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Organizer
In celebration of National Postdoc Appreciation Week, hear from a panel of former UBC postdocs about their journeys toward securing tenure-track academic careers. Moderated by Associate Dean Dr. Laura Sly, this panel features Dr. Jacquelyn Cragg (Assistant Professor, UBC); Dr. Britt Drögemöller (Assistant Professor, University of Manitoba); Dr. Calvin Kuo (Assistant Professor, UBC); Dr. Miranda Kirby (Assistant Professor, Ryerson University); Dr. Rachel Germain (Assistant Professor, UBC); and Dr. Natalie Zeytuni (Assistant Professor, McGill University).
This event is part of 2020 National Postdoc Appreciation Week. Click here for a list of all NPAW events!
GUEST SPEAKERS
Moderator
Dr. Laura Sly, Associate Dean, Academic in the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies & Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics
Dr. Laura Sly is Associate Dean, Academic in the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies and Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics within the Faculty of Medicine. Her research focusses on the contribution of macrophages to inflammation with a special interest in reducing inflammation in immune-mediated diseases, like inflammatory bowel disease. Hailing from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Dr. Sly did her undergraduate degree before pursuing graduate and postdoctoral work in Manitoba, Alberta, and British Columbia. She teaches in the Experimental Medicine and Microbiology and Immunology graduate programs and joined Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies in 2019 to focus on University-wide policies pertinent to postdocs and graduate students.
Panelists:
Dr. Cragg is a data scientist and Assistant Professor in in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at UBC. She completed MPH and PhD degrees in epidemiology and biostatistics from the UBC School of Population and Public Health.
She also completed post-doctoral fellowships with the Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health and International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries (ICORD).
Her current research aims to identify causes, risk factors, and biomarkers of neurological disease progression, including Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury, and stroke.
At the core of her work is a series of prospective and retrospective investigations that integrate genetic, biochemical, clinical assessments, and medication history with both traditional epidemiological approaches and machine-learning algorithms. Her work using advanced analytical techniques has applications in modelling disease progression, drug safety, and drug repurposing.
Dr. Britt Drögemöller joined the Department of Biochemistry & Medical Genetics at the University of Manitoba as an Assistant Professor in April 2020. Dr. Drögemöller received her PhD in South Africa in 2013, and continued her training in pharmacogenomics and precision medicine at the University of British Columbia, where she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Canadian Pharmacogenomics Network for Drug Safety. Dr. Drögemöller’s research uses large-scale genomic and computational analyses to guide the development of novel treatment strategies that offer maximum benefit and minimal harm. This research is focused specifically on vulnerable and understudied populations (e.g. pediatric and maternal populations) as therapeutic agents are often not designed and tested with these patients in mind. Dr. Drögemöller has published 44 articles, including publications in Nature Genetics, The New England Journal of Medicine and JAMA Oncology. Dr Drögemöller’s work has been recognized through awards such as the Killam Postdoctoral Fellow Research Prize and fellowships from funding agencies such as the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and L’Oreal-UNESCO for Women in Science foundation.
Since 2019, Dr. Rachel Germain has been an Assistant Professor in the Department of Zoology, at the Biodiversity Research Centre. Previous to her faculty position, she was a Killam Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Botany Department at UBC. My lab studies how ecology and evolution intersect to maintain biodiversity.
Dr. Miranda Kirby is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics at Ryerson University and the Imaging & Therapy Theme Lead at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Technology (iBEST) at St. Michael’s Hospital. She is also an Affiliate Scientist at the Keenan Research Center at St. Michael’s Hospital, an Adjunct Scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children and Investigator at the Center for Heart Lung Innovation at UBC. Her research focuses on developing new image analysis tools for generating biomarkers of chronic lung disease using computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Dr. Kirby has over 60 publications in imaging and respiratory medicine focused journals, such as Radiology and the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
Dr. Kirby has a BSc (Honors Double Major) in Applied Mathematics and Biology (Western University), PhD in Medical Biophysics (Western University), and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Radiology (UBC). Her research has been funded by the Canada Research Chair (Tier II) Program, NSERC, Canadian Foundation for Innovation, Lung Health Foundation, and the Parker B. Francis Foundation.
Dr. Calvin Kuo is a new Assistant Professor in the School of Biomedical Engineering at UBC. He completed his PhD at Stanford University in Mechanical Engineering developing wearable sensors to measure head impact kinematics in concussions and musculoskeletal models to determine the role of the neck in stabilizing the head. In 2018, Calvin began a postdoctoral position at UBC in the School of Kinesiology and Department of Computer Science applying his wearables experience to the fields of neurophysiology and computer graphics. Calvin was also the recipient of a Killam Postdoctoral Research Fellowship to support his work. He now leads the Human Motion Biomechanics Lab (HuMBL) developing specialized tools to monitor human motion in real-world environments for continuous health monitoring and injury risk mitigation.
Dr. Natalie Zeytuni is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at McGill University. She previously held a a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology at UBC. Dr. Zeytuni is the recipient of an EMBO Long-Term Postdoctoral Fellowship, a Postdoctoral Fellowship for Women in Science from the Council for Higher Education of Israel, and a L’Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science, Israel.
Registration
Registration in this session is required, and is now open. Those successfully registered will receive an email within one week of the session date.
Accessibility
If you have a disability or medical condition that may affect your full participation in the event, please email postdoctoral.fellows@ubc.ca in advance of the event.
DELIVERY FORMAT
Due to the ongoing situation surrounding COVID-19, this session will be delivered online via Zoom. The following suggestions may help to improve the online experience:
- Use headphones to reduce noise and avoid feedback between your mic and speaker.
- Ensure that you are in a quiet location so that the audio does not get polluted with unwanted noise.
- Keep your microphone on mute unless you are speaking during the session.
- In case of technical problems, time for plugin downloads, etc., please attempt to log into the Zoom meeting 10-15 minutes before the start. You will be placed in the waiting room until the official start time.