How to Join the DEB Faculty

Prof. Joanna Chiu, Prof. Luis Carvajal-Carmona, Dr. Judy Kjelstrom

Joining the DEB Faculty 

DEB faculty members guide the research and professional growth of program students, forming an essential component of the DEB training ecosystem. We currently have over 250 participating STEM faculty from 29 disciplines and we welcome broad participation. Both DEB students and faculty are typically interested in applied research to generate solutions for global challenges in health care, agriculture and natural resource management.  Essential qualities for DEB faculty trainers include: an understanding of the value of transferrable professional skills that enable translational research; a willingness to allow DEB student mentees time away from campus to conduct an industry internship; and a desire to network and collaborate with both academic and industry partners across diverse STEM disciplines.

To become a DEB faculty trainer there are only a few steps that need to be taken, the most important of which is to read the DEB bylaws and send an affirmative self-nominating email agreeing to uphold the bylaws to the DEB director, Dr. Denneal Jamison-McClung at dsjamison@ucdavis.edu.  The following five items should be declared in the email:

1)  “I would like to join the DEB as a faculty trainer”

2)  “I have read the bylaws and will uphold them”, especially the requirement for the internship (you are not obligated to fund the student during the 3-6 months that the student is at the biotech company)

3)  List your affiliated graduate programs.

4)  State your willingness to serve on Qualifying Exams for DEB students in your affiliated graduate program/s

5)  State that you are willing to attend the annual biotechnology retreat, student chalk talks and the Current Progress in Biotechnology (DEB/ECH 294) Friday seminars

Once the request has been emailed to the Director, she will then send it to the DEB Executive Committee for a vote which typically takes no longer than a week.  DEB faculty are encouraged to take part in the fall quarter DEB faculty meeting, serve as course instructors and participate in program activities as time permits.