Resources
This highly idiosyncratic page that contains miscellaneous bits of information that we think might be useful to some scholars and prospective scholars.
Frequently asked questions
- Check here first for answers to miscellaneous questions about our PREP
Other postbacc opportunities
- PhD aspirants only
- NIH list of other PREP sites
- A superb spreadsheet compiled by Dr. R. Behringer, MD Anderson Cancer Center. This list is self-reported and may not include all the NIH PREP sites, but it does include application deadlines and other information not available at the NIH page, all in one place. If you have little research experience: focus on sites that include a two-year option.
- 10 April 2024: go to our News page for a list of NIH PREP sites still recruiting
- New! University of Iowa programs:
- 2-year postbacc program, iDREAM, in neuroscience, intended for students who graduated from a university that does not award bioscience PhDs.
- iCARE, 2-year postbacc program in cancer research -- cohorts begin in August
- New! Neuro postbac in Florida!
- The Postbaccalaureate Program at the Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience (MPFI) provides recent college graduates who plan to apply to graduate school an opportunity to spend one or two years performing full-time research at MPFI. Open to international students and MD/PhD aspirants.
- MD-PhD aspirants
- Go to the Behringer spreadsheet linked above. Look for sites that fund scholars for two years, are affiliated with medical schools, and/or have more than 6 positions per year. Those are more apt to be appropriate for dual degree students.
- See also "everyone" below.
- DACA recipients or international students: The following sites include positions funded by the university and may be able to support DACA recipients.
- Colorado University Anschutz, PIKE-PREP
- Northwestern, NU PREP
- Stanford University, REACH Postbaccalaureate Program
- University of Rochester Medical College, URMC-PREP
- postbacc funded by the American Cancer Society
- industrial postbacc funded by Novartis
- everyone:
- At campuses of the University of California, Junior Specialists are entry-level researchers with a two-year cap on employment in this position. UC Davis faculty have begun advertising these openings. Go to https://recruit.ucdavis.edu/apply and look for Junior Specialist positions with an "apply by..." date in the future. New positions will appear probably through mid summer.
- PhD or health sciences degree aspirants: NIH Intramural Research Training Award Program admits both PhD and MD applicants. Rolling admission.
- PhD or MD/PhD aspirants: new as of March 2023 -- the NIH just funded six postbac sites that focus on neuroscience specifically "to support individuals from institutions that do not offer undergraduates access to substantive research opportunities."
- PhD or MD/PhD aspirants: new!!! postbacc program at the Jackson Lab
- PhD or MD/PhD aspirants: postbacc programs at Memorial-Sloan-Kettering
- searchable database at Pathways to Science
Other pre-PhD opportunities
- When we learn of them, we try to post information about positions on our news page.
- several faculty at UC Davis are recruiting entry level lab techs. Go to recruit.ucdavis.edu and look for "junior specialist" positions. Look at all the colleges and schools -- UC Davis has a gazillion faculty doing biology research at the molecular/cellular level. See also a couple of bullets down for more thoughts on this.
- consider a funded MS program, including ones on the list compiled by Dr. Stacy Farina, Howard University (note that Professor Farina specifically calls out Ecology/Evolution/Organismal Biology but the list includes many programs that include cell and molecular biology)
- looking for an academic entry-level lab tech position? Every university handles this differently. At campuses of the University of California, term-limited entry-level positions are classified as "junior specialists" and positions are advertised on the university's academic recruiting site. Staff positions are advertised on a human resources site. Both may include entry-level lab positions. For UC Davis:
- academic: recruit.ucdavis.edu. Note that a large fraction of junior specialist positions turn over annually as the incumbents head to advanced degree programs in the spring through summer, which means that spring is a great time to search this site.
- staff: hr.ucdavis.edu -- look for "staff research associate" titles
About Davis: town and gown
Responsible Conduct of Research
Miscellaneous other resources
Interested in science policy? The California Council on Science and Technology put together a pretty nifty guide to careers in science policy, including educational resources.
Potentially interested in a non-academic career?
See this Nature article for some how-to advice.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science provides information on transferrable skills that you can cultivate through an Individual Development Plan
Funding your PhD: yes, graduate programs pay you but you also can apply for portable fellowships.
- database from Johns Hopkins
- search engine at pathwaystoscience.org
- UCLA's reknowned search engine, GRAPES.
- web page for the NSF graduate research fellowship
Anti-racism
From Kelly Stevens et al. 2021, commentary in Cell.
Our nationwide network of BME women faculty collectively argue that racial funding disparity by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) remains the most insidious barrier to success of Black faculty in our profession. We thus refocus attention on this critical barrier and suggest solutions on how it can be dismantled.
We encourage those interested in advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the life sciences to check out these additional writings and resources. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list.
- UC Davis Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: guidance, action plans, people and groups, how to learn more
- UC Davis was founded as a Land Grant Institution under the 1862 Morrill Act. While this legislation opened higher education to those who'd been previously excluded, it also expropriated millions of acres of land from tribal nations. Learn more in this two-day forum sponsored by UC Berkeley.
- UC Davis' Land Acknowledgement Statement
- Promoting Diversity and Advancing Equity in the Biomedical Sciences, Kenneth Gibbs, Director of the Postdoctoral Research Associate Training Program at the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, NIH. ASCB, 3 Sep 2020.
- What Can We Do to Combat Anti-Black Racism in the Biomedical Research Enterprise? Jon Lorch, Kenneth Gibbs, and Alison Gamie, NIH Feedback Loop Blog. 20 June 2020
- Ten Simple Rules for Building an Antiracist Lab, V. Bala Chaudhary and A. A. Berhe. PLoS Computational Biology, 1 October 2020
- America's legacy of racism: the Ford Foundation's statement on anti-Asian hate by Darren Walker, President of the Ford Foundation. 17 March 2021
As Americans, we must reckon with our past in order to transcend it.
- Standing Against Hate and Fear: UC Davis Police Chief Joe Farrow's statement on fear and racism.
- Why did we establish a PREP site at UC Davis? PI Dan Starr explains in How Establishing a Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program Can Address Your Mid-life Crisis, Daniel Starr, Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology and Director, PREP@UCD. ASCB Newsletter, September/October 2020.
- UC Davis Professors Crystal Rogers and Wilsaan Joiner on Injustices Against Blacks in America. Interview by Professor Rebecca Calisi-Rodriguez, 10 June 2020. Two new-ish members of our campus community, Dr. Crystal Rogers (Assistant Professor of Biology in the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine) and Dr. Wilsaan Joiner (Associate Professor of Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior in the UC Davis College of Biological Sciences and the Department of Neurology within the UC Davis School of Medicine), share their thoughts and experiences on race, racism, the Davis community, and UC Davis. Rogers and Joiner both are trainers in PREP@UCD.
- Dan and Carole's letter to the PREP@UCD community about anti-black violence, 1 June 2020