Achievement

From December 15 - 18, 2008, twenty-one NSF IGERT trainees from twelve materials-science based IGERT programs across the country joined the University of Oregon (UO) IGERT trainees in a workshop to collect and summarize best practices of the individual IGERT programs from the students’ perspective. This workshop was incorporated into an annual retreat hosted by the Materials Science Institute and the IGERT program at UO and organized by a team of UO IGERT trainees. The retreat highlights the research of UO IGERT students but also features several invited talks from top-level faculty and industry researchers from across the country. During the workshop, the IGERT trainees engaged in team building activities, participated in several brainstorming sessions focusing on how to improve their respective IGERT programs and also took part in a conversation with representatives from industry and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) about career opportunities past graduate school.