Institution Profile: Department of Cell Biology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

• After being an early signatory of DORA, Department of Cell Biology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center implemented several changes in how junior faculty members are recruited and assessed.
• Any faculty member can view the candidates’ cover letter and application, with any one member of the faculty able to invite an applicant for an initial 30 minute Skype interview.
• During these 30-minute interviews, attended by three or four interested faculty members, candidates are asked two questions, “Where will your research program be in 5 years” and “How can UT Southwestern help you get there?”
• In final interviews, assessors look at the publication oeuvre of the candidates during their times as graduate student and post-doc, looking for whether they have published notable advances in peer reviewed, field-specific journals like Journal of Cell Biology, Molecular Biology of the Cell, Journal of Cell Science, Traffic etc.