3MPS

3-Minute Postdoc Slam!

3MPS, Events, Professional Development

Do you want to strengthen your skills in science communication? Do you want to share your research in a brief 3 minute presentation? Do you want to hear about the amazing research other UBC postdocs are doing? Then join us for the PDA 3-Minute Postdoc Slam (3MPS)!

When: Monday September 18th, 4-6pm (evening reception from 6-8pm)
Where: Life Sciences Institute, room 1003
Who: All UBC Vancouver postdocs are welcome.

Register and submit an abstract now (deadline September 1st):
https://ubc.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0x0H6O0EtpO1Az4

 

3 Minute Postdoc Slam!

3MPS, Events, Professional Development

The PDA is excited to announce that our popular 3 Minute Postdoc Slam is returning on August 12th from 2-5pm PDT. Register here!

Want to practise your elevator pitch? You’re in the right place!
Registration deadline to present: August 3rd at 4pm PDT.

Want to learn how to effectively communicate your science? Come learn from the experts (keynote speakers).

No deadline to sign up, but registration is required to attend the event and receive the Zoom link.

More information in the flyer and below.

Please share with your colleagues and friends! Everyone is welcome to attend the event*.
*only UBC Postdocs and Research Associates are allowed to participate in the Slam competition.



What?
Our annual 3 Minute Postdoc Slam is a science communication and professional development event. It is a great chance to learn more about the diverse research being done by UBC Postdocs and RAs. In addition, we have two amazing keynote speakers lined up (Drs. Parshati Patel and Jonathan Kellogg) who will share their expertise on public engagement. Whether you are interested in sharing your academic research or communicating science with the public, social media is an ideal tool with many benefits. In her talk, Dr. Patel will walk you through different platforms while discussing the best practices and engagement strategies for each of them.

For UBC Postdocs and RAs, this is a great opportunity to showcase your work and practise your elevator pitch. You will have 3 minutes and 1 static slide to describe your research to a general audience, and have a chance to win cash prizes!

When and Where?
Tune in on Zoom August 12th from 2:00pm – 5:00pm to compete in or attend our annual slam competition and to hear from two science communication experts. Those that register will receive an email with a Zoom meeting link.

Sounds great. How do I sign up?
Please register if you want to attend and submit your title and a 1-2 sentence description of your project if you want to present. We encourage postdocs from all scientific fields to sign up.

Everyone is Welcome to Attend! Although the competition is open to UBC Postdocs and Research Associates only, we also invite Graduate and Undergraduate students to join us, so tell everyone!
If you have any questions or comments, please send us an email!

Tentative schedule:
3MPS_Tentative Schedule

3 Minute Postdoc Slam

3MPS, Professional Development, Seminars

The PDA proudly presents 3 Minute Postdoc Slam 2020

The Postdoc Slam Event is going virtual this year! Tune in on July 22 to compete in or attend our annual slam competition and for two great keynote speakers discussing science communication.

Everyone is welcome to attend! (Postdoc Slam Competition is only open to postdocs). Registration is required to attend the event.

When? July 22, 2020 from 2:00pm – 4:30pm

Where? Online via Zoom (participants will receive a Zoom link after registration)

Register here!

If you would like to participate in the Postdoc Slam Competition, presenter registration Deadline is July 8th

Alan Shapiro is a water, sustainability, and science communication professional passionate about applying science communication tools to environmental issues. Alan splits his time between teaching at BCIT and SFU and consulting for non-profits and companies on water and sustainability challenges. He is also co-founder and chair of science outreach non-profit Science Slam Canada. Find him on Twitter at @watercomm.

Dr. Sinéad Aherne is currently a Project Manager at Canada’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre (GSC) at BC Cancer where she has worked since 2017.  Dr. Aherne has a PhD in Molecular Medicine, PMP certification, and 14 years experience conducting & managing clinical and basic science research.  At the GSC she works with Principle Investigators to provide research project management support for large-scale epigenomics projects with a particular focus on financial management, stakeholder management, and knowledge translation. Prior to her role at the GSC, Dr Aherne worked as Science Festival Coordinator for Taste of Science Tampa.  In this position she led a team of seven volunteers to produce Tampa’s largest science festival showcasing 27 speakers across 10 venues.  She has MC’ed events, given TV, radio, & newspaper interviews, and spoken to the general public about her cancer research at the 2016 festival.  She was also a speaker at the March for Science in St. Petersburg, Florida (~ 7,000 people, 2017).

Register Here!

 

Our popular 3 Minute Postdoc Slam is back on June 14th

3MPS, Events

Our 3 Minute Postdoc Slam is back!

When? June 14th, 3 pm to 5:30 pm, followed by a catered evening reception

Where? Michael Smith labs on UBC campus, room 102

What is happening?

The 3 Minute Slam is a speed conference, showing the awesome research of UBC postdocs in just 3 minutes 0n a single static slide. Learn how amazing the research of other UBC postdocs is and present your own project in a short and sweet talk – for the chance to win amazing prizes! Cash prizes will be given out for the three best talks – and this is not all. Coffee and cookies will be provided and there will also be a keynote lecture about science communication by Kaylee Byers and Michael Unger, the people behind Nerd Nite Vancouver. The event is followed by a networking reception with free food and drinks. Please indicate if you want to stay for the reception so that we can estimate catering size.

Everyone can attend, but the 3 minute talk competition is only open to postdocs. Register here until May 30th! Please submit an abstract if you want to present your research in a 3 minute talk.

Sounds great! I want to present! How do I prepare myself?

It is a hard-learned yet critical skill to communicate the essence of your research to an audience with a wide range of expertise and background. It may be intimidating, but the result is fun and rewarding, let alone the prizes you can win! For some inspiration on great 3 minute talks check out these helpful tips and have a look at winning talks from previous years on our YouTube channel and on the UBC grad student’s 3 Minute Thesis website.

I don’t want to present. Can I still attend?

For sure! It’s going to be a lot of fun.

#3MPS2019 (@UBCPostdoc)

Don’t forget to register!

 

Brief comments from the winners of #3MPS2018!

3MPS, Events

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!

3MPS, Events

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!