Cellular, Biochemical and Molecular Sciences (CBM) Predoctoral Training Program

Mission

Exploration of the biochemical, molecular and cellular principles of life is essential to driving innovation in biomedical research. At Cornell, a broad ranging research community helps push the frontiers of life sciences through fundamental and mechanistic research in biochemistry, molecular and cellular biology. Graduate education is at the center stage of this enterprise.

To keep pace with the rapidly evolving challenges of our time, we must modernize graduate education to harness the diversity of talents and to foster innovative multidisciplinary research strategies for fundamental discoveries.

With this vision, the mission of the Cellular, Biochemical and Molecular Sciences (CBM) Predoctoral Training Program at Cornell University is to maximize the ability of a diverse pool of students to perform rigorous, innovative and impactful research in CBM areas, and to train these students to become effective communicators and leaders in life sciences. Through innovation in biomedical graduate education, the CBM training program seeks to develop future creative and engaged scientists who integrate communication and inclusion in all aspects of their research and career paths.

Objectives

The CBM training program will actively collaborate and synergize with two major biomedical graduate programs at Cornell (BMCB and BBS) to recruit and train first rate scientists from diverse backgrounds. A primary goal of the CBM training program is to fill a much-needed training gap in effective scientific communication, particularly with scientists across different traditional disciplinary boundaries and also people across different backgrounds. By emphasizing scientific communication with inclusion consideration, and offering a range of technical, operational, and professional development activities, the CBM training program seeks to enhance the training experience of all trainees, thus achieving a high rate of completion (90% or higher) with a reasonable time-to-degree (5.5 years or less), while addressing structural biases in scientific education. The specific objectives are to:

  • Develop effective communication: develop students into confident and effective communicators able to engage with scientific and non-scientific      audiences from diverse backgrounds;
  • Provide specialized training in CBM areas: technical, quantitative and computational training that maximize the ability of trainees to perform rigorous and innovative research in the broad areas of CBM;
  • Enhance career awareness: provide meaningful exposure and awareness necessary for students to best identify their career goals, and achieve them through project management and leadership skills;
  • Develop critical thinking skills: develop the ability to identify key biomedical questions, evaluate appropriate approaches to address the questions and advance the field;
  • Promote rigorous and reproducible research: develop skills in experimental design and methods, quantitative and statistically robust approaches to data collection, data analyses and interpretations;
  • Develop safe, responsible and ethical research practices: gain a thorough understanding and routine practice of safe, responsible and ethical research conduct;
  • Promote an inclusive and welcoming community: develop skills to collaborate and work effectively with colleagues from diverse backgrounds and to promote an inclusive and welcoming research environment;
  • Foster successful degree completion: support the timely completion of degree training and productive contributions to the biomedical research enterprise.

We are committed to providing a welcoming and inclusive training and research environment for all students. We work closely with the Graduate School Office of Inclusion and Student Engagement to provide an inclusive and holistic approach to graduate scholar success. https://gradschool.cornell.edu/diversity-inclusion/about-oise/  

If you are a student who needs accommodations, Cornell has multiple resources to help you navigate campus and your academic program. https://gradschool.cornell.edu/policies/disability-policies/

Faculty Trainers