In the beginning... Michael Zigmond initiated the Survival Skills & Ethics Workshops in 1985 in his role as the director of an NIMH-training grant in neuroscience.  These workshops were founded on his observation that graduate students and postdocs were receiving very good training in their discipline, but that they were under-prepared with regard to the other abilities they would need in order to be successful in their career. These skills included the ability to apply and interview for jobs, get grants, publish their work, give effective research seminars, and teach courses. To address this need, he began to develop and offer a select series of workshops to individuals in neuroscience at the University of Pittsburgh. And right from the very start, the ethical dimensions of each skill were discussed as an integral part of the workshops, to emphasize the fact that behaving responsibly is an essential part of being a professional.

After having worked in Zigmond's lab for 8 years, in 1993, Beth Fischer joined the Survival Skills & Ethics Program. Together Fischer and Zigmond expanded the number of topics addressed as well as the number of events they offered, and over the years the Program grew substantially. It transitioned through a phase in which it was offered as a formal two-term course, and now has evolved into the Saturday Series of workshops. These full-day workshops are open to anyone in the University community, regardless of their level or discipline. They now include Ethics Over Lunch, a lunchtime discussion of an ethical issue related to the topic of the day.

Another local initiativeof the Survival Skills & Ethics Program included launching a special set  of workshops for junior faculty to prepare them for the tenure process, adapting some of the workshop material for inclusion in summer undergraduate training programs, and working with select faculty to assist them in integrating ethical issues into the courses they teach.

Training-the-trainers.  The Program's first Conference on Teaching Survival Skills & Ethics was offered in 1995, sparked by a suggestion from Kathie Olsen, who was then a program officer at the National Science Foundation.  As the name suggests, this annual conference provides faculty and administrators with the instruction and materials necessary to implement a program in professional development and ethics at their institution.  Over 394 faculty and administrators from 268 institutions have now participated in this conference.

Even more projects! Other Program offerings include an all-day Professional Skills Workshop held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience (initiated in 1997 at the request of the Association of Neuroscience Departments and Programs), as well as a series of workshops for intramural postdocs at the NIH (started in 1996), and occasional invited workshops at other institutions and conferences. 

Lunch, anyone? Most recently, the Program began to offer lunchtime sessions on career options and sources of funding. Careers Over Lunch and Grants Over Lunch give participants the opportunity to learn about these important topics from experts in an informal, interactive setting.

The future.... Fischer and Zigmond enjoy experimenting with new workshop topics and formats.  Fischer and Zigmond also travel several times a year to provide training in professional skills to scientists in developing nations. Who knows what they'll try next.  Check back for new developments!