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.

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

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

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.

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.

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?

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!

Whether on vacation or working hard over the last several weeks, I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and new year!

Nominations for the 2011 PDA executive officer positions are still open and will remain so until Monday – if you are interested in running for a position (or in simply joining the executive committee), please send an email to ubc.postdoc@gmail.com. You can nominate yourself, or anyone you feel would do a good job!

By being involved with the PDA-exec, you can help make positive things happen in the postdoc community, and it’s also a great experience to have in your CV. All the positions are described in more detail in our constitution, which you can read by clicking on the “Constitution” tab near the top of the page.

Throughout next week (January 10th-14th) we’ll circulate a ballot and hold the election by online poll, so keep an eye out for that and please take the time to vote! New officers will begin their term on February 1st, and most of the existing officers will continue to be involved throughout the year to ensure a smooth transition. Here’s looking forward to an exciting 2011 –

All the best,
Andy

Research Week 2011 is coming up in early March, and the PDA is looking for UBC postdocs to present their amazing work!

The PDA would like to showcase the quality and diversity of postdoc research at UBC, and will be putting together a 2-hour seminar session during Research Week 2011, to be held March 4-11th (the specific time and day that week to be determined). This session will likely consist of five or six 15-minute talks from a wide variety of disciplines, and will be a great opportunity to present your work to the UBC community at large. We are also hoping to run a concurrent session at CFRI to highlight clinical work being done by postdocs off-campus.

If you are interested in participating, please send an email to ubc.postdoc@gmail.com by Friday December 17th. Please include a brief description of your project and any other information that you feel would be useful. The PDA executive will selecting the final group and submitting the list to the VP Research office on Dec 23rd.

Let’s show the world that the really outstanding research is done by postdocs!