Any minimal introspection about my own career highlights for me just how important it is to have the right mentors and opportunities. I have been very lucky to have many inspiring examples and I hope that in turn I have been able to inspire others. Among the efforts that I am proudest of is the program I helped organize for undergraduates throughout the country interested in research in bioinformatics and integrative genomic. This project in collaboration with my colleagues at the National Center for Biomedical Computing (Informatics for Integrating Biology to the Bedside), at the Division of Health Sciences and Technology of Harvard and MIT, with funding from the NHGRI and the NLM enables college students after their sophomore and junior year to work over the Summer with an assigned investigator leading state-of-the-art research. We have been fortunate to attract many bright students (to the extent that we have to run an formal admissions process) including several students from underrepresented minorities. In addition to the research work, this Summer Program involves didactic content, several social (and even touristic) events and the students appear to have a very enjoyable time of it.
And, like many projects that I have been involved in that, a first blush, do not seem to have a research component (at least for me) this Summer Program has stimulated my own interest and research into the commonalities and differences across populations of origin. This work is now being led by Dr. Adam Davis who in turn has been a leader in the Summer Program.