Audio Slideshow: Meet research scholar Raymond Mirasol and find out how a year in the program changed his career.
(08.24.2010)

What Makes this Program Unique?
The program is unique among research training programs in that you are not required to propose a research project or select a laboratory as part of the application process. Instead, you are encouraged to spend the first several weeks in the program interviewing with investigators and exploring different laboratories at the NIH before making a selection.

As a Research Scholar, you become part of a special research community at the NIH. You spend a year working as part of a research team in a laboratory at the NIH's main campus in Bethesda, conducting basic, translational or applied biomedical research under the mentorship of an NIH senior investigator, or preceptor. In the supportive and stimulating environment at the NIH, you learn the latest laboratory techniques and experience the creative thinking involved in modern biomedical research. You have the opportunity to explore a wide range of complex biological questions encompassing the disciplines and the tools of cell biology, genetics, immunology, neuroscience, structural biology, and epidemiology and biostatistics.

You also benefit from the extraordinarily rich educational environment at the NIH. Every week, institutes and laboratories on campus sponsor lectures—as many as 10 to 20 a day—presented by investigators and scientists from around the world. Endowed lecture series and symposia covering research in progress in a particular field, or honoring an investigator or milestone in biomedical science, are held on a regular basis, allowing students to further immerse themselves in science outside the laboratory.

More Than Research
Students find the residential community they share at the Mary Woodard Lasker Center for Health Research and Education, on the NIH campus, where all Scholars are housed to be an integral part of their experience. Commonly known as the Cloister, this attractive apartment residence and educational facility encourages scientific and social camaraderie among Scholars in a place where they can relax and feel at home with their peers.

Photo: William K. Geiger