Mind / Brain / Behavior -- Interfaculty Initiative at Harvard University

Information for Mind/Brain/Behavior Secondary Field Students
Spring 2008-2009        

(If you did not receive this information in an e-mail, please e-mail Shawn Harriman at shawn_harriman@harvard.edu so we can add you to our records. If you have dropped MBB since the fall, please also e-mail Shawn so we can remove you from our e-mail lists. If you would like to remain on our e-mail lists, please still e-mail us your change of status.)

Welcome to the spring 2009 semester! This letter will provide you with information about upcoming aspects of your MBB program, including a variety of all-MBB events.

Course Work

The MBB secondary field requires you to complete five half-courses:

One interdisciplinary seminar (seminars available this spring):

Two MBB electives:

A sometimes tricky element of the secondary field is that only one of your five MBB secondary field courses may also be used to fulfill another college requirement (e.g., concentration, core).

Courses and Research

This spring MBB is offering a new elective research course, MBB 90r: Supervised Research, to give academic credit to students engaged in research on a mind/brain/behavior topic. The course requires regular work in a laboratory or research program, and an end-of-semester written research report. In most situations, students in MBB tracks should conduct individual supervised research for course credit through a tutorial course (e.g., 91r, 910r) in their home department/concentration, but occasionally MBB 90r will be appropriate. If your concentration does not give you credit for junior-year research leading to your senior thesis, or if you wish to do research supervised by a faculty member outside your department (e.g., from Harvard Medical School), MBB 90r might be appropriate (although it will probably not count toward your track/concentration requirements). If you have questions about this course, you may contact Shawn Harriman at shawn_harriman@harvard.edu. Additional information and a link to the required application link is available at http://mbb.harvard.edu/mbb90.php.

One way to identify research opportunities, either for MBB 90r or otherwise, is to consult the webpage MBB maintains listing research and summer opportunities for MBB undergraduates. We add new items to these listings as we receive them, and it is thus worth checking this page several times a semester if you are thinking about gaining some research experience. Some positions posted in September may still be available, and our newest items describe interesting research opportunities to study a wide variety of topics, including prejudice and stereotyping, cognitive neuroscience, maternal trauma/posttraumatic stress disorder, cognitive evolution, autism, facial emotional processing during childhood, language development, and depression and the brain.

Advising – including MBB Advising Meeting Monday February 2nd, 4-6 p.m.

Secondary field students in MBB have two sources of advice. For advice about specific course requirements, please e-mail Shawn Harriman. I'm especially happy to help you strategize about the one overlap course limit. We’ve found that each year some students planning to pursue a secondary field in Mind/Brain realize too late that they are a course or two short for completing the secondary requirements, a disappointment which can be avoided by careful course planning. Don’t hesitate to be in touch!

For more general advice, about the kinds of courses you might take, about MBB and its constituent disciplines, methodologies, and questions; about how to become involved in MBB research; and about career development, you may speak with members of our new Board of Faculty Advisors. This year's board consists of faculty from Harvard Medical School who have been involved in a broad range of MBB programs over a number of years. You may e-mail to schedule an appointment with one of these advisors.

Finally, the undergraduate group HSMBB and the MBB office are co-sponsoring a shopping week advising meeting featuring MBB faculty, advisors, and students who will be available to chat with students about MBB programs and courses. If you have questions about fitting MBB courses into your concentration or secondary field, would like to talk to spring MBB course instructors, or would like to hear about the student perspective on MBB offerings, we think you will find this event very helpful as you plan your spring semester and beyond. This meeting will take place on Monday, February 2nd, 4-6 p.m. in the Ticknor Lounge of Boylston Hall. Refreshments will be provided, and we hope to see you there!

Secondary Field Applications

Once you have enrolled in courses that will complete your secondary field course requirements, you may complete the secondary field application form, which is linked from http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~secfield/forms.html (http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~secfield has additional information on the process). Seniors should note that their application deadline is March 16th. Other students may submit the application any time they have completed their MBB course work.

Special Events and Activities: MBB and HSMBB

The larger MBB community will gather this spring for several exciting events we hope you will be able to attend. These will include the annual distinguished lecturers, scheduled for April 21st, 22nd, and 23rd, to be delivered by Daniel Dennett.

In addition the MBB student group, the Harvard Society for Mind/Brain/Behavior (HSMBB), is planning a busy and interesting series of spring term activities, including weekly teas, an April event highlighting the Intersection of Art and Mind/Brain/Behavior, a neuroeconomics symposium, and a continually of this past fall’s totally informal seminar series. Dates for some events have already been set (locations TBA):


HSMBB also publishes The Harvard Brain and is currently accepting submissions through this Friday, January 30th. The editors are seeking writing from MBB-related fields, including (but not limited to) psychology, philosophy, neurobiology, history of science, computer science, public health, linguistics, behavioral economics, human evolutionary biology, and organismic and evolutionary biology. Work from previous years is welcome, and there are no specific length requirements. The author of the best article will be awarded $75. Send documents or questions to harvardbrain@gmail.com.

To receive additional details on these and other HSMBB events and activities, join the group’s mailing list by visiting http://lists.hcs.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/hsmbb-list or e-mailing hsmbb-list-request@lists.hcs.harvard.edu with “help” as the subject line or message.

Thesis Note for Juniors

The MBB secondary field does not require you to complete a senior honors thesis, but some of you will be writing a thesis in your home concentration. Occasionally a thesis of a secondary field student may relate to mind/brain/behavior, and if you are planning such a thesis, you are welcome to apply for a Mary Gordon Roberts Summer MBB Award. These grants are competitive and help finance research and living expenses. To apply, you should use the common grant application through the Harvard College Research Program, which is due on Wednesday, April 1st, and indicate that you are an MBB student. Click here for information about the common application. MBB-specific information about the application process is available at http://mbb.harvard.edu/undergrad/summerthesis.php.

Junior Symposium (Sophomores Take Note)

Each year MBB invites its secondary field students to participate in its annual junior symposium. The symposium usually takes place just before the start of classes in September. Both MBB secondary field juniors (this year’s sophomores) and seniors (this year’s juniors) who did not attend this past fall will receive additional information about this opportunity later this spring.

Additional Information

If you have any questions about any of the information in this e-mail, feel free to contact Shawn Harirman at shawn_harriman@harvard.edu and to explore the rest of this website. The website provide details about secondary field requirements, MBB courses, and MBB broadly, as well as lists research opportunities faculty and other Harvard researchers have asked us to post for undergraduates to consider. In addition, MBB sends out an e-newsletter with information updates several times a year.

We at MBB wish you a fine spring semester!

News and Events

Monday, November 16:
MBB Postdoctoral Fellows Event! Interested in MBB and finding out what kinds of questions our postdoctoral fellows are working on? Join us for a series of presentations and conversations, moderated by Alfonso Caramazza and Marc Hauser (both Psychology, FAS). Event will be held from 4-6p in Science Center Hall A.

MBB is now accepting nominations and applications for our graduate student awards and fellowships. Deadline is November 30, 2009. Click here for more info!

Save the Dates! April 20-22, 2010!: MBB Distinguished Lecture Series - Three Evening Lectures with Professor Michael Gazzaniga! Stay tuned for more info!

Click here to read the latest MBB Newsletter!

Click here to see a list of outside events of interest!

Click here for our student produced journal The Harvard Brain!