The MCB blog went live on January 19, 2015 to provide an opportunity for transparent dialogue between the Division and our readers. Once a week, a new blog post is added that covers one of the themes highlighted below.

In 2015, the primary themes were: (1) Getting to Know MCB, including MCB Points of Contact and posts titled “This is MCB,” “Welcome to MCB,” “MCB Welcomes,” and “Farewells,” which introduced you to (or said goodbye to) Program Directors, Staff, and Interns; (2) Awards, which celebrated and recognized honors received by Staff and Program Directors; (3) Job Announcements for MCB positions available at NSF; (4) Sharing Science, which highlighted the recent publication of a discovery by MCB-funded Investigators; and (5) Broader Impacts, which covered the exciting work of the National Alliance for Broader Impacts and the Broader Impacts activities of MCB-funded PIs via Sharing Science posts.

As we look ahead in 2016, we are excited to announce the expansion of MCB Blog themes.  New blog posts will focus on:

• Advice for Young Scientists:  You may be ready to take the next step in your career and value advice from those who have gone before you.  To help you on your way, we will continue our series that asks researchers, investigators, rotators, and Program Directors to provide wisdom and advice for young scientists.
• Exploring Non-academic Science Careers:  What do you want to be when you grow up?  It’s a difficult question for most people to answer.  The good news is there are many exciting career options outside of academia.  This series will highlight options that allow you to use your scientific expertise and you may not know are out there!
• MCB Statistics:  What scientist doesn’t love data?  In this series, we will get down to the nitty gritty and provide real data to answer some of the questions you may have about the merit review and proposal process of MCB at NSF.
• Benefits of Being at NSF: Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be part of the National Science Foundation?  This series will focus on the benefits of being an NSF-MCB Program Director, Rotator, or Panelist.
• Outreach: Outreach takes on many forms, including conferences, panels, discussions, presentations, publications, and broader impacts.  In an effort to motivate scientists new to the endeavor and encourage the participation of under-represented groups in science, we will use this series to highlight the Outreach efforts of MCB.

Do you like where we are heading?  Please let us know by completing this simple survey:

Feel free to share your feedback, science, and ideas for future blog posts.