Pablo Picasso

Fantastic College
Bethesda, MD 20817
February 25, 2001
Dear Dr. Picasso:
I am writing to apply for the one-year Visiting Assistant Professor position in the area of
behavioral neuroscience. I am currently working towards a PhD. in Neuroscience with Dr.
Benjamina Spock at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Currently writing the
third of five chapters in my thesis, I expect to complete my dissertation by July 2001. A year
at Fantastic College will provide an unparalleled opportunity to develop my skills as a
teacher and mentor.
As my curriculum vitae illustrate, I have pursued every available opportunity to teach. I have
assisted in the development and instruction of many courses relevant to those outlined in
the job announcement including Introductory Neuroscience, Brain and Behavior, Human
Behavioral Biology, and the Biological Basis of Behavior. For my service as a teaching
assistant in Introductory Neuroscience, my students selected me for the Long Teaching
Award. Yet my crowning achievement has been the development and direction of an upper
level psychology course at San Francisco State University. There, I attempted to bridge
psychological theories of motivation with the underlying neurobiology for a diverse group of
students, many of whom had not taken a biology course since high school. In the classroom,
I have three priorities: interdisciplinary content, interactive teaching strategies, and inquirybased learning. By the end of the course my students could intelligently discuss a topic of
their own choosing from this interdisciplinary perspective. Several students said that this
was the first time they had seen the relevance of neuroscience as applied to behavior.
Moreover, I discovered that not only could I successfully direct a course, but that I simply
adored the process.
The theme of interdisciplinary academic pursuits is pervasive not only in my teaching, but in
my research as well. I am equally comfortable discussing ideas with neuroscientists,
psychologists, and molecular biologists since my research on the neural circuits underlying
drug addiction has broad applications beyond the standard techniques I employ. In
particular, I am interested in the limbic brain areas that contribute to drug relapse and other
motivated behaviors. My work is immediately engaging and accessible to those new to
research, and I have directly supervised several such individuals including a high school
teacher and a first year graduate student who is now continuing in her pursuit of addiction
research.
Finally, I am dedicated to enriching the lives of students outside the classroom. Through
student government and committee work, I have advocated for better housing, graduate
education, and student advising. Through ten years of service in outdoor education, I helped
many young people gain leadership skills and self-confidence. Perhaps most importantly, I
am committed to improving scientific education. In partnership with primary school
teachers, I led 2 different after school programs and developed hands-on activities for a
third. Currently, I am enrolled in the Strategies in Gender Equitable Teaching course at the
University of California, Berkeley Extension. The position at Fantastic College is particularly
appealing since it provides an opportunity for me to draw young people into science through
personalized interactions in the classroom and laboratory.

Rembrandt van Rijn - page 1

I have always envisioned my future self as a professor at a small liberal arts college. I
celebrate the philosophy of a liberal arts education in everything I do. College should kickoff
a lifetime of intellectual growth, not simply provide career training or mass instruction for
500 students packed into a lecture hall. Although my educational training has been centered
at large institutions, I have consistently sought out the smaller, more intimate communities
within them, and I am highly experienced as a facilitator in small group settings. I am thrilled
to apply for this unique position because my mission perfectly matches that of Fantastic
College: to encourage students to find their passions and to develop into independent
thinkers and future world leaders.
I have enclosed my curriculum vitae, a statement of teaching interests, a statement of
research interests, a letter of reference from Joan Sutherland (other letters have been sent
directly from Benjimina Spock and Marie Curie), and a copy of the article I recently
submitted to Nature. I would be happy to forward a full teaching portfolio, syllabi for past
and proposed courses, or other additional materials at your convenience. I look forward to
hearing from the committee and wish you the best of luck in selecting the ideal candidate.
Thank you for your consideration,

Rembrandt van Rijn

1234 Scientist Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94114
TEL: (415) 123-4567
FAX: (415) 765-4321
[email protected]

Rembrandt van Rijn - page 2

September 1996
1992 to
June
1996
to
Present

September 1996 to
June 1999

September 1992
to
June 1996

Rembrandt van Rijn

1234 Scientist Avenue
San Francisco, California 94114
(510)123-4567 (W) (415) 123-4567 (Cell)
[email protected]

Education
University of California, San Francisco, CA
Neuroscience, expected in July 2002.
University of California, Berkeley, CA
MS, Neuroscience.
Columbia University, NYC
MA, Psychology.
Columbia University, NYC
BA in Biology. Graduated with Honors. GPA: 3.8.

Rembrandt van Rijn - page 3

Ph.D. in

University Teaching Experience

January
March
1995
2000
1997
1998
June
1994
tototo
June
1995
2000
March
1997
19981994
September

October 2000 to
present

Dept. of Psychology, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA

Instructor for
the upper division course, Self, with 150 students. Developed and directed a course
investigating motivation and emotion from a psychological and physiological perspective.
Lectured, recruited guest speakers, supervised one teaching assistant, advised students, wrote
exams, and oversaw group project.
Dept. of Physiology, University of California, San Francisco, CA
Teaching
Assistant for the first year pharmacy course, Introductory Neuroscience. Led discussion,
laboratory, and review sessions to clarify basic neurobiological principles. Designed laboratory
demonstrations to illustrate course concepts
Dept. of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, CA
Discussion Leader in the introductory psychiatry course, Brain and Behavior. Led discussion
sessions integrating concepts in neuroscience and behavioral sciences.
Dept. of Biology, Columbia University, NY
Teaching Assistant for the upper division biology course, Human Behavioral Biology. Led two
discussion sessions elucidating the contributions of ethology, genetics, endocrinology, and
neuroscience to the understanding of human behavior.
Dept. of Psychology, Columbia University, NY
Assistant to the Chair of the Human Biology Department. Designed course materials for the
undergraduate courses: Brain and Behavior, Biological Basis of Behavior, and The Human
Organism. Materials for Brain and Behavior were newly designed and continue to be used by the
department.

Community Teaching Experience

Triad, San Francisco, CA
Scientist in
an innovative program to engage girls in scietific inquiry. Participation includes
sponsoring a bimonthly science club for middle school girls and extensive training on
teaching pedagogy and gender equity in the classroom.

Rembrandt van Rijn - page 4

August 1998

June 1998 to
June 1999

September
1992
January
1995
to
June
1997
1998
to
October
March
1994
1996
to
to to
August
1997
to
June
1993
present
March
June
1996
1997
August
1999

Drug Abuse Research Teams, NIDA, Sacramento, CA

Summer instructor and scientific consultant for an innovative statewide program that funds original drug abuse research projects at the
high school level.
Science and Health Education Partnership, San Francisco, CA
Scientist for the Links Program, a partnership between University researchers
and public school teachers. Participated in 2 weeks of workshops on science
education and curriculum development. Developed and implemented a
science improvement plan for Aptos Middle School through monthly classroom
visits.
Fort Miley Adventure Ropes, San Francisco State University, CA
Leader on a challenge course for non-profit groups in the Bay Area,
such as womens organizations, homeless shelters, and local YMCAs.
Facilitated outdoor educational experiences with the goal of building
self-esteem and community.
Mission Science Workshop, City College, San Francisco, CA
Volunteer and scientific consultant at an after-school science workshop for
elementary school girls. Developed hands-on science activities and exhibits.
Challenge Learning Center, Mountain View, CA
Facilitator in an outdoor educational program for youth-at-risk. Trained high
school students in leadership and team building skills, enabling them to staff
challenge courses for their peers who are at risk for drug abuse or dropping
out of school.

Research Experience
Neuroscience Program, University of California, San Francisco, CA
Doctoral thesis research conducted with Dr. Benjamina Spock. Pioneered
behavioral and electrophysiological experiments investigating the neural
mechanisms underlying relapse to drug-seeking triggered by environmental
cues. Resulted in 3 publications to be submitted to The Journal of
Neuroscience, Nature, and Psychopharmacology.
The Wheeler Center for the Neurobiology of Addiction , San
Francisco, CA
Member of a unique scientific community of clinicians and basic scientists
trying to understand the neural underpinnings of drug abuse.
Dept. of Biology, Columbia University, NY
Masters thesis research conducted with Dr. Chinua Achebe. Investigated
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) by studying the effect of environmental
risk factors for SIDS on sleep development in neonatal rats.
Dept. of Psychology, Columbia University, NY
Honors thesis research conducted with Dr. Georgia OKeeffe. Coordinated
experiments analyzing the effects of stress on social behavior and on the
morphology of GnRH releasing neurons in the African cichlid fish, H. burtoni.

Mentoring Experience
Rembrandt van Rijn Curriculum
Vitae page 5

Neuroscience Program, University

of California, San Francisco, CA
Supervisor for Sandra Day OConnor, a
first year graduate student. Mentored
Ms. OConnor through a project that explored the role of dopamine in cueinduced relapse.
June 1998 to
January
2000
June 1999
1999
to to
June
April 2000
August
2000

University of California Students Association, Oakland, CA

Vice Chair for a non-profit student organization that represents
all 170,000 University of California students. Supervised the orgainizations six
full time staff persons, including hiring, evaluation, disciplinary, and firing
procedures.
Science and Health Education Partnership, San Francisco, CA
Mentored a middle school science teacher through an 8 week research project
studying cues that trigger relapse to drug- and food-seeking. Our results were
presented at the International Narcotics Research Conference in 2000.

Rembrandt van Rijn - page 6

1998
August
1997
toto to
March
October
1999
2000
to
December
Fall
February
2000
2000
1999
to1999
September
1994
to
present
February
1998
September
2000
June 1996

September 1998 to
present

Academic Decathalon, School of the Arts, San Francisco, CA

Science coach for a high school academic decathalon team. Met with 5
students on a biweekly basis.
Office of Residential Education, Columbia University, NY
Resident Assistant in a 280 resident dormitory. Established a system of
student support and counseling in order to stimulate discourse and create a
community.

University Service
Curriculum Committee, University of California, San Francisco, CA
Student representative on the departmental committee responsible
for curriculum development and educational policy.
Mission Bay Housing Committee, University of California, San
Francisco, CA
Student representative on the campuswide committee responsible for the design and development of
student housing at the future Mission Bay campus.
Graduate Student Association, University of California, San Francisco,
CA
Director of External Affairs for the UCSF Graduate
Students Association. Worked on policy issues including enhancing
faculty-student mentoring, increasing student housing, extending
student advising to include non-academic careers, and revitalization of
the Universitys teaching mission.
Commission on the Growth and Support of Graduate Education,
University of California Office of the President, Oakland, CA
Student representative on a University-wide task force
responsible for planning the long-term growth and financing of public
graduate education throughout California.

Awards, Grants, and Training

Strategies in Gender Equitable Teaching, University of California, Berkeley
Extension.
Cellular Biology of Addiction, Cold Spring Harbor, NY.
Long Teaching Award for outstanding teaching in the School of
Pharmacy, University of California, San Francisco. Selected by the pharamcy
students who said: " No Teaching-Assistant has ever made understanding
material such a mission. For all his time, effort, dedication and enthusiasm, we
honor him and hope that teaching is somewhere in his future."
Predoctoral Training Consortium in Affective Science, three-year, merit based
fellowship, National Science Foundation. Participation includes advanced
seminars on emotion and motivation, hands-on training with psychological
and neurobiological techniques, private tutorials, and professional
development.
Graduate Opportunity Fellowship, one-year, merit based fellowship, University
of California, San Francisco.
Rembrandt van Rijn - page 7

June 1997
June 1996

May 1995

Firestone Medal for excellence in

undergraduate research, Columbia University.
Undergraduate Research Opportunities, Chope Fund Major Grant for honors
research, Columbia University.

Publications
Van Rijn, R, Pavola, A, Washington, G, Rousseau, JJ (2001) Dopaminedependent accumbens neuron firing drives reward-seeking behavior. Nature.
XX:XX (submitted)
Van Rijn, R and Rousseau, JJ (2001) Basolateral amygdala lesions abolish
stimulus-controlled responding for cocaine and disrupt cue-induced
reinstatement. Journal of Neuroscience. XX:XX (in preparation)
Van Rijn, R and Diderot, D (2000) Operant discriminative stimuli, not
classically conditioned stimuli, reinstates food-seeking. Psychopharmacology.
XX:XX (in preparation)
Van Rijn, R, Diderot, D, Shaw, G.B, and Pavolva, A (1996) Modulation of sleep
through ambient temperature increase and sleep deprivation in the neonatal
rat. Soc. Neurosci. Abstracts.
Thatcher, M, Van Rijn, R, Shaw ,BG, and Pavolva, A (1995) Stimulation of
adenosinergic A1 receptors enhance non-REM sleep slow wave activity in
neonatal rats. Soc. Neurosci. Abstracts.

Interests
Bee-keeping, dancing (swing, Argentine tango, and ballroom), astronomy, sea
kayaking, and reading fiction.

Rembrandt van Rijn - page 8

Statement of Teaching Interests

Rembrandt van Rijn
Teaching Philosophy
First and foremost, I am an advocate of the passionate, curious mind. All humans, and many
animals, are innately equipped to be endlessly exploratory, to ask questions, and to be
fascinated by the world and other minds around them. My ultimate goal is to foster students'
passions and curiosity.
I have found that the best way for me to encourage such curiosity and enthusiasm is to root
my classroom in inquiry-based learning. Students tend to learn fundamental concepts better
when they know they will soon be asked to apply them to problems they find important and
relevant. I structure my courses with challenging and interesting questions right from the
beginning of the semester, and try to infuse my students with a desire to know more, to
realize that one answered question leads to many others, and with the analytical tools they
need to satisfy their curiosity. My role in the inquiry classroom resembles my experience as
an outdoor education leader: a facilitator and guide in a challenging adventure designed to
foster collaboration, discourse, and discovery.
Achieving these objectives requires making the students active participants as much as
possible. On a simple level, this involves developing inquiry-based activities to stimulate
their curiosity while guiding them through the scientific process. For example, my students
gain first-hand experience with Pavlovian conditioning by training a reflex in honeybees
through pairing sugar and odor presentations. Students then test the hypothesis that
training trials separated by longer intervals produces better retention than "cramming"
training sessions into a short period of time. Since its inception, I have taken this hugely
popular activity to four grade schools, two college psychology classes and a workshop for K12 teachers. Active participation in my classroom is not limited to inquiry-based activities
but can be applied to facts customarily learned by rote. For instance, in teaching the most
didactic part of neuroscience -- neuroanatomy -- I devised handouts with blank space
surrounding diagrams where the names and functions of different brain areas would
normally be specified. We filled in the handouts together as a class. I never told them the
correct answer; each label was debated until everyone agreed or until someone looked it up
in their notes. Later, I found this to be an ideal way to review information about cellular
pathways, sensory transduction, and synaptic transmission. When students can draw and
debate an idea, in addition to reading and hearing about it, they retain the information
longer and can conceptualize the material for use in new contexts.
Teaching through inquiry and active participation is a tall order. Many students emerge from
high school lulled by studying just facts and quizzed through multiple choice testing. Some
come to college with expectations that a neat career path will be laid out for them, and that
they must only connect the dots in order to graduate and start their chosen career. But, I
want my students to be independent thinkers and pioneers when they graduate. By
emphasizing both the importance and the pleasure of asking -- then striving to answer -scientific questions, I hope to foster a thirst for knowledge that extends beyond the
classroom. If I can help a student who has always hated science classes to find rewards in
asking questions and in acquiring the analytical tools to answer those questions, then I have
met my goals. Ideally, I hope to awaken a passion for lifelong learning in my students.

Rembrandt van Rijn - Statement of Teaching Interests - page 9

Growth
At Fantastic College, I hope to find colleagues who will add new, innovative strategies to my
toolbox, and who will provide me with critical feedback on my teaching. I want to take the
idea of interdisciplinary case studies from the San Francisco State Motivation course and
create Introduction to Behavioral Biology. I would spend the first third of the class exploring
the perspectives and assumptions of the many disciplines that inform our study of behavior:
ethology, cognitive psychology, molecular biology, endocrinology, neuroscience, etc. In the
second third, we would explore case studies such as reward-seeking, anxiety, and sexual
behavior. Finally, the students, in teams of 3 or 4, would teach their classmates about a case
study that interests them. I would work closely with each team before their presentation and
incorporate their material into the final exam. A similar course awakened my passion for
neuroscience. I hope that others may discover their passions through something I stimulate
in them.
My vision of a laboratory course in behavioral neuroscience would not only provide hands-on
experience with the techniques used in the field but also provide experience with developing
a research proposal and with data interpretation. Each week would begin with a 1 hour
"journal club" where major concepts in behavioral neuroscience would be explained through
sample scientific articles. The goal of these sessions would be to identify the scientific
question, assess how the researchers answered that question, and then postulate directions
to take this line of research in the future. Later in the week, a 3 hour laboratory session
would provide hands-on exposure to one of the techniques discussed in the article. By the
end of the class, students would be familiar with the major tools of behavioral neuroscience:
quantitative behavioral analysis, psychopharmacology, neuroanatomy, targeted brain
manipulations, and electrophysiology. Midway through the course, students would write a
two page research proposal based on a "journal club" discussion or on an original
experiment idea. The take-home final exam would provide the introduction, methods, and
results sections of a manuscript; the student would be charged with writing the discussion.
While my goals are ambitious, students should already have a basic foundation in research
methodology through the prerequisite Psychology 200. Familiarity with techniques alone is
not enough to become an intelligent consumer and producer of scientific research;
experience with the process of scientific inquiry is required.
Finally, I would love to collaborate with Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, and/or
the Fantastic College Alcohol and Drug Awareness Project to develop an advanced seminar
course, the Neurobiology of Addiction, focusing on the biological and social aspects of
addiction. The course would be divided into five sections, each covering the history and
pharmacology of a different class of drug: stimulants, opiates, nicotine, alcohol, and
hallucinogens. Most importantly, each section would begin with a patient interview or a
discussion with a clinician to put a human face on the disorder. I believe it is critical to
associate the suffering of real people with the promise of scientific research that may one
day help bring relief.

Rembrandt van Rijn - Statement of Teaching Interests - page 10

Statement of Research Interests

Rembrandt van Rijn
I found my passion during my freshman year at Columbia University when two pairs of
primate skulls were presented to my human biology class. One pair looked identical (species
A); the other two looked drastically different from one another (species B). In species A,
whose males and females bond for life and equally share child-rearing responsibilities,
evolution selects for similar physiological structure, down to the level of individual neurons
and genes, resulting in equivalent skull shape and size. In species B, where the males
aggressively compete for social and reproductive dominance, the sexes diverge biologically,
resulting in a dramatic sexual dimorphism. Before this lecture, I had known that the brain
drove behavior, but I did not imagine that the consequences of our behavioral choices might
affect our physiology in return. While staring at those skulls and letting my thoughts drift
over possible implications, I reached the conclusion that our behavioral choices and
experiences permanently modify the brain through actions on neurons, genes, and
hormones.
Every behavioral choice is governed by neural circuits underlying memory, emotion and
motivation. These circuits are immensely complex and can be very difficult to study. Drugs
of abuse offer a unique tool with which to study these circuits because they profoundly alter
behavioral choices in both humans and animals. Human addicts pursue drugs despite a
myriad of negative consequences. Animals allowed to freely administer cocaine will do so to
the exclusion of food and water, often to the point of death. Because the pharmacological
and neural targets of addictive drugs are known, one can use drugs to pinpoint, and then to
manipulate, the neural circuits underlying behavioral choice. Moreover, the role of
environment and experience can be readily studied by carefully manipulating environmental
cues and contexts during drug seeking. Drug-associated cues, like a crack pipe or one's drug
dealer, can elicit intense psychological cravings and can trigger relapse in humans and
animals alike, even after prolonged periods of abstinence. The formation of these powerful
associations between cues and drugs initiates a cascade of biological changes that are often
argued to be the fundamental difference between addicts and the rest of the population.
Reversing these associations through pharmacological treatments may be the best method
to treat addiction.
At the time I joined the laboratory of Dr. Benjimina Spock, current animal models of relapse
had failed to trigger the compulsive drug seeking found in human addicts upon exposure to
drug-associated cues. The standard animal model presents a classically conditioned cue at
the time of drug delivery. Each time a rat pushes a lever, a conditioned stimulus (CS) and
intravenous drug are simultaneously delivered. Yet one study found the appearance of the
CS triggered drug seeking on only the first of three trials. Independent studies could not
even replicate these modest findings. However, cues can be associated with drugs in many
ways. Rather than using the standard paradigm, I trained my animals such that if and only if
a discriminative stimulus (DS) was present, would a lever press be rewarded with drug. In
the absence of the DS, drug could not be obtained. Where the CS is presented concomitantly
with drug-intake and predicts drug delivery, the DS precedes drug-intake and predicts drug
availability. After weeks of abstinence, a single presentation of the DS immediately triggers
robust drug seeking. The effect persists without decrement over multiple days of testing.
Thus, I successfully established a new animal model of relapse that more closely mirrors
human relapse. Using this model, I identified a critical piece of the neural circuitry driving DS
triggered relapse -- the amygdala. Rats with lesions of the amygdala no longer relapse after
exposure to the DS.
These experiments led me to consider the role of a neuromodulator, dopamine, in guiding
behaviors driven by a DS. For decades, dopamine was equated with reward or pleasure
because it is released after exposure to a wide variety of rewarding events, including sexual

Rembrandt van Rijn Research Statement - page 11

partners, food, and drugs of abuse. More recently, several researchers raised the hypothesis
that dopamine is required to motivate a behavioral response to a salient environmental cue.
I recognized that my behavioral task could directly test this "motivational salience"
hypothesis. If dopamine is truly required for a cue to trigger a behavioral response, not only
should dopamine blockers disrupt the ability of animals to respond to the DS, dopamine
disruption should abolish the activity of neurons that are excited by a DS.
As I pondered these questions, a postdoctoral fellow, Chinua Achebe, joined our laboratory.
Her expertise in monitoring the activity of neurons with electro physiology and mine with
behavioral neuroscience allowed us to devise productive experiments together. We
combined microinjections of pharmacological agents into specific brain areas with
electrophysiological recordings of neurons in awake, behaving animals. We found that
dopamine proved essential for neurons in a target region of the amygdala, the nucleus
accumbens, to increase their activity after DS presentations, and for these DSs to drive lever
pressing. This experiment provides the first direct physiological evidence in support of the
motivational salience hypothesis. The fruit of our collaboration has been submitted as an
article to Nature. Moreover, our experiment established the great advantages of a
collaborative, interdisciplinary approach to behavioral neuroscience research, and I am
eager to continue my work in this direction through a wider range of collaborations.
My future research.(This part should entail one or two paragraphs about your future
research as well as what part you intend to conduct at the institution you are applying to. )

Rembrandt van Rijn Research Statement - page 12