Abstract Submission for the Sixth Annual NIH Graduate Student Research Symposium is now open. This annual Symposium is the major graduate student event at the NIH and is your chance to showcase your research to the entire NIH community.  The Symposium is on Tuesday, November 10th in Natcher Conference Center from 9:00-5:00.  The event will open with a Keynote Address by Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the NIH.  The Plenary Speaker will be Dr. Keith Yamamoto, Professor of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology <http://cmp.ucsf.edu> at UCSF. 
 
We hope you will consider registering for the poster session by submitting an abstract at http://tinyurl.com/OITE-SymposiumAbstract.  The deadline for submission is Friday, October 2nd.  

It is assumed that everyone submitting an abstract will present a poster at the Symposium. Poster Presentations will be from 11:00-2:30 on November 10th. In order to be considered for one of the NIH Graduate Student Research Awards, a travel award for winners of the Symposium poster competition, you must present a poster.   Some students will be selected to give an oral presentation in addition to a poster presentation.  Indicate on the submission form if you would like to be considered for a 20-minute oral presentation. If you are chosen to give an oral presentation, you should also present a poster so that you can participate in the travel award competition. 
 
Poster size restrictions:  You will be given space on a poster board that is 45” x 45”.  You can make your poster a maximum of 56” tall, with some of your poster hanging off the top and bottom of the board.  However, the poster CANNOT exceed 45” in width. 
 
The judging category “New Proposal” is back by popular demand for this year’s Symposium.  This category represents new research or project ideas from students earlier in their graduate careers.  These posters will not be judged heavily on the data content but rather on the scientific concepts presented.  If you would like your poster to be considered for this category, chose this option at the bottom of the submission form in addition to a scientific category.  As always, final judging categories are subject to change based on the number of submissions.

• Posters will be judged for the travel awards based on the following criteria: 
• Poster Organization:  visuals and text are easy to read and logically organized
• Poster Content – significance:  the value of the finding to its respective field
• Poster Content – involvement:  student’s involvement in the research presented
• Oral Presentation – clarity:  how clearly the information is presented
• Oral Presentation – significance: how well the student understands his/her research and puts it into a broader perspective
   

Please contact me if you have any questions about the Symposium or the abstract submission process.