positive results.” The Foster School is also teaching all of its students medical Spanish, in an effort to provide better care for the border region’s bilingual population, in addition to a summer regional public health immersion class prior to beginning the program.

The Dartmouth Institute’s systemic approaches to public health, and its close relationship with the Affordable Care Act, continue to be valuable assets as the school’s influence and prestige grows. For alumni affairs professionals like Johnson, these are valuable tools in the pursuit of diverse opportunities for TDI’s faculty, students, and alumni, and for marketing the TDI value chain.