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PDA Annual General Meeting (and potluck dinner!)
Date: Wed, Nov 30, 2011
Where: Life Sciences Center, West Atrium
Time: Starts at 5:30 pm (please come before 6, when doors will be locked)
Join us for a pre-holiday social! We’ll be having a potluck dinner and our annual general meeting. This is your chance to give us feedback on how the PDA is doing, and what you’d like to see for next year. What needs of the postdoc community are not being met? This is also a great opportunity to get involved! We will be opening nominations for the exec board positions with an election to be scheduled early next year.
Please sign up for the potluck here:
http://ubcpdaevents.pbworks.com/w/page/48009903/November%2030%20Potluck%20Dinner
Click on the “request access” button on the right side.
National Postdoc Association Newsletter
The National Postdoc Association of the US puts out a quarterly newsletter. You can find it here
This issue of the NPA’s quarterly newsletter features an article on National Postdoc Appreciation Week; profiles of new leadership within the NPA member committees and the Board of Directors; and a spotlight on Shirley Malcolm, head of the Directorate for Education and Human Resources Programs at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She was instrumental in the founding of the NPA. “Must read” articles on advocacy for scientists and helpful tips for talking to your supervisor about parental leave are also featured.
Postdoc Appreciation Week
National Postdoc Appreciation week is coming up (Sep 19-23). There are two fun events to commemorate the week.
The PDFO is hosting a BBQ/networking event on Tues, Sep 20, from 11:30 am – 2 pm, at Koerner’s Pub. Please see their website for more info and registration.
On Thurs, Sep 22, the PDA is hosting a 5-pin bowling night at the Commodore Lanes at 7 pm. To reserve your spot, please email Chris Parker at parkercac@gmail.com
Congrats to Research Day prize winners
The first Postdoc Research Day was a great success! All of the talks were interesting and engaging and the poster session was really enjoyable. Thanks to all of you who came out to the event, and a special thanks to all of the presenters.
Congratulations to the following presenters!
Talks:
1st prize – Julien Bergeron
2nd prize – Amber Southwell
3rd prize – Rana Sarfraz
Posters:
1st prize – Whitney Weikum
2nd prize – Stuart Cain
Register for Postdoc Research Day!
Registration is now open for our Postdoc Research Day. The event will take place on Friday, August 26, in the afternoon, in the Life Sciences Centre. Please register here, if you would like to present a poster, give a talk, or simply attend. You will be asked to provide an abstract for talks and posters, and the deadline for abstract submission is July 31st.
First Postdoc Research Day on Aug 26, 2011
The PDA is planning on hosting the first annual Postdoc Research Day on Friday, August 26, 2011!! It will be an afternoon event (approx 1 pm – 6 pm) held in the atrium of the Life Sciences Centre. We will have poster presentations, speakers, and prizes, with a wine and cheese reception afterwards.
Too many PhD’s in the world?
Nature News article on the challenges of producing too many PhD’s and not enough jobs, highlighting trends in specific countries.
From the article:
Education: The PhD factory
David Cyranoski Natasha Gilbert Heidi Ledford Anjali Nayar Mohammed Yahia
The world is producing more PhDs than ever before. Is it time to stop?
Elections are closed
The first-ever PDA elections have wrapped up and we would like to thank everyone who voted! “Voter turnout” was better than expected, and it’s great to see that so many of you are interested in who will be guiding the PDA through the next year.
The outcome won’t come as too much of a shock, since we only had one candidate for most positions 🙂
We’re also still looking for someone to take over as VP Finance. It’s not a terribly time consuming job, but it does require that you be based at the LSI.
We’ll update in the next week or two with more information about the new executive members. Hope to see some of you at Subeez tonight to celebrate!
UBC PDA Elections are now open!
The UBC Postdoc Association is pleased to announce our first-ever election for executive officers! Following the recent ratification of our constitution in November, we held open nominations for officers.
Likely because this is our first election, most of the positions only have one candidate running. However, it’s still important that you support the PDA by taking just a few seconds to cast your votes. We hope this precedent will lead to more participation in future elections, and a stronger PDA to serve you.
We’ve looked at a few different methods for voting, and decided that for this year, we can simply do an online poll. In future years, we hope to implement a secure system in which you can login via your CWL account.
Please follow this link to the survey, which will tell you about who is running for each position and allow you to vote:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/5QM79BR
The ballot will be available until Monday, January 17th, at which time we’ll tally the votes – new officers will begin their term on February 1st. With the new executive in place, the PDA will be able build on all that we’ve accomplished in the past few years, and make UBC an even better place for postdocs in 2011. Thanks in advance for your help and support!