Education & Outreach
Today’s scholars, tomorrow’s breakthroughs
By training and supporting aspiring scientists, we aim to build the runway for future discoveries.
Our Formal Educational Programs
From our accredited Ph.D. program to formal training programs for post-bacs and summer internships for undergrads, we’re aiming to support scientists throughout their educational journeys. Furthermore, the Stowers Institute offers a robust training and career-support program for those who have already achieved their Ph.D.s.
Ph.D. Program
The Graduate School of the Stowers Institute for Medical Research is committed to developing exceptionally talented scientists through truly transformative and integrative approaches to research.
Post-Bac Research Scholars Fellowship
The Graduate School is committed to increasing the number of underrepresented students in fundamental biological research through the Research Scholars Program. This one-year fellowship includes guided research opportunities in one of our many laboratories and access to courses and programming associated with our highly competitive Ph.D. program.
Undergraduate Summer Scholars
The Stowers Summer Scholars Program offers highly motivated undergraduates and recent graduates an immersive, hands-on summer research experience.
Computational Biology Scholars
The Stowers Computational Biology Scholars Program provides a valuable, career-enhancing research and mentoring opportunity for early-career computational biologists and bioinformaticians. A cohort of two or three scholars will be immersed in the computational biology community at the Stowers Institute for 1 year with the possibility of full-time employment following the completion of the program.
Postdoctoral Program
Intense collaboration between Stowers Institute Investigators and postdoctoral researchers provides an unparalleled experience and opportunity to gain the skills and credentials postdocs need to launch independent research careers.
Affiliated Graduate Programs
Stowers partners with the University of Kansas Medical Center and the Open University to offer Ph.D. training in the biological sciences with high-quality immersive research opportunities.
Open University
The Stowers Institute is an Affiliated Research Centre (ARC) of the Open University. The Open University is a distance learning and research university founded by Royal Charter in the United Kingdom in 1969 and funded in part by the United Kingdom Government.
Predoctoral research students are recruited directly to the Stowers Institute but are registered with the Open University and perform all experimental research at Stowers while following Open University procedures for student progress and assessment. This program is ideal for students who have already acquired advanced and specialized knowledge in a field of study and are ready to start lab-based research.
University of Kansas Medical Center
Numerous Stowers investigators hold graduate faculty appointments at the University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC). Graduate students in the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Biological Sciences at KUMC have the opportunity to perform laboratory rotations and Ph.D. thesis research at the Stowers Institute with our affiliated faculty.
Students in the program conduct their course work at KUMC and their research in a Stowers laboratory. Upon successful completion, students will receive their Ph.D.s from one of KUMC’s degree granting programs.
Crossroads Experiences
Crossroads is an Institute-wide organization that strives to broaden the interaction between all constituencies of the Stowers Institute research community through career development and networking events.
Crossroads Research Conference
This two-day event showcases current research across the Institute, providing an opportunity for scientists to present their work to their peers. The conference consists of scientific talks and poster presentations and features an external keynote speaker.
Career Exploration Day
This all-day event highlights a variety of scientific career paths. Invited speakers discuss their career trajectory and experiences. The day includes speaker presentations, advisory workshops, CV reviews, and casual roundtable discussions with speakers.
Roundtable Discussions
The Roundtable Discussions provide Crossroads members an opportunity for freestyle discussion of timely events and topics related to science and science careers. Topics include subjects like career balance, new scientific technologies, and high-impact scientific papers.
Workshops
Professional development workshops aim to enhance critical skills such as oral presentation, resume writing, networking, and manuscript writing. Led by experts in their fields, the goal is to help participants learn best practices and gain confidence as scientific presenters and communicators.
Scientific Image Competition
While scientific images convey valuable data to researchers, their simple beauty may transform them into objects of art. This event encourages researchers to submit images and videos produced in the course of their daily scientific work to a competition that celebrates the visual beauty of the images. Winning entries are featured in various publications and exhibits.
Why Stowers?
Longhua Guo, a former postdoctoral researcher at the Stowers Institute, shares his experience working in the lab. Guo is now an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan.
