This event is over. This page is an independent historical summary. It is not the official meeting site, and there is nothing to register for.
| Event | NIGMS TWD Program Directors' Meeting, organized with FASEB |
|---|---|
| Dates | July 30 – August 2, 2019 |
| Venue | Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center, Rockville, Maryland area |
| Attendance | More than 450 educators and trainers |
| Place in series | Fifth biennial meeting since the TWD division was created in 2011 |
What was the 2019 TWD meeting?
The 2019 TWD Program Directors' Meeting ran July 30 to August 2, 2019 at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center in the Rockville, Maryland area, and brought together more than 450 directors, educators and NIGMS staff. FASEB organized it with NIGMS under a conference grant that was also meant to support meetings in 2021 and 2023. FASEB described it as the fifth such meeting since the TWD division was formed in 2011.
What were the main themes?
FASEB's summary listed the topics that ran through the program:
| Theme | What it meant for programs |
|---|---|
| Skills development | Technical, operational and professional skills for trainees |
| Mentoring and career development | Evidence-based mentoring and career preparation |
| Rigor and reproducibility | Building it into coursework and lab training |
| Diverse and inclusive environments | Recruitment, climate and retention |
| Curricular and institutional change | Redesigning courses and admissions |
| Program evaluation | Setting objectives and measuring outcomes |
| Lab safety and data science | Newer areas of expected training |
The Wednesday program, for example, included sessions on aligning evaluation objectives with measures of success, evaluation in T32 programs, holistic admissions, curricular change and evidence-based mentoring, followed by a poster session.
What happened after 2019?
The meeting series continued under FASEB, later as the Biomedical Training Program Directors' Conference, but its pages no longer lived on this domain. The program landscape changed a great deal after 2019: RISE split into U-RISE and G-RISE, MARC U-STAR became MARC, and in 2025 many of the diversity-focused programs represented at this meeting were terminated. Our timeline of changes has the details.
This is an independent historical summary. The official meeting site and its registration have long closed.