Preparing the next generation of P. I.s

Labtimizer recently sponsored the “Academic Leadership Symposium” event organized by the Torrey Pines Training Consortium (TPTC).
The TPTC is mainly composed by the post-doc career development administrators from Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, The Scripps Research Institute and University of California San Diego. They organize trainings, courses and seminars designed to provide career development and leadership competencies for scientific professionals at early stages of their career.

The symposiums goal was to prepare post-docs and junior faculty in the field of life sciences for the next step in their career by efficiently equipping them with the skills they need for leading and managing a scientific laboratory.
You can find the complete course information and agenda here.

The whole event was well-organized and most of the speakers were high class and gave an excellent talk and an inside view of what is important when starting an own lab. For most of the attendees it was very eye-opening, because the majority heard about leadership skills and team management for the very first time. Although several topics were only touched briefly, it was a great overall overview. The basics were covered and I personally hope that the attendees will now use their new knowledge to dig deeper in the subject.

Labtimizer contributed to sponsor this event thereby being convinced that the understanding of lab management and leadership is essential for successfully running a scientific laboratory. Only well-trained and well-informed scientists will be able to run an efficient lab; And efficiency is all what Labtimizer stands for.

The TPTC achieves to fulfill the lack of leadership training and emphasizes the importance of project and financial management. Personally I am very happy that the TPTC is organizing such events and raises the awareness for these important and success relevant topics. Leadership and management are the most important criteria for new P. I.s to successfully run their own lab.
If you are in San Diego at one of the institutes at the Torrey Pines Mesa, I strongly recommend considering a participation in one of the next courses. TPTC offers this course annually in the spring.