Teaching Opportunity in CELEST

Ross Maddox, a CELEST-funded PhD candidate who is working in collaboration with CELEST professors Kamal Sen (Biomedical Engineering) and Barbara Shinn-Cunningham (Cognitive and Neural Systems), is interested in pursuing a teaching career. While he knew that having teaching experience would be highly valued by potential employers, he doubted he would get much while a PhD student. However, CELEST is helping to turn this dream into reality.

In the fall of 2010, Ross will be the primary instructor for an upper-level undergrad / lower-level grad course on auditory neuroscience, his research field. This opportunity came about when Prof. Shinn-Cunningham argued for Ross to be given the chance to further his professional development, which helps to fulfill one of the outreach missions of CELEST: to train future leaders in the neuroscience of learning. The College of Arts and Sciences agreed to allow Ross to serve as the instructor for BE509/CN560 in the fall of 2010, a responsibility normally restricted to candidates who already hold their doctorate.