All posts by noriko okamoto

Brief comments from the winners of #3MPS2018!

I know it’s already 2 weeks but one last blog post about our Three Minutes Postdoc Slam 2018, because it was such a great event! Here are the voices of the winners of this year’s competition:

The First Prize Winner: Dr. Kymora Scotland

“The 3MT slam was a really worthwhile experience. Preparing for the competition helped me to really spend the time needed to figure out how to tailor my approach so that my project could be understood by a diverse audience. Getting it all down to three minutes was a challenge , but I’m now convinced that this is something we scientists should all become comfortable doing. Thank you to the PDA for providing postdocs from such a wide array of fields of study with this opportunity to share our work. It was certainly fascinating to learn about research in fields as disparate as food security and nanomaterial synthesis. I look forward to seeing the talks next year! “

 

The Second Prize Winner: Dr. Roy van der Meel

“Had a great time at this year’s #3MPS2018 organized by @UBCPostdoc! The 3 minute pitch format really forces you to distill the most important aspects of your research and relay them in an understandable way to a non-specialist audience. The variety of research @UBC was well represented with great pitches on various topics like cancer, asthma, kidney stones (ouch!), mindfulness, food diversity, linguistics and oceanography. I also really enjoyed the insightful and fun talk by @Ng_Dave on science communication and of course the possibility to have a chat and a beer with the other attendees afterwards. I was quite surprised but very happy that I won 2nd place with my pitch on #nanomedicine and #drugdelivery! For anyone who would like to know more about my research you can find me on Twitter: @rvdmnanomeds!”  

 

The Third Prize Winner: Dr. Laura Vang Rasmussen

“The postdoc slam was a wonderful event. It provided an opportunity to hear what other people are doing and at the same time learn from their presentations. It also pushed me to boil what I’m working on down to its essence and the presentations sparked further conversations around the various research topics. As I currently work with a multi-country dataset from Africa, it was, for example, very interesting to get feedback from other people who are doing research in some of the same countries, albeit on very different topics.  Overall, it is a really great platform for communication.

Link to the lab which I’m part of:
https://www.landandlives.ca/

Twitter: @rasmussen_vang

 

Again, thanks for everyone and see you at next events!

Three Minutes Postdoc Slam #3MPS2018 – Big Success!

Our annual Three Minutes Postdoc Slam 2018 was a big success! This year, ten participants from various fields share their cutting-edge work at UBC, which sparked some interesting questions and discussions from the floor. 3MPS is such a powerful way to communicate for both the speakers and the curious audience – we learned a lot in such a short period of time!

The heated 3MPS session was followed by a short coffee break and the keynote talk by Prof. David Ng, who gave us some useful insights of how to communicate science from his own experiences as the director of Advanced Molecular Biology Laboratory.

At the end of the scientific program, three winners of the 3MPS competition were announced.

First: Dr. Kymora Scotland with her talk on kidney stones and urinary duct peristalsis 
Second: Dr. Roy van der Meel with his talk on nanomedicines
Third: Dr. Laura Vang Rasmussen with her talk on food diversity and forest coverage in Africa 

After the scientific program, everyone mingled over appies and refereshment. Some interesting ideas on workshops and networking were exchanged… so, please stay tuned for the further development!!

We thank everyone for joining the event – it could not be the same without your participation! We also appreciate all the judges for taking time for this event.  This event was generously supported by Life Science Institute and Provost/the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies Office. And last but not the least – the wonderful team of UBC PDA execs!

Have a great summer, everyone!

3 Minutes Postdoc Slam 2018

It’s a month away until 3 Minutes Postdoc Slam 2018, back by popular demand! Those who have just learned about the event – welcome!  This is a speed conference to show off your cool research at UBC using only a single slide! In the previous years we had a lot of fun, while learning so much about what interesting stuff others are working on! And what’s more – the winners of the competition will bring home some shiny cash prizes.

The event detail for this year is as follows:

When? : June 28th, 2018

  • 3-5PM (3MPS Competition)
  • 5PM- (Reception)

Where? : Michael Smith Laboratories (Next to UBC Bookstore)

  • Room #102 (3MPS Competition)
  • Room #101 (Reception)

How to register? : Online registration is open at:

The registration is for anyone intending to attend to the event (we’d like to gauge the catering size). Those who are willing to present, please indicate it on the registration form.

Although the competition is open to postdocs only, we openly invite undergrads and grad students to register and attend.

The keynote speaker this year is Dr. Dave Ng. Dr. Ng is Director of the Advanced Molecular Biology Laboratory (AMBL). He is a geneticist, science educator, science literacy academic, part time writer, and faculty based at the University of British Columbia. His current research interests revolve around children’s identity around concepts of science and creativity, as well as game based learning of science concepts.

As usual, we’ll have a coffee break during the competition and a reception after the competition. This is an excellent networking opportunity to meet with the fellow postdocs over some appies and refreshments!

Three Minutes Postdoc Slam is coming back!

That’s right – by popular demand, 3 Minutes Postdoc Slam (3MPS) is coming back in late June. Come share your research in a swift 3 minutes, single slide format. Online registration will be available soon.

As usual, top elevator pitchers take home juicy cash prizes! Yes, it may be you!!

This year’s keynote speaker is Dr. Dave Ng.
Dr. Ng is Director of the Advanced Molecular Biology Laboratory (AMBL). He is a geneticist, science educator, science literacy academic, part time writer, and faculty based at the University of British Columbia. His current research interests revolve around children’s identity around concepts of science and creativity, as well as game based learning of science concepts.