This page describes opportunities for current SEA-PHAGES faculty members to get more deeply involved with the program. We need faculty members who can advocate for the program, help train new faculty members, assist with QC of genomes and annotations, host meetings, and more. Some of the opportunities below are open to all SEA-PHAGES faculty, and some have specific requirements. Read on for more information!
Phage Discovery Workshop Facilitator
Facilitators support the delivery of the Phage Discovery Workshop in partnership with the Course Director and SEA program staff. Ideally, the team of facilitators will include SEA faculty that represent the diversity of institution types in the program. All SEA faculty who have taught the Phage Discovery semester at their institution in the prior year may apply. If you are enthusiastic about helping train the next cohort of SEA faculty, we would love for you to be a facilitator.
Phage Genomics (Bioinformatics) Workshop Facilitator
A Phage Genomics (Bioinformatics) Workshop Facilitator attends the December Phage Genomics (Bioinformatics) Workshop and assists in the training of new SEA-PHAGES faculty members in annotating phage genomes and using comparative genomics tools. This opportunity is available to members of SMART, the annotation QC team, as well as Expedited Submitters.
SEA Manuscript Reviewer
The SEA community disseminates its scientific discoveries through many avenues, including publications as peer-reviewed articles in science journals. These publications are not only valuable ways to communicate our science to the broader community but are also important mechanisms for teaching students about scientific communication and gaining external recognition for your collective scientific contributions. To facilitate this process of publishing, and to ensure consistency of both data and their interpretations across the SEA program, we encourage all SEA faculty to always submit their manuscripts to the SEA Team for feedback. As more and more faculty prepare manuscripts for publication, we welcome your support as a SEA manuscript reviewer.
Host a Regional Meeting
With over 100 active SEA-PHAGES institutions in the US, many SEA schools have begun coming together with others in their region to host and attend local SEA-PHAGES symposia. These meetings offer many benefits, including more opportunities for students and faculty to network, collaborate, and present their research. If you're interested in hosting a regional SEA-PHAGES meeting, HHMI can help you get one together.
Become an Expedited Submitter
Expedited Submitters are SEA faculty members whose genome annotations have consistently demonstrated very high quality work, and who can therefore bypass the typical annotation QC process and proceed more directly to GenBank. Expedited submitters have more leeway regarding annotation deadlines, generate a different set of submission files, and are eligible for other faculty opportunities.
Become a SMART Member
SMART is a team of experienced SEA-PHAGES staff and faculty members that is responsible for reviewing annotations produced by SEA-PHAGES schools to ensure high-quality data makes its way into GenBank. SMART—the SEA-PHAGES Actinobacteriophage Annotation Review Team—members review annotations each summer and are provided an honorarium for their work. Expedited Submitters are eligible to apply to become SMART members.
Become a SEA Ambassador
A SEA Ambassador is a SEA faculty member that collaborates with SEA staff to disseminate information about the SEA-PHAGES program. Any active faculty member with at least a year of SEA-PHAGES experience can serve as a SEA Ambassador. If you are interested in being called upon when such opportunities arise, please contact us.