COMBINE funding acknowledgment: Sample acknowledgment (italic text optional) “XX’s contribution to this research was supported (in part) by NSF award DGE-1632976”
Out-of-field Mentor: We require every COMBINE fellow to identify an out-of-field mentor by the end of their second semester of participation in the program, or earlier if possible. At the start of the program, students are categorized in one of 3 broad domains: 1) life sciences, 2) physical and mathematical sciences 3) computational science and engineering. The out-of-field mentor should be a faculty member (or senior researcher at another institution) from outside the fellow’s domain. For example, a student from the life sciences needs to identify an out-of-field mentor from category 2 or 3. Ideally, the out-of-field mentor would be a faculty member who is part of the COMBINE program or is interested in joining the COMBINE faculty. The role of the out-of-field mentor is to consult with the student regarding his or her path through the COMBINE program and offer advice about coursework and research. At a minimum, COMBINE fellows must meet with their out-of-field mentors by the end of their first year in the program and again before the end of their second year. The fellow and the out-of-field mentor will jointly fill out a short progress form highlighting strengths and outlining strategies for improvement. We encourage students to pursue a research collaboration with their out-of-field mentors where feasible and appropriate. The out-of-field mentor is expected to serve as a member of the student’s thesis committee. You should discuss with your Adviser who this out-of-field mentor could be, with the goal being to incentivize cross-disciplinary collaboration.Fellows whose research plan changes during the course of their study can change their out-of-field mentor when appropriate, with approval from the COMBINE Director.