From Feb. 14 to 23, ION Mini-Course on "Scientific Pursuit, Communication, and Integrity" was offered in the SIBS main lecture hall by Profs. Mu-ming Poo (ION) and Chun-Fang Wu (University of Iowa). Five lectures entitled "Scientific pursuit: personal and historical perspectives", "Presentation and publication: skills and procedures", "Scientific misconducts: FFP & gray zone problems", "Scientific integrity: communication, collaboration & competition", "Becoming a successful scientist: retrospectives and prospectives".

The lectures were open to all interested, and advanced students in preparation of publication and presentation were strongly encouraged to attend. More than 300 researchers attended the classes. Most of the students were from ION and some were from other SIBS institutes.

After lecture 3 and 4, 160 students and postdoctoral fellows from different institutes were divided into 8 small groups for case discussions. The purpose of the case discussion is to stimulate students to think about scientific misconduct and integrity, and be guided towards the direction of general consensus. Eight ION faculty members served as instructors of small group discussions and reported their group opinions to all the course attendees during the panel discussion sessions. Some graduate students wrote short essays responded to the questions: “How will the practice of science change in your lifetime?” and “What is your definition of a successful scientist? How has this definition changed between your mentor's generation and your own?” –questions posed by Science Editor Bruce Alberts in his editoral “Voices of the Next Generation”.

Due the enthusiastic responses from the attendees, this course will be installed as a regular course to be offered at an annual basis, and required for ION students before their Ph.D thesis defense.

Lectures & panel discussions

Case discussion in small groups