Featured Postdoc: Dr. Masahiro Minami

Featured Postdocs

MMinami

Postdoc Talk Event: 8 July (7.30 PM), at the Railway Club
(all welcome, more details)
Postdoc Talk Title: Giving peace a chance…
Abstract:
In 1994, the Genocide against Tutsis occurred in Rwanda. An estimated 800,000 to a million people were murdered. Subsequently, Rwandan government made a difficult decision to release perpetrators of the Genocide back to communities. This event led to a circumstance in which the returning murderers must now live side-by-side with survivors in same rural villages. To support community reintegration and reconciliation process, a forgiveness-based reconciliation approach was initially introduced, where perpetrators confessed and apologized for their crimes committed and begged for survivors’ forgiveness. However in many instances, survivors could not forgive, perhaps understandably. Furthermore, survivors suffered from enormous pressure to forgive and moral dilemma of not being able to forgive. Dr. Minami’s research team developed an alternative approach to nurture reconciliation through action, called the action-based psychosocial reconciliation approach (ABPRA). Former perpetrators who participate in his program do NOT ask for forgiveness. Rather, they offer their labour to survivors as a concrete act of apology. Miracle of humanity and human relationships emerges when survivors decide to receive. In this talk, Dr. Minami will be speaking about experience of survivors and perpetrators who decided to participate in his approach. Dr. Minami will report with video-clips and photos capturing the moments of change. This research also holds a promise to develop into the world’s first scientifically proven method to prevent war and build peace.

Biography:
Dr. Minami received his Ph.D. in Counselling Psychology from the University of British Columbia. He is the current holder of the UBC’s premier Morita Post-doctoral Fellowship for Peace Action Research and is the founder and co-director of the Globe in Peace Project at UBC (www.globeinpeace.org). Dr. Minami is a certified Morita therapist registered with the Japanese Society for Morita Therapy (JSMT) in Japan and also serves as the Assistant Secretary General for the International Committee for Morita Therapy. His research interests include application and evaluation of group dynamics theories to effective mediation, inter-group conflict resolution, and community psychosocial reconciliation in post-war contexts. Dr. Minami is the co-founder and a current director of the Prison Fellowship Rwanda-Morita Centre for Peace and Reconciliation Research.

3MPS 2015 Presentations and Results

Events, Professional Development

The 3 Minute Postdoc Slam 2015 was a great success – thank you to everyone who participated and attended! Congratulations to our winners:

1st place – Dr. Masahiro Minami
2nd place (and Peoples’ Choice) – Dr. Cherry Ng
3rd Place – Dr. Jane O’Hara

Fortunately, if you were unable attend, you can watch their presentations right here! Our guest speaker, Dr. Jeremy Hirota, has also been kind enough to share his presentation with us! Scroll down for these videos, slides as well as photos from the event. The PDA hopes to see you all again at our Research Day which will be taking place later in the year.

Dr Jeremy Hirota
Assistant Professor, Division of Respiratory Medicine, UBC
The Importance of Effective (Science) Communication

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Dr. Masahiro Minami
Giving peace a chance…
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Dr. Cherry Ng
Pulsar hunting and detecting gravitational waves
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Dr. Jane O’Hara
Creativity: A Common Link between the Arts and the Sciences
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Photographs from the event


Created with flickr slideshow.

 

Thanks to Chris Rider for the videos and photographs

PDA Social Event: Kits Beach BBQ

Events, Socials

When: Saturday 20 June 2015 (1 PM)
Where: Kits Beach
(On the grass at the intersection of Maple St & McNicoll Ave)

Beach_BBQ

 

Bring along your own food and drinks and celebrate summer with a beach BBQ on Saturday 20 June (1 PM). If you are keen to join, sign up here.

Children and partners are welcome.

Please contact Britt if you have any questions.

 

You can add this event to your Google Calendar by clicking on the button below. Alternatively, you can subscribe to the entire calendar, with all our events, here!

3 Minute Postdoc Slam: Meet our featured speaker!

Events, Professional Development

3MPS image website

PRESENTATIONS (4 – 6 PM): Room LSC3 (theatre)
RECEPTION (6 – 8 PM): Room 1510

Join us for our 3MPS 2015 event on 21 May! No RSVP required. We have presentations from over ten UBC postdocs who are all eager to share their research with you. Snacks and refreshments will be served. We are also very excited to announce our invited speaker, Dr. Jeremy Hirota, who will be be giving a special presentation on the importance of science communication at the event! Please read his short biography below. We look forward to seeing you there!

Jeremy Hirota Ph.D.

Dr. Jeremy Hirota
I’m an Assistant Professor in the Division of Respiratory Medicine, Department of Medicine at UBC. On the science side of things: I’m interested in understanding how the air we breathe triggers immune responses in our lungs, and how these can lead to the development or worsening of chronic lung diseases like asthma and COPD. I use a combination of clinical studies, animal models, and cell-based experiments to generate robust data that can be used for drug development or inform policy makers to protect the quality of air we need to breathe each day. On the communication side of things: At the midpoint of my postdoctoral training I became interested in communicating my research more broadly than to just specialist journals and conferences. I wanted to give back more to the people that fund the research we do. One step I took was to enrol in the MSFHR/SickKids workshop on Knowledge Translation which was a positive experience. The next significant step I took was completing the Banff Centre’s Science Communication workshop in the summer of 2014, directed by Jay Ingram of Discovery Channel fame and his partner Mary Anne Moser (Beakerhead.com). I feel like I’m just getting started – and I look at each opportunity to speak as a chance to learn from the audience and start a dialogue.

Follow me on twitter: @jeremyhirota
Connect with me on linkedin

You can add this event to your Google Calendar by clicking on the button below. Alternatively, you can subscribe to the entire calendar, with all our events, here!

3 Minute Postdoc Slam 2015

Events, Professional Development

3MPS image website

PRESENTATIONS (4 – 6 PM): Room LSC3 (theatre)
RECEPTION (6 – 8 PM): Room 1510

We are pleased to announce that our annual 3MPS is back! Engage the audience and tell us about your research in exactly 3 minutes, using one static slide (and props if you wish)!  Keep an eye on our Twitter and Facebook accounts, for announcements regarding a special guest presenter.

If you would like to present at the event, please sign up by 7 May. Space is limited, so sign up soon! Snacks and refreshments will be served and there are cash prizes for the best presentations. If you do not want to present, please still join us as an audience member! Please contact The PDA if you have any questions.

You can add this event to your Google Calendar by clicking on the button below. Alternatively, you can subscribe to the entire calendar, with all our events, here!

POSTDOC SOCIAL: The Irish Heather Wed 29 April

Events, Socials

IrishHeather

Get to know your fellow postdocs over a pint and some grub on Wednesday 29 April at 7pm at The Irish Heather. If you are keen to join, sign up here by Friday 24 April so we can book a table. Significant others are welcome. Contact Britt if you have any questions.

You can add this event to your Google Calendar by clicking on the button below. Alternatively, you can subscribe to the entire calendar, with all our events, here!

New President’s First Message

Executive

Miranda 250pxDear colleagues and friends,

I am so honored to begin my term as President of the UBC-Postdoctoral Association (PDA). First and foremost, I would like to thank our outgoing President, Grace Lee, for her commitment, passion and enthusiasm over this last year. Under her leadership, the PDA has made some leaps and bounds, especially with regards to increasing professional development opportunities for postdoctoral fellows and research associates, and increasing the visibility and reach of the PDA within UBC and beyond. She will join the ranks of many wonderful past-Presidents, and I am so grateful that many of them still reside in Vancouver and will allow me to count on their counsel during my term.

As preparation for my term as President, I served the PDA executive committee as co-VP-Social this past year. Through this position, I have been involved in planning, advertising and executing our annual research and academic events, in addition to numerous networking events to foster interaction and collaboration among postdoctoral fellows and associates. Specifically, together with the PDA, we planned and organized the annual “3 Minute Postdoc Slam” and “UBC Postdoc Research Day”, as well as a Whistler ski trip, kayaking trip, hike in North Vancouver and many other fun socials on and off campus. This has provided me firsthand experience with all of the successful events the PDA organizes annually. However, just because the PDA was successful this past year doesn’t mean we should rest on our laurels. In the upcoming year I plan to introduce several new initiatives to contribute to the UBC PDA’s mission to foster community and networking for postdoctoral fellows, provide a forum to discuss important issues and provide a voice to communicate those issues to the UBC Postdoctoral Fellow’s Office, and provide more professional development opportunities. I am looking forward to creating an exciting calendar of events with the PDA executive team in the coming weeks!

In closing, on behalf of all UBC postdoctoral fellows, I would like to extend many thanks to the outgoing PDA officers. It has been a pleasure working with each of you this past year. Libin Abraham – thank you for your efforts in providing more teaching opportunities for postdoctoral fellows, Raj Kannan – for your leadership with the Canadian Association of Postdoctoral Scholars (CAPS), Kelly Sakaki – for your efforts in increasing our readership with the PDA newsletter, Gesa Volkers – for keeping us all on track with the finances and for ensuring PDA events ran smoothly, and Elisa Wong – my partner in crime as co-VP-Social this past year – I have had a great time planning and attending PDA events with you. Lucky for all of us, many of our outgoing PDA officers will remain part of the executive team this term.

I would also like to welcome our new PDA leaders! Yun Zhang will take over VP-Operations, Farzam Fotovat for VP-External, Galen Wright for VP-Communications, Nima Mohtaram for VP-Finance, and Britt Drögemöller for VP-Social. I would also like to welcome all of the individuals who have already expressed interest in joining the PDA executive team. I have heard so many great ideas from each of you already, and I look forward to a productive and fun year ahead!

Finally, I would like invite all of you to join the PDA executive committee as a volunteer. PDA membership is open to all UBC fellows and associates. All members of the PDA executive team are invited to attend meetings with the PDA officers, share their ideas and get involved in planning and organizing our events, and advocate for postdoctoral fellows and associates at UBC. Please contact us if you want to be involved!

kindest regards,
Miranda Kirby, PhD
President, UBC Postdoctoral Association

Join us for our AGM and vote!

Executive

PDA AGM 2015 LOGO

Express your voice and vote for your new leaders!  Nominations for executives positions are now closed, and we are delighted to have a shortlist of bright and talented candidates. Read about our candidates by clicking the names below.

Meet our candidates on April 1st, 2015 and cast your vote to elect our new leaders!

Location: UBC Life Sciences Institute, 2350 Health Sciences Mall, Room 1330

We will then discuss:

  • results from the on-site vote
  • social and educational events
  • preliminary calendar of events for 2015 – 2016
  • communications, outreach, and advocacy

Everyone welcome.  Please come and meet your new executive team!

 

Message from the President: “It has been an honor and a privilege. But this is not goodbye.”

Executive, Newsletter

I want to begin by saying it has been a pleasure to have served as president of the UBC PDA over the last year, and I am proud to have done so with such a dedicated executive team with a deep commitment to this association. This is my last The Buzz message to you as the PDA President. At the AGM that announces the results of our election on April 1st, 2015, I will hand over my role to the named successor, who will then serve the next year in leadership. For this last message, I want to communicate my thoughts about my time as President and tell you about some important accomplishments during my tenure.

I have faced some challenges, but overall, the PDA is heading into a very exciting and transformative period in its history. As an organization, the PDA has undergone tremendous growth this past year. Our current subscription to our newsletter stands at 191; up from 56 at this time in 2014. Our Facebook page following has experienced a 124% growth, and postdoctoral associations or societies from other institutions have begun to notice us and reach out to us.

We have offered many new benefits for our members, including professional development seminars on pursuing careers in academia and industry with a bend towards personal branding, and two workshops on financial literacy to learn how to make the most of what we earn as postdocs. We have expanded the content of our website with useful slides and audio or video recordings of our professional and educational events, and an option to sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Perhaps one of our greatest milestones was adopting a clear mandate to reach out to and engage with postdocs in the arts and humanities, engineering, and other non life science departments. The UBC PDA represents all UBC postdocs and research associates. Our advocacy work and events should include everyone in this broad community.

This past year also saw a terrible tragedy, with the loss of our colleagues and friends, Stephanie Grothe and Neil Mackenzie. As members of the UBC Varsity Outdoor Club, a fundraising campaign was set up for them where the proceeds went to the Search and Rescue community in British Columbia.

In the coming weeks we will see new faces among the PDA Executive Team, as the election comes to a close at the end of the month. I am confident that our new leaders will provide outstanding leadership in their roles for external relations, marketing and communications, and advocacy.

In closing this farewell message, I want to say that it has been a privilege and pleasure to have served as the UBC PDA President from 2014-2015. I wish to publicly thank my executive team members for their willingness to serve this association, and for the postdoc volunteers who undertook important work to ensure the smooth running of our academic events.

My appreciation goes to the devoted leaders from the Postdoctoral Fellows Office. Rachel Fernandez is our Associate Dean of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, whose enthusiasm and keen sense of humor brought a personalized meaning to faculty relations. Hourik Khanlian is ever enduring as Manager of Human Resources and Postdoctoral Affairs, not to mention one of the most compassionate HR managers I know. Jen Tooley, our past HR and Postdoctoral Affairs Assistant, has been a blessing to us, and as she moved on to new adventures, she has been thoroughly missed. We welcomed Sarah Henderson in her position, who is an amazing example of organizational talent. I appreciate all the work these individuals have done in support of postdocs and our association.

For providing knowledge and leadership at our various events and workshops, I want to acknowledge Michael Gold, Brian Duff, Nilly McCaffery, Ryan Howe, Alphil Guilaran, and the team at the Financial Literacy Counsel.

Finally, I want to thank all of you for supporting the UBC PDA and me during my term of office. I am proud of having served such a great community of young professionals. This is not goodbye – I feel I still have unfinished work, and will be providing leadership for hands-on workshops in entrepreneurship. For the immediate future, I will serve as Past-President and look forward to supporting the new leadership team. I give you my best, and wish you all tremendous success in whichever way you define it.

With warmest regards,

Grace Lee
www.drgracelee.ca