SUMMARY
Mount Sinai's Training Program in Social Neuroscience Research will offer late-stage predoctoral (PhD) students
and early-stage postdoctoral fellows an integrated program of training in social behavior research that builds on
vast expertise in translational neuroscience, neurology, psychiatry, and genomic sciences. The overarching goal
of the program is to provide rigorous, broad-based, individualized, and multidisciplinary training with enhanced
opportunities for mentoring, collaboration, and career development designed to prepare the next generation of
independent investigators in social behavior research, particularly as it relates to neuropsychiatric syndromes.
At the heart of this new Training Program will be a superb training faculty representing remarkable diversity in
basic and clinically-relevant topics, including social behavior disturbances in psychiatric and neurological
diseases; molecular and synaptic mechanisms of social behavior; and developmental disorders of social
function. The training program comprises seven inter-related components: academic coursework, laboratory
training, non-curricular training activities (seminars, retreats, etc.), testing/evaluation, teaching opportunities,
mentoring, and career development activities. Varied laboratory opportunities at Mount Sinai take advantage of
strengths in translational neuroscience, computational neuroscience, neuropsychiatric genomics, neuroimaging,
epigenetics, and synaptic and behavioral plasticity and provide opportunities for the study of diverse model
systems. The Training Program includes more than a dozen opportunities either newly created or building on
existing opportunities to create sharp focus on training in social neuroscience relevant to neuropsychiatric
disease, to emphasize multidisciplinary collaborations, and to foster and promote exceptional rigor and creativity.
Pre-and-postdoctoral trainees will participate in a range of required and optional training activities to ensure
strong grounding in basic neuroscience and opportunities to learn from and with peers and faculty from across
the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, the medical school,
interdisciplinary Centers and Institutes, central among them the Friedman Brain Institute), as well as from other
institutions. Creating a structure for, and culture of, mentoring across the continuum of the Training Program is
a key component of the program; formal and informal advising and mentoring will be integrated into training
across roles and levels, including mentoring opportunities for training faculty and sponsors (preceptors).
Integrating predoctoral and postdoctoral training through formal mechanisms will provide greater continuity in
the overall training experience, enhanced opportunities for collaboration among trainees interested in pursuing
careers in mental health research, and will benefit the neuroscience research effort at Mount Sinai. The Training
Program in Social Neuroscience will prepare the most promising trainees for productive, independent careers in
social neuroscience research through a training program that both promotes rigor and nurtures innovation.