5th Postdoctoral Career Development Symposium 2018
Spring Quarter Seminar Schedule 2018
March 30th – Financial Planning: Just the Facts on Student Loans
Dan Wood, CFA, Financial Coach at Next Door (State Farm), will discuss how to manage your student loans and pay them off. Learn how to figure out the status of your loans, determine your payment plan, and know what happens and what to do if you make a mistake.
April 6th: GRADUCon
GRADUCon is the University of Chicago’s annual career conference just for graduate students and postdocs. It is a fantastic opportunity to explore careers in academia, industry, nonprofits, and government. The day includes panel discussions and the chance to talk one-on-one with employers and alumni about diverse career trajectories.
April 13th – Transferable Skills Workshop for Postdocs
Briana Konnick, PhD, Assistant Director, Graduate Career Development. This workshop will discuss what the term “transferable skills” means in practice, and will feature an interactive component of identifying what you do day-to-day currently and how that translates into a more typical working environment.
April 20th – Research Careers at Genentech
Joint event with myCHOICE
Luciana Molinero, PhD, Scientist at Genentech. Find out what it’s like to work at one of the leading biotechnology companies and learn about Dr. Molinero’s exciting research in the field of cancer immunotherapy.
April 27th – NIH Career Development (K) Awards
Lixing Yang, PhD, Assistant Professor; Steve Lee, PhD, Postdoc; Paul Geeleher, PhD, Postdoc.
May 4th – Clinical Postdoctoral Fellowships
Joint event with myCHOICE
Panelists Jennifer Keller-Ramey (Gene DX), Scott Topper (Color Genomics) and Xander van Wijk (Asst. Director, Clinical Chemistry Labs, University of Chicago) will be discussing potential career pathways for clinical genomics.
May 18th – Immigration & Visa Seminar for International Postdocs and Researchers
Brendan Delaney, Immigration Attorney at Frank & Delaney Immigration Law, will discuss types of visas, 212(e) waivers, permanent residence, issues you might face during the transition process, and how to assemble your CV/resume for a self-sponsored application.
May 18th – The Ethics of Authorship, Data Management, and Publication
Dr. Nancy Schwartz (Professor, Depts. Of BMB and Pediatrics, and Dean of Postdoctoral Affairs) and Dr. Ziaoxi Zhuang (Professor, Dept. of Neurobiology) will discuss the criteria for deciding authorship, best practices for managing data, and transparency in publication.
This is a quarterly ethics seminar that fulfills the NIH RCR requirement.
June 1st – Demystifying Academic Interview Chalk Talks
Tobin Sosnick, PhD, Professor; Jingyi Fei, Assistant Professor; Engin Özkan, Assistant Professor.
June 8th – TED-Style Postdoc Research Talks
Find out more about what your postdoctoral colleagues at U. Chicago are researching. This event will feature a series of short, engaging presentations geared for a multidisciplinary audience.
Presentations include:
“Fighting dirty: Can bacteria protect from food allergies?” Catherine Plunkett
“Stalking influenza viruses to generate a universal vaccine,” Jenna Guthmiller
“How to make cancer killing viruses,” Melanie Weigert
“How does your immune system use vitamins to detect infection?” Cara Froyd
Wednesday, June 13th – Structural basis for light control of cell development: New insights from bacterial phytochrome proteins
Joint event with BMB
Emina Stojković, PhD, Associate Professor at Northeastern Illinois University, will give a talk about her research at 4:00pm and meet with postdocs earlier in the day to discuss career options at primarily undergraduate colleges.
Winter Quarter Seminar Schedule 2018
January 22 – Museum Careers Joint event with myCHOICE. *This is a special seminar held on a Monday.
January 26 – Advanced LinkedIn: Job Seach Briana Konnick, PhD, Assistant Director, STEM Career Development at UChicago GRAD will show postdocs advanced tools and tips for using LinkedIn professionally and for your job search. *This workshop will be held at UChicago GRAD HQ on the 3rd floor of the bookstore and is open to postdocs in BSD, PSD, and IME.
February 2 – Ethics Seminar The Era of #MeToo: A Conversation on Discrimination, Harassment, and Sexual Misconduct and UChicago Support and Resources. Discussion will be led by Bridget Collier, Associate Provost & Director, Office for Equal Opportunity Programs | Title IX Coordinator for the University | Section 504/ADA Coordinator | Affirmative Action Officer.
Feb 9 – Tax Information for Postdocs Do not miss this session for an overview of tax information specifically for Postdoctoral Scholars and Fellows. Seminar speakers are Angie Gleghorn (Payroll Solution Manager) and Liz Fox (Foreign Tax Analyst).
February 23 – Careers in Biotech Startups Features Computational Biologists working at Tempus biotech: Catherine Igartua, PhD; Denise Lau, PhD; Shelley MacNeil, PhD; Kaanan Shah, PhD.
March 2 – Industry Careers Beyond the Bench Learn about a diverse range of industry career options for PhD scientists interested in transitioning away from the bench. Panelists: William Olds, PhD (Scientific Officer at Proteintech); Prem Sundivakkam, PhD, MBA (Business Development Executive at PPD-Evidera); Jaimee Glasgow, PhD (Associate Clinical Scientist at AbbVie with a background in medical writing).
March 9 – Project and Program Management Careers Joint event with myCHOICE Confirmed speakers: James Hendrix, PhD, (Director, Global Science Initiatives, Medical and Scientific Relations, at Alzheimer’s Association) and Mary Buschmann, PhD (Research Manager for the Chicago Pancreatic Cancer).
March 16 – Navigating Gender Bias in Grants and Academia Join us for an interactive discussion regarding the implications of gender bias in academia and strategies you can use to empower yourself now and in your future career. Presented by Peggy Mason, PhD (Professor, Dept of Neurobiology) and Nancy Schwartz, PhD (Dean and Director, Postdoctoral Affairs).
Autumn Quarter Seminar Schedule 2017
Nov 17th – Research at National Labs Joint event with myCHOICE: Learn about careers in government labs and how they compare to academia. Our four panelists hail from diverse backgrounds in microbiology, material physics, synchrotron radiation, genomics, and mass spec technology, yet they have found that they have a lot in common through their research experiences at government labs. Sarah Owens, Ashley Sidebottom, Ken Kemner, and Matthew Perisin (PhD ’16, Microbiology) followed different paths through academia and are eager to share their experiences working in the government research environment.
Dec 1st – Science Marketing Panel Joint event with myCHOICE: Benjamin Marcus, PhD, Senior PR Specialist at CG Life. Other panelists TBA.
Dec 8th – Preprints in the Life Sciences. Panelists are Peggy Mason, PhD – Professor, Dept of Neurobiology, Vincent Lynch, PhD – Assistant Professor, Dept of Human Genetics, and John Blischak, PhD – Postdoctoral Scholar, Dept of Human Genetics (Gilad Lab). Genevieve Housman, PhD will introduce preprints and moderate a discussion with the panel on the pros and cons of publishing preprints. This is a quarterly ethics seminar that fulfills the NIH RCR requirement.