The Doctoral Consortium (DC) of the 6th IAPR International Conference on Biometrics (ICB 2013) is a networking event that will offer motivated students an opportunity to interact, receive mentoring, and discuss employment opportunities with senior researchers in academia, industry, and government that have experiences similar to the participating students.

The organizing committee for the ICB 2013 conference is mainly seeking students that are near completion, or have recently completed, their Ph.D. to apply to the doctoral consortium. The committee is especially encouraging applications from (i) student authors of rejected ICB 2013 papers, and (ii) junior students with a minimal publication record but with accepted ICB 2013 paper(s).

The DC will occur during lunch time on June 6th, 2013. The two-hour event will first consist of a poster session where students can present their research. The session will be competitive, awards being provided to the top three DC posters based on mentor voting. DC poster session winners will be announced at the dinner that will take place right after the poster session. The second portion of the event will consist of a social lunch followed by a moderated discussion in which students may ask questions and seek advice from the mentoring participants.

Students interested in participating in the doctoral consortium may apply for admittance by emailing the consortium chairs (emails can be found at the end of this call) with the following information:

• Name, university, department, and advisor(s).
• An updated copy of the student's curriculum vitae.
• The student's expected graduation date.
• A one paragraph statement discussing some of the student's career goals and whether the students are seeking a career in academia or industry (this will help in the selection of the mentor).
• Brief statement (no more than one paragraph) of how the student feels they would benefit from the doctoral consortium.
• The student's expected graduation date (if it applies).

Students will be selected on their recent achievements and how similar their research interests and goals are with participating mentors.

Successful applicants are expected to participate in the whole program. Students who are participating in the event are expected to create an account on the professional social networking site, LinkedIn. This website will be used to for students and mentors to collaborate and meet prior to the ICB event.

The consortium co-chairs will select participants and reserve the right to consider late applications provided they are given less weight than those submitted by the deadline. Note that the selected students should inform the chairs on time if, for any valid reason, they cannot make it to the conference.

Limited financial support will be provided for students who are selected in the Doctoral Consortium and confirm their participation (travel arrangements) to the DC chairs on time. The co-chairs anticipate sufficient funding to offer a reduced registration fee (typ. "student registration"), a free session lunch for participants in the Doctoral Consortium, and prizes from the Doctoral Consortium competitions. Unfortunately, no scholarship/travel grant will be available. At this time, the number and size of actual offers of financial support are contingent upon available funds and if additional funds are available it will be announced to the ICB 2013 website.

• Application deadline: March 30th, 2013
• Notification deadline: April 12th, 2013
• Doctoral consortium: June 6th, 2013

• Thirimachos Bourlai, West Virginia University (Thirimachos.Bourlai(at)mail.wvu.edu)
• Brendan Klare, Noblis (Brendan.klare(at)noblis.org)

Thirimachos Bourlai, Assistant Professor West Virginia University (USA)

Brendan Klare, Lead Scientist Noblis (USA)