2015-2016 NNCI Scholars

Michael is a PGY4 resident at NYPH‐Weill Cornell with an interest and background in neuroscience research and teaching. This year at Cornell he is participating in a neuroscience teaching elective where he will teach both PGY1 and PGY3 residents. In addition to teaching basic neuroanatomy, he aims to develop a more advanced and interactive curriculum to help residents “develop literacy in biological psychiatry research and practice” and “understand its utility in clinical settings.” His application included a teaching sample describing the neurobiology of hearing voices.

Basar is a PGY3 resident at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. This year he will be working with the training director to redesign and co-teach a core neuroscience curriculum for PGY2 residents. His goal is to develop teaching materials that can be delivered by “generalist faculty” focusing on “what every psychiatrist needs to know about neuroscience.” Basar’s teaching sample was an engaging and accessible description of a study published in Nature on the potential impact of activating positive memories in depression.

Tammy is a PGY4 resident at the University of Southern California. This year she is Resident Chair of her department’s curriculum committee and is working with faculty to build a stronger neuroscience curriculum for the first year residents. Her teaching as an undergraduate often included facilitating fun exercises such as “using crayon pieces as chromatids, fermenting yeast in the classroom to demonstrate the Krebs cycle, and pretending that we were in ‘CSI’ to put gel electrophoresis in context.” She aims to bring this same creativity to teaching neuroscience and submitted a creative, interactive approach to teaching residents about stroke.

John is a PGY4 resident at the Harvard Longwood training program. John has a longstanding interest in education, neuroscience, and information technology. He recently wrote an article (in press in the Asian Journal of Psychiatry) on “A proposed solution to integrating cognitive-affective neuroscience and neuropsychiatry in psychiatry residency training: The time is now.” This year he is interested in a project that will focus on how to best use internet technologies to deliver psychiatric educational materials.

Rebecca is a PGY3 resident at Loma Linda University. Her interest in education extends back to her college years as a biology tutor. This year she is working with her Associate Program Director to restructure and enhance the clinical neuroscience curriculum to include non-traditional forms of learning. Her teaching sample included a clip from a short horror film paired with a brain sketch exercise focused on how images and sound are processed in the brain to create an emotional experience through the limbic system.

Bryce is a PGY3 resident at Georgetown University. He aims to incorporate teaching as part of his career and enjoys “teaching adults, navigating complex topics, and using innovative and dynamic methods to engage students and achieve understanding.” His teaching sample included a comprehensive facilitator’s guide and incorporated an attachment and social feedback “game” as an approach to teaching the neural circuitry involved in different attachment styles.