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One of ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ BUILD’s Ph.D. Partners is the University of Southern ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ(USC). USC’s Dr. Lourdes Baezconde-Garbanati, Professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, serves on the External Advisory Board for ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ BUILD and assists in facilitating all collaborative activities with Dr. Richard Watanabe, Professor of Preventive Medicine and Physiology & Biophysics, and Vice Chair for Education, Keck School of Medicine, and Dr. Thomas William Valente, Professor of Preventive Medicine  and Interim Chair of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine. Together they provide oversight and approval of BUILD collaborative activities at USC.

Our collaboration with USC includes a variety of activities summarized below.

Field Trips

USC has organized annual campus field trips for ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ BUILD student trainees where they have the opportunity to learn about the interdisciplinary research being conducted in the Department of Preventive Medicine. They also learn about summer research training opportunities {LINK: } and at USC, as well as receive career development advice.

Mentorship

As part of our collaboration, several USC faculty have signed on to become BUILD mentors for ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ BUILD student trainees and also provide summer research training experiences for additional trainees. You can view USC mentor videos on our .

Colloquia Series

Part of ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ BUILD’s training program is a series of Colloquia held twice a semester. Faculty from USC have been featured speakers at several of them. Open to all faculty and students on campus, the series serves as a recruitment tool for new BUILD faculty mentors and BUILD students, as well as help facilitate networking research opportunities between USC faculty and ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ faculty and students.

Workshops

USC has coordinated with our Research Resources and Training Coordinator to help identify instrumentation and research methodology expertise to provide ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ BUILD-sponsored faculty and student research training workshops at USC.

Conferences

USC has regularly invited BUILD student trainees to participate in their Annual Diabetes & Obesity Research Institute (DORI) conference. In 2015, one BUILD student won a research award at this conference.