MICCAI 2018 Daily - Monday

Marius George Linguraru is a principal investigator at Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation at the Children's National Health System in Washington, D.C. Marius, you are managing the mentorship initiative at MICCAI. Tell us more about it We’ve been talking for a number of years about how we can enhance educational programs at MICCAI and in MICCAI society. The mentorship program came as a result of these discussions. It’s put together to help earn a career, to connect scientists in the area of MICCAI, and to connect them with peers in their field. Basically, it’s to put them together with people who have years of experience on how to grow a scientific career, how to get a grant, how to get a job in industry, how to set up a company, and giving them the opportunity to learn from the best. Also, how to solve a problem, how to get good ideas and how to grow their scientific portfolio. You’ve met a spectacularly good response from both sides. We actually thought that we should start small because we have to see how well it works for the first time. This year, we have 40 mentors. Some of them accept several mentees. If I remember correctly, we have at least 53 mentees that are participating in the first edition. How do you think everyone’s expectations can be met? Well, with a lot of patience and some creativity. There are several criteria for matching people. One of them is scientific expertise, available expertise that we have from the mentors and what mentees want. We wanted mentees to have a say in this. We’re not telling them what they need, but we want to hear from them. We also looked at gender and minority representations because we know that we have a number of members of the society that would like to learn something very specific about career challenges if you are a woman or if you are a minority. What would be your main advice to mentors? It would be listen to your mentees, and let them express what they need. You will also learn something from them. What is your advice to mentees? Well, that goes the same way. Listen to your mentors. They also have something that comes from their experience. Let them also guide you. What should be done better? One of the things that can be done better: just get in touch with your mentor or with your mentee especially when they are shy people. Make yourselves heard. With Marius Linguraru Marius wearing the I’m aMentor badge 16 Monday Mentorship