The BioREFS are recruiting again! Are you an MIT Biology graduate student or post-doc interested in helping support the greater MIT Biology community?
If so, please consider joining the BioREFS!
We are currently accepting applications for new members. Deadline for applications is My 15th, 5pm. Mediation training sessions will be held in June 2011 (please check the following link for the specific dates: http://studentlife.mit.edu/mediation/training).
The BioREFS are biology graduate students and post-docs who serve as an informal – yet confidential – resource for anyone affiliated with the department. Our goal is to be a confidential sounding board for anyone who needs to talk (or write). We primarily help people work through solutions for personal conflicts within labs, with advisors, or between friends, but are available as a resource for any issues affecting members of the MIT Biology community.
Requirements: An active interest in promoting a positive and supportive environment for the MIT Biology community, a one week mediation training course at MIT (provided by the BioREFS), and a commitment of approximately 5 hours a month on BioREFS-related activities.
You can download an application here “BioREFS application” and it is also available in the Biology Education office. It can be returned either by email (biorefs@mit.edu) or in person to any one of the current BioREFS. Feel free to email us or catch one of us in the hall if you have any questions.
Please, pass on this information to anyone who you think might be interested!
We’re looking forward to reading your applications!
Facebook Page
Want to hear more about what the BioREFS are doing? Then like our Facebook page!
March Coffee Hour!
Spring is on the way! Let’s celebrate with some coffee and cookies! On Thursday, March 10 from 4-5pm the BioREFS will have free coffee and cookies in 68-180. Come and join us!
You can add this date to your google calendar on from our new calendar (under “about the BioREFS”) or by clicking on this button:
BioREFS social hour
Join the BioREFS for their first event of 2011!
On Thursday February 3rd, 2011 the BioREFS will be holding a Social hour in the Whitehead cafeteria from 4:30-6pm. Come and join us for free drinks and food.
The December Coffee Hour
To help you get through the last bit of the semester the BioREFS are holding another coffee and cookies event! This time it will be in the NEW Koch Institute so come check it out, or take a break from moving in. Here’s the stuff you need to know:
When: Dec 16th 2:30pm-3:30pm
Where: 76-459
BioREFS coffee hour!
Come relax with some free coffee and cookies!
Wednesday Nov 10, 2010
4:30m – 5:30pm
CCR, 5th Floor conference room
Recruiting
Are you interested in helping out MIT’s Biology community? Well good news, the BioREFS are accepting applications! Take a look here for an application.
BioREFS Lounge
First year biology graduate students at MIT have a lounge, “the PIT” to help establish relationships among students that hold for a lifetime. While the pit excels in this regard, it only lasts for one year, and is only available to first year graduate students. We are trying to create a lounge, comparable to the PIT available to everyone in MIT biology. This space will be a place to wind down between experiments or at the end of the day, to escape from stress, or to encounter new faces outside of one’s lab and floor. It will serve as a place for future BioREFS events as well as a meeting place for MIT biologists (graduate students, post-docs, technicians, and faculty alike).
BioREFS projects – Lecture series
While science is presented as an objective and logical process, increasing attention is being drawn to the subjective experiences scientists’ daily lives entail. These issues include relationships (in lab and at home), failed projects, and moral quandaries, to name a few. While every scientist encounters these issues, they often do so privately, and there is no communal forum for their consideration or discussion. However, there are numerous people, many of them prominent biologists, with the qualifications and experience to enlighten the MIT biology community by facilitating such a conversation. We are in the process of creating a lecture series where renowned scientists are invited to speak about the human side of science.