Episode 11: We all need mentors: The OHBM Student-Postdoc Special Interest Group

By Peter Bandettini & the OHBM Neurosalience production team

In this episode Peter Bandettini meets Carolina Makowski, Michele Veldsman and Alex Fornito to discuss the OHBM Student–Postdoc special interest group (SIG), with particular emphasis on their mentoring scheme and meeting-related workshops. Carolina is a current member of the SIG, Michele previously served as its Chair, and Alex has been an active mentor to several junior OHBM members over the years through this group. They discuss the mentorship program, the workshops at the meeting, what good mentorship is, and why it’s needed more than ever, as the stresses and demands of students and postdocs increases within an ever more demanding professional climate. 

Carolina Makowski, Ph.D. is the Career Development and Mentorship Director–Elect of the Student–Postdoc Special Interest Group. Dr. Makowski completed her PhD in neuroscience at McGill University and is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California San Diego with Dr. Anders Dale and Dr. Chi-Hua Chen, with funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Fonds de Recherche du Quebec - Santé, and the Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind. 

Michele Veldsman, Ph.D. is a previous Chair of the Student-Postdoc Student Interest Group and is currently a Postdoctoral Research Scientist in Cognitive Neurology, University of Oxford.

Alex Fornito, Ph.D. is the Sylvia and Charles Viertel Foundation Senior Research Fellow, Professor of Psychological Sciences, and Head of the Brain Mapping and Modelling Research Program at the Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health. He leads his Neural Systems and Behavior Lab and  has actively participated in the student-postdoc SIG. 
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The Neurosalience production team consists of Anastasia Brovkin, Katie Moran, Nils Muhlert, Kevin Sitek, and Rachael Stickland.