The first week of August

      The first week of August found the SURF students meeting with Dr. Eric Blalock, an Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences.  Dr. Blalock discussed his training and in pharmacology and the steps that he had taken to secure his faculty position.  He also told us about his experiences working with applicants for the Integrated Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program and gave us tips on how to write a good personal statement.   He also discussed his research interests that focuses on the influence of stress and sleep on aging brain function-https://pharmns.med.uky.edu/users/emblal#profileTab4.  In his work, he utilizes a number of approaches that rely on rodent models, electrophysiology, molecular analyses and bioinformatics analyses of large data sets.

         The SURF and SURES students then met with Dr. Brian Jackson, a Professor in the Department of Physiology and the Dean of the Graduate School (https://physiology.med.uky.edu/users/jackson).  Dr. Jackson described his training in the United Kingdom, the events that led to his decision to do research in the United States and the problems that he was addressing in his work on kidney function.  He also talked to us about graduate school and the changes that will be incorporated into graduate training in the future.