The SRA Symposium - College of Medicine

Papers
Brent: Though at times my schedule was relatively busy, I tried to make myself available to Karl.
Being available does not mean that the mentor must always be around. But by planning ahead, I
found that I could communicate to Karl the times that I would be away, so that he could plan his
work accordingly. It is easy to convince yourself that your own work is more important than training
a new scientist, but I felt that giving off my time to be available for Karl was or at least could
have been important for his career.
Provide Other Mentor Options. No one mentor has the knowledge and experience necessary to
sufficiently train a modern scientist. Therefore, a good mentor will provide the trainee with names
of other mentors. Having more than one mentor will broaden the trainee’s knowledge and understanding
about the field in which he or she is interested. The perfect or ‘complete’ mentor is not
one person, but an assembly of several mentors, each contributing a piece of the training ‘pie’.
Karl: I had many questions related to research and especially medical schools that Dr. House
could not answer, so he introduced me to a variety of other scientists at the NMRC and explained
my situation to them. After that, I was welcomed in each scientist’s office to talk about medical
schools, research and even about bike rides. This was nice, since this provided me with more in
depth discussions and answers – things Dr. House could not provide for me himself. Here are
some examples of people who contributed in fulfilling all my objectives:
One of the virology department scientists, Dr. Kevin Porter, gave me much advice regarding
Duke Medical School, the school from which he graduated. Dr. Porter also gave me
the ‘crazy’ idea that each day, after working at the NMRC, I could perform volunteer duties
for the Red Cross at the National Naval Medical Center (NNMC).
Dr. Thomas Richie, Director of the Malaria department, was also very generous with his
time and sat and talked with me about some of the differences in getting an M.D./Ph.D.
verses just an M.D. He also shared with me his experiences in the military traveling the
world to work with Malaria.
As an introduction to my laboratory research project, Dr. Joao Aguiar spent a significant
amount of time explaining to me the main goals of his lab and how molecular biology
works. He also helped me understand why Malaria is one of the deadliest killers in the
world today, why Malaria has been and is still so difficult to eradicate, and what problems
contemporary scientists face in creating an effective vaccine. Dr. Aguiar sharing his
life-long experiences with me has impacted my thinking about the threat of the Malaria
parasite.
Brent: I am very new to the Naval Medical Research Center and to the field of Malaria. And
though I have done much reading about Malaria, I knew that Karl would benefit from the mentorship
of many scientists who were more experienced in the field (and other fields). I think that Karl
learned much and really enjoyed his discussions with all of the other researchers in the facility.
Develop the Trainee’s Professional Network. The mentor is the keystone in building a trainee’s
professional network. Once initial training is completed, the trainee will eventually need or want
to move on (to school or to a career). In most cases, the mentor will have many more professional
contacts than the trainee. By introducing the trainee to different contacts within (or outside) the
field, the mentor provides the essential groundwork that the trainee can use in finding the appropriate
schooling or career when the time comes to do so. Building a network is a lifelong process,
one that should begin with the scientist’s first mentor/trainee relationship.
2005 Symposium Proceedings Book 39