Attaining Goals Through Partnerships

" To make interesting scientific discoveries, you should acquire as many good friends as possible, who are as energetic, intelligent, and knowledgeable as they can be. " Herbert A. Simpson, Nobel Laureate Models of My Life 1996 Popular science fiction novels and movies frequently portray scientists as solitary eccentrics conducting experiments in laboratories hidden behind revolving bookcases. Although a few scientists might deny a delightful eccentricity or two, a successful scientist would more accurately be described as someone who can work collaboratively within settings defined by collective action. Indeed, individuals who are the very antithesis of the scientist stereotype may be in the best position to make " interesting scientific discoveries. " About two decades ago, the biomedical scientific community recognized that for the good of science and humanity, this spirit of community needed to extend to interactions with Congress and the federal agencies appointed to facilitate biomedical research and education. The successful building of partnerships with Congress and federal agencies led to initiatives such as the Congressional declaration of the " Decade of the Brain " in the 1990s and to the recent doubling of the budget supporting the National Institutes of Health. For the community of undergraduate neuroscience educators, a similar awakening to the possibilities inherent in community efforts occurred in 1991 when the Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience (FUN) was formed. Professors committed to educating undergraduate students of neuroscience realized that by working together our community could create mechanisms that honor teaching, nurture research collaborations between faculty and students, and provide support for faculty invested in education. Within a short time of FUN's founding, relationships were established with the Society for Neuroscience and the Association of Neuroscience Departments and Programs to solidify FUN's position as the organization representing the interests of undergraduate neuroscience educators and to explore how our organizations could work together to promote undergraduate neuroscience education. A particularly fruitful relationship was established with Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL) in 1994. Working in partnership with PKAL, FUN has been able to offer three national conferences on undergraduate neuroscience education that produced a set of blueprints to guide institutions developing undergraduate neuroscience programs and provided opportunities to share pedagogical innovations in the classroom and the laboratory. With respect to establishing working relationships, the 2001 FUN/PKAL conference (titled "Undergraduate Neuroscience: From the Enchanted Loom to the World Wide Web") is noteworthy. One of the major goals of that conference was to …