Surgery Research Experience

The UW Department of Surgery has a long tradition in educating medical students in the clinical and the research environments and has been an active participant in the UW SMPH Shapiro Summer Research Program since 2002. Summer research programs in the Department of Surgery aim to provide students with an appreciation for the nature of scientific research. The program includes seminars and additional training opportunities to help develop skills in data collection, analysis, and presentation of results to the medical community. Projects offered are across a diverse field of surgical specialties and may include laboratory-based basic science, clinical research, translational research, health services, and global/public health-related research.

T35 Surgery Summer Research Experience for Medical Students

We offer short-term summer research experiences for medical students interested in research related to diabetes, obesity, endocrine disorders, nutritional disorders, digestive diseases, liver disease, kidney disease, and urologic disease. Funded by a T35 grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, the program offers eight students a mentored 10-12 week research and training experience with the goal of encouraging medical students to pursue academic medical careers. The program includes completion of a mentored research project, along with a curriculum designed to teach medical students the essentials of effective research and academic research principles. At the completion of their experience, students write an abstract and present a poster or oral presentation.

Stipend

Pre-doctoral trainee stipends are fixed by the National Institutes of Health.

Eligibility

Applicants must be medical students at an AAMC or LCME accredited school of medicine who have completed at least one year of medical school. Because this is a 10-12 week experience, the training experience is traditionally completed during the summer following the first year of medical school. Applications are accepted from students attending institutions other than UW-Madison who intend to spend their summer in Madison in the laboratory of their trainer. Applicants must be citizens or non-citizen nationals of the United States, or must have been lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent residence. Individuals from underrepresented ethnic or racial backgrounds are encouraged to apply.

Criteria for Acceptance

The following criteria is used to select trainees into this program:

• Past research experience
• Relevance of research interests to the mission of NIDDK and the program
• Quality of research interest statement or research project summary
• Contributions to enhancement of program diversity

Application Process

• Students from outside UW-Madison should e-mail as one combined .pdf document a resume, area of research interest and one letter of recommendation to the Program Administrator no later than January 1 prior to the intended research summer. External students selected for the program will be notified by March 31. Upon acceptance we will work with you to match you with a mentor and identify a project for the summer.
• Students from UW-Madison should submit an application through the internal Shapiro Program mechanism. Students with mentors participating in our program will be considered for funding through this program automatically.

Trainers

This program includes a broad range of trainers with research interest in areas of interest to NIDDK and is focused on Department of Surgery faculty, as well as researchers collaborating with Department of Surgery faculty. Trainers have a solid history of extramural funding, and experience in training students. Our program currently consists of over 20 trainers.

Voice Research Summer Medical Student Opportunities

For additional information about summer medical student opportunities with the Voice Research Training Program (T32) please find additional information here.