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The PMCN features community interactions in the training of both predoctoral and postdoctoral students. Pre- and postdoctoral students will be mentored by more advanced students and postdoctoral fellows, take active part in special seminars, and share in the very dynamic and well-networked intellectual life provided by the main supporting institutional modules.

Graduate student training

Students will enroll in either the PIN or BME graduate program. Additional activities enhance the exposure of PMCN students to combined computational and experimental research and emphasize mechanisms for community formation.

• PMCN students receive personal tutoring for first year to facilitate the acquisition of knowledge in experimental neuroscience.
• Each PMCN student pursues a 1st year research project that is co-mentored by a faculty member who is a modeler and another who is an experimentalist.
• All PMCN students will attend seminars that highlight work combining computational and experimental approaches to problems in neuroscience. Outside researchers will interact with students both through a colloquium and through a separate seminar session.
• Additional community formation is facilitated by the fact that both the PIN and BME Ph.D. training programs include a mixture of students and faculty that combine computational and experimental approaches. The social milieu include opportunities for interactions in those settings, in the CBD and PIN activities, including weekly seminars organized by neuroscience graduate students from multiple BU departments.

Burroughs Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellows

Postdocs work with a PMCN faculty subcommittee to design a program specific to their needs. They have the opportunity to work on multiple research projects during 2-3 years at Boston University, learning from multiple groups and participating in interface collaborations. Each project involves both an experimental and a computational component and a combination of mentoring in both methodologies. Projects are designed for each trainee according to particular needs and interests; examples of interactive projects are provided below.

In addition to research activity, a special program is designed for each trainee to satisfy specific needs for training in experimental neuroscience, including shorter rotation-like projects.

Fellows can select experimental neuroscience courses from the existing programs as needed, and have access to the tutors. Fellows take an active role in the CBD neuroscience working group and in the PMCN seminar, and mentor less advanced predoctoral and postdoctoral trainees.