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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>Happy new year to all!<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>For those of you who have not applied to one of these- they are highly recommended by DOM faculty who have attended, and the department usually provides a small subsidy to defray the cost.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><a href="https://www.aamc.org/members/gwims/recommended_reading/278026/ewimarticle.html">2014 Early Career Women Faculty Professional Development Seminar</a> <o:p></o:p></b></p><p class=MsoNormal>July 12-15-2014<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Englewood, CO<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>*<i>Application will open in late February/early March.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><a href="https://www.aamc.org/members/gwims/recommended_reading/278018/midwimarticle.html">2014 Mid-Career Women Faculty Professional Development Seminar</a><o:p></o:p></b></p><p class=MsoNormal>December 6-9, 2014<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Austin, TX<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><i>*Application will open in early September.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Also, two more interesting tidbits:<o:p></o:p></p><p>A paper, “The presence of female conveners correlates with a higher proportion of female speakers at scientific symposia,” was published in the new issue of the American Society for Microbiology journal “mbio.” Arturo Casadevall, M.D., Ph.D., of Albert Einstein, and Dr. Jo Handelsman, of Yale University, authored the study. According to a summary, they “looked at scientific symposia involving nearly 2,000 speakers at three large general meetings sponsored by the American Society for Microbiology in 2011 through 2013…The symposia convened by all-male teams contained 25 percent female speakers on average. For the symposia in which the convener teams included at least one woman, women comprised an average of 43 percent of speakers—which meant that including at least one woman among the conveners increased the proportion of female speakers by 72 percent compared with symposia convened by men alone.”<br><a href="http://echo4.bluehornet.com/ct/29435771:25030819619:m:1:1612447464:0B222AB70D6AB7E7946BF176F57F13C4:r">http://mbio.asm.org/content/5/1/e00846-13</a><o:p></o:p></p><p>A paper in the new issue of EMBO Reports from researchers at Indiana University is titled, “From funding agencies to scientific agency: Collective allocation of science funding as an alternative to peer review.” As an alternative to traditional peer review, the researchers propose an “alternative inspired by the mathematical models used to search the internet for relevant information: a highly decentralized funding model in which the wisdom of the entire scientific community is leveraged to determine a fair distribution of funding.” According to the authors, “It would still require human insight and decision?making, but it would drastically reduce the overhead costs and may alleviate many of the issues and inefficiencies of the proposal submission and peer review system, such as bias, ‘playing it safe’, or reluctance to support curiosity?driven research.”<br><a href="http://echo4.bluehornet.com/ct/29435769:25030819619:m:1:1612447464:0B222AB70D6AB7E7946BF176F57F13C4:r">http://embor.embopress.org/content/early/2014/01/07/embr.201338068</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:7.5pt'>_____________________________________________________________________</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:7.5pt'>Ora A. Weisz, PhD | Professor of Medicine, Professor of Cell Biology </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:7.5pt'>Vice Chair of Faculty Development, Department of Medicine</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:7.5pt'>Assistant Dean for Faculty Development, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:7.5pt'>Renal-Electrolyte Division | 978.1 Scaife Hall | 3550 Terrace St. | Pittsburgh PA 15261<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:7.5pt'>Tel: 412-383-8891 | Fax: 412-383-8956 | Email: <a href="mailto:weisz@pitt.edu"><span style='color:blue'>weisz@pitt.edu</span></a> | website: weisz2.dept-med.pitt.edu<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>