The annual general meeting (AGM) is taking place next Thursday (Nov 18th, 2010), at 5:00 pm at St. John’s College! Join us to pass the new constitution of our association and find out what else is going on! See you there!

The first professional development workshop, launched through the PDFO is taking place on Dec 01 2010! It’s topic is ‘Communication through conflict’ – useful for every postdoctoral fellow, we are sure! Check the web page of the PDFO for more details and registration!

The first-ever UBC postdoc Orientation was a success! Many thanks to everyone who attended, as well as to the PDFO for their enormous efforts organizing the event. Welcome to UBC – we hope to see you soon!

New Newsletter!

If you want to know what is going on in the postdoc community, check out our new newsletter in our ‘newsletter’ rubric!

New Headquarters and regular public PDA executive meetings!

The UBC PDA has now its own room, located at St. John’s College! We are going to have regular PDA execs meeting there, every second Thursday (check out our calender) at 11.30 am. Join us, if you want to know what is going on and/or want to be involved! The location of St. John’s College can be found here. Our room (Room 1029 in SJC) is just through the main entrance, past the admin office and at the end of the hall.

If you want to get involved, but you are not located on campus, don’t worry- we are going to have regular meetings off-campus. Information about those will be send out per e-mail and will be posted here on the web page.

The Orientation Day for Postdoctoral Fellows is approaching!

The first ever orientation day for Post-docs at UBC is taking place on October 28th 2010! It is organized by the Postdoctoral Fellows Office (PDFO) in the Faculty of Graduate Studies. Hope you have registered! For last-minnute registrations and updates, please check the PDFO website.

Annual General Meeting of the UBC PDA!

The AGM of the UBC PDA is going to take place in November- proposed date: November 18th 2010, 5.30 pm at St. John’s College! More detailed information is coming soon!

Hi folks – With the new academic year looming, most of us are surely wondering how another summer slipped by so quickly. But time flies when you’re having fun, right? This has been a great year for UBC postdocs, who will be heading into the fall with expanded benefits for fellowship holders and the full support of the recently established Postdoctoral Fellows Office (PDFO) and Work-Life Centre. The PDA has spent this summer working closely with the PDFO to put together some exciting new initiatives for the coming year, including a world-class professional development series, postdoctoral orientation events, and travel awards, just to name a few. We’ve also hosted a number of social gatherings around the city that have given both on- and off-campus postdocs a chance to meet and get to know each other. Of course, summer isn’t over yet! If you haven’t been able to join us, don’t worry – we’re planning new events for the upcoming weeks, including a day hike, a campus lunch, and (maybe) a beach BBQ.

This fall, the PDA will be having its Annual General Meeting, where we’ll ratify our constitution and nominate new executive members. We’ll also be organizing a series of formal networking events at St. John’s College, at which postdocs can present their work, share career advice and nominate guest speakers for future events. These sessions will culminate in a “Postdoc Research Day” to be held early next year, which will feature some nice awards for the best presentations. Altogether, the upcoming year is shaping up to be an amazing one for UBC postdocs. So keep an eye out for details, and be sure to spread the word among the postdoc community – the more of us that get involved, the more we can do to make UBC a great place to postdoc!