Since 2009, the National Postdoctoral Association has sponsored National Postdoc Appreciation Week to recognize the significant contributions that postdoctoral scholars make to research and discovery. We hope that all supervisors recognize the efforts of their postdocs during this week of celebration.
UBC, and especially the PDFO, would like to take this opportunity to thank our postdocs for their hard work and for all the contributions they make to UBC's research enterprise.
CELEBRATING 2024 NATIONAL POSTDOC APPRECIATION WEEK
A message from Dean pro tem Dr. Michael Hunt (Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, UBC Vancouver) and Dean Dr. Peter Simpson (College of Graduate Studies, UBC Okanagan)
2024 PDFO NATIONAL POSTDOC APPRECIATION WEEK EVENTS
This year, the PDFO is excited to host a series of both online and in-person events celebrating UBC's postdoc community.
Join the PDFO for our NPAW kickoff event, a keynote by Dr. Olumuyiwa Igbalajobi, former UBC postdoc and founder of Scholarships Café, an online platform with the mission to connect exceptional students and postdocs with life-changing scholarships and academic opportunities from top institutions worldwide. Scholarships Café offers a comprehensive range of services to support your academic journey, including personalized consulting, masterclasses, and admission support. This keynote will be followed by a wine and cheese reception, where postdocs can connect, network and meet with postdoc colleagues from across campus.
UBC's Orientation for Postdoctoral Fellows will cover a range of important campus and academic information and advice geared to help you and your families obtain the most from your Postdoc experience at UBC.
Orientation is open to all new PDFs and existing PDFs who have not yet attended a PDF Orientation.
This session will begin with an info fair and networking from 8:30 AM, with presentations beginning at 9:00 AM, and will end with a networking lunch from 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM.
It is important to remember that rejection is not a comment on your potential or how smart you are. You would not have got this far otherwise. Join Dr. Peter Szatmari from Toronto’s Cundill Centre for Child and Youth Depression at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) as he reflects on how to learn from “failure”. Learn how to cope with rejected grants and papers, or promotions, and proposals. Draw some lessons from his vast experience with rejection. Dr. Szatmari will also put papers and grants into perspective with respect to the ‘success’ of an academic career.
Compiling a compelling academic dossier is one of the key points in applying for an academic position. Hear from a panel of faculty members about their experiences in both creating and evaluating work search documents as part of a faculty career search.
Join the PDFO for our traditional National Postdoc Appreciation Week barbecue! Check-in begins at 11:45, followed by the barbecue at 12:00. The event is expected to last between 1.5 to 2 hours. As part of this event, postdocs will be eligible to win prizes from a variety of on- and off-campus donors; in order to receive a prize, attendance is required at the time of the draw.
This event will be held in-person at the UBC - Point Grey Campus.
OTHER ON-CAMPUS EVENTS
If your faculty, department/unit or research group will be offering events for National Postdoc Appreciation Week, please let us know!
THANK YOU TO OUR prize DONORS!
The PDFO is pleased to feature a prize draw as a part of our in-person NPAW events, but we could not offer this draw without the generous support of our donors. We would like to thank the following organizations for their generous donations in support of 2024 National Postdoc Appreciation Week.
- Ballet BC
- False Creek Ferries
- Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tours
- H.R. MacMillan Space Centre
- Loafe Café - Alumni Centre
- Loafe Café - Sauder
- The Improv Centre
- UBC Opera
- UBC School of Music
- Vancouver Art Gallery
- Vancouver Symphony Opera
- VIFF