Hi, all --
I am applying to the NIH IRTA program, and I'm working on my resume right now. I have a few science-related presentations, but I have many more humanities/social sciences presentations and publications. Is it advisable to include those as well? They speak well of me.
Hard to say without more details. Here's why:
At first, I was going to say yes. Of course it would make you look interesting.
But then as I thought about it, I realized that there were several glaring issues. As a PI, I'd question why an applicant for a biomedical research program would only have a few hard science publications but many more humanities/social sciences presentations. The first thing that comes to my mind is that the applicant is smart, but unfocused: Not a good trait for a 2 year long commitment to a single, specific field. And when I have many other equally smart - yet focused - applicants, why should I take a risk on the unfocused applicant?
What's even more troubling is that your productivity is much higher in the humanities/social sciences than in hard science. Granted, hard science is much harder but if you're doing a lot of varied stuff in the humanities, that is going to raise a lot of questions about how serious your commitment to hard science is.
I could very well be overthinking this, but if you leave your social sci stuff on there, MAKE SURE that you DEMONSTRATE A CLEAR COMMITMENT TO BIOMEDICAL SCIENCE THROUGH YOUR UNDERGRAD CAREER in your cover letter.
How do you do this? Tie back your social-science stuff back to hard science if you can. If you can't, leave it off.
