Achievement

The requirement to perform one of the three lab rotations in a discipline outside of one’s main area of expertise has tremendous and multifaceted impact on the trainees’ research training. First, the rotation in an unfamiliar discipline introduces the trainees to topics, thinking process, jargon, and methodologies that are foreign to them, and therefore challenge them to adapt and view problems from a different perspective. Second, this experience helps the trainees establish a network of researchers with different expertise, and from which they can seek help/advice when needed as they undertake their interdisciplinary thesis projects. Third, this experience represents an important step in the trainees’ career development, as for many of them it represents the first real cross-disciplinary experience.