Statement of Purpose and Description of Fellowship
The Robert L. Mayock Student Research Fellowship will provide opportunities for medical students and undergraduate students in their senior year of college to work full-time for 8-10 weeks during the summer/fall in one of the research laboratories of the Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Division of the University of Pennsylvania. Students from the University of Pennsylvania, as well as from other institutions are eligible to apply. The fellowship experience will also include attendance at the daily clinical and research conferences of the Division and presentation of the candidate’s work to a Division research conference. Accepted applicants will receive a stipend of $4,000. Applications for 2024 will be accepted until March 15, 2024.
This fellowship honors The “Father of Pulmonary Medicine at PENN”, Robert L. Mayock, M.D., who founded the division in 1955, at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, one of the first in the nation. Dr. Mayock trained more than 180 pulmonary physicians during his career, many of which are today’s leaders in the field of academic and clinical pulmonary medicine and was recognized as the prototypical gentleman’s physician – caring, dedicated and compassionate. His professional colleagues recognized him as a trailblazer in chest medicine and for all who trained under him, Dr. Mayock taught them the character of a good physician- to always respect patients and to consider the whole person and not just the symptoms that made the patient ill. Through the generosity of an anonymous donor the Robert L. Mayock Student Research Fellowship was established to preserve his legacy and recognize his many contributions to pulmonary medicine as an innovator, clinician, mentor and teacher. Through this program exceptional students will be encouraged to pursue a career in teaching, research and/or patient care modeled after the life and work of Dr. Mayock.
Operation of the Robert L. Mayock Student Research Fellowship
Eligibility Criteria
- Undergraduate students or medical students
- Interest in pulmonary research/lung biology
Application Instructions
- Personal statement describing interest in a pulmonary research experience, career goals, and detailing why the Mayock Fellowship best meets the candidate's goal (2 pages or less)
- Curriculum vitae
- Letter of support from a faculty member who can speak to candidate's commitment to research and personal characteristics.
*Applications can be emailed to nuala.meyer@pennmedicine.upenn.edu with the Subject Line "Robert L. Mayock Student Research Fellowship Application" by 5 pm on March 15, 2024.
Selection of Candidates
The oversight committee will meet in March of each year to review and decide on the most qualified applicant(s).
Criteria to be used for the selection of the fellows include:
- Previous research experience
- The enthusiasm of the candidate for the fellowship as reflected in the application and the strength of the letter of recommendation
- Previous academic success
Email notification of the decisions will be sent to the applicants by April 1st of each year and the selected fellow(s) will be presented annually to the Division Awards Committee.
Stipend
A stipend of $4,000 will be provided.
Available Laboratory Experiences
On a rotating basis, specific labs will be designated each year to host the students. The laboratory experiences that will be available are the following:
- Lung Epithelial Biology & Injury (Beers, Katzen)
- Laboratory of Rare Lung Diseases (Krymskaya, Lin)
- Acute Lung Injury and Pulmonary Vascular Biology (Mangalmurti, DeLisser, Vaughan)
- Thoracic Malignancies (Albelda, Vachani)
- Developmental Biology (Morrisey)
- Airway Biology and Regeneration (Basil)
- HIV Biology/Pulmonary Microbiome (Collman)
- Molecular Signals of Human Critical Illness (Christie, Meyer, Reilly, Shashaty, Jones)
- Sepsis (Meyer, Reilly, Mangalmurti)
Once selected, the student will meet with the faculty supervisor (two to three months before the start date) to design a meaningful, independent research experience. The research plan will be submitted to the director of the fellowship for review before the start of the research.
Fellowship Requirements
- Participation in research for 8-10 weeks continuously, June – September. (Accommodations will be made for third and fourth year students using the fellowship to fulfill their scholarly pursuit to do their research in the fall).
- Research to be conducted in one of the research laboratories of the Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Division
- Attendance at pulmonary clinical and research conferences
- Presentation of research at a Division research conference