Writing Retreat

Professional Development, Seminars, Socials

In collaboration with the Centre for Writing and Scholarly Communications, the PDA is pleased to announce the 2026 Writing Retreat!

In additional to providing resources (like a writing workshop and tasty food), this retreat is a chance to make some real progress on that paper, grant proposal, research/teaching statement, or anything else you are working on!

The retreat will take place from 8.30am until 3.30pm on 26th February 2026, at Leon‘s lounge in the Koerner‘s house, followed by an informal social at Koerner’s Pub for those who want to join.

Register here

Holiday Crafts Social

Socials

Staying in Vancouver over the upcoming holiday period? Join us for some relaxing activities, food, and drink. Use materials provided or bring your own project. We will meet at a location in Kitsilano or Downtown (TBD – will be shared with registrants) at 5:30 pm, Tuesday 30th December 2025.

Register here.

Wellbeing Storytelling Night

Events, Socials

Winter can be a hard time. To brighten your dark winter night, we would like to invite you to our wellbeing story telling night. Join us for tea and cookies and share your favorite story or wellbeing strategy with us. We will provide room for discussion and exchange as well as some food.

When: January 28th 2026, 4.30pmWhere: Room 1510 at the LSI

Register here.

Research Day 2025

Events, Research Day, Seminars

Get excited for our biggest event of the year. Research Day 2025 will be on Monday, 1st December at the Life Sciences Institute. Sign up here to attend or present.This is your chance to present your work to an audience from diverse disciplines, practise your research communication skills, meet like-minded people, and be inspired by the wonderful work that the postdocs do at UBC.

Halloween Social

Uncategorized

Get ready for some spooky fun this month at our Halloween Social on October 23rd at 5 pm, LSI 1510. Dial up your creativity to enter the costume competition and carve some epic pumpkins! Food and drink provided! Register here.

Weekly Write-Ins

Events

Weekly write-ins are on every Tuesday at 9 am. Bring a cup of coffee or tea and that writing project that has been looming over your head. The goal of the write-ins are to provide a supportive environment for postdocs to connect with another while carving out important time to write.

Join our slack channel #weekly-write-ins for more information! If you are not yet on our Slack workspace, email ubc.postdoc@gmail.com for an invite link!

Structure: Each write-in we will do a brief check-in to establish the goals for the day, and then we will dive into our writing blocks. We will use a modified Pomodoro method, where we set a timer to write distraction free, followed by a 5 minute break. We will use the following time structure:
9:00-   Check-in
9:05-   Block 1- Write 25 minutes, Check-in/Break 5 Minutes
9:35-   Block 2- Write 35 Minutes, Check-in/Break 5 Minutes
10:15- Block 3- Write 45 Minutes, Quick Debrief

3M Slam 2025

3MPS, Events, Seminars

Tell us all about your research in 3 minutes! Sign up to present at the 3M Slam on Thursday 2nd October, 3:30 pm to 5:30 pm at the Life Sciences Institute in LSC3, followed by a reception and awards. Food and drink provided at the reception.

We will open with an exciting keynote presentation from Dr. Marissa Lithopoulos, a UBC postdoc and science communicator who founded Science, Stand-Up, & Song. Check out some of her work here.

New to UBC? No results yet? Tell us all about your project without being tempted to load it with too much data.
Been here for a while but never presented? Let us finally hear what you’ve been up to!
Presented last year or the year before? Perfect – you’ll know the drill!

Register here. Note: if you change your mind later and decide you want to present, just fill out the registration form again!

Picnic Pot Luck

Socials, Uncategorized

Join us at 5 pm, Thursday 31st July for a picnic pot luck. Meet at LSI and bring a plate to share (encouraged but optional)! We’ll walk to our picnic location together. The specific location will be provided to registrants closer to the date, so you can easily find us if you can’t make it at 5 pm!
Additional food and drink also provided. Register here.