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Postdoc Appreciation Month 2022

The National Postdoctoral Association designated September 20-24, 2021 as National Postdoc Appreciation Week.  This is a time to recognize and appreciate our postdoctoral trainees who are a major driving force of research at our institution.

Every September we celebrate our Postdoctoral Fellows by holding special events throughout the month and hosting a Postdoc Retreat and Keynote Speaker.

This is a time to recognize and appreciate our postdoctoral trainees who are a major driving force of research at our institution. We honor our postdocs for the entire month of September by hosting a large number of activities to acknowledge and honor the postdocs.  

Take a look at our 2022 events and see what we did in 20212020, 20192018, and 2017!

2022 Postdoc Appreciation Month Agenda

Tuesday, September 6 - 2 Week Free Trial of BioRender

Wednesday, September 7 - 1 p.m. - 2 p.m. - Designing Figures for Publications or Grants Using BioRender - Zoom

BioRender is software that allows scientists to make figures with ease. They are making their full software available for free to all UMB postdocs for one week starting September 6th (stay tuned for more info about how to access this). Register below to be sent a Zoom link to join one of their staff for a session on how to use the software to design easily comprehensible manuscripts or grant figures.

Thursday, September 8 - 3 p.m. - Talks for a General Audience - HSF III Room 6020

If you were in an elevator with a very rich person, what would you say to convince them to fund your research? Once a month, two speakers will give a 10-minute talk to a general audience on their research.

Come support your fellow postdocs as they give their talks.

There will also be snacks and time to chat with your fellow postdocs.


Friday, September 9 - Seventh Annual Postdoc Retreat

9 a.m. - 10 a.m. - Virtual Postdoc Exit Strategy Panel

A postdoc is a trainee position. How do you move on to the next phase in your career? Come and hear from people who were UMB postdocs about their postdoc exit strategies.

  • Saumil Sethna - Scientist at The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson
  • Taryn Aubrecht - Health Program Specialist at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
  • M. Kathryn Leonard - Senior Scientific Program Administrator, American Association for Cancer Research
  • Kathleen Morrison - Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, West Virginia University

10:30 a.m. - 12 p.m. - Career Round Tables - MSTF Atrium

Interested in working at a primarily undergrad university?
Ted Nelson, PhD
Associate Professor
Georgetown University
 
Interested in working in patent/tech transfer?
Christopher Wright, PhD, JD
Senior Counsel, Patents
GSK
 
Interested in working in drug discovery?
Shuaishuai (Simon) Liu, PhD
Scientist
Hansoh Bio
 
Interested in working in industry?
Tyler Gable, PhD
Market Development Manager, Biologics and Biopharmaceuticals
Mettler-Toledo Interenational, Inc.
 
Interested in working at a research institute?
Stephanie Cerceo Page, PhD
Director of Imaging Core Facility
Lieber Institute for Brain Development
 
Interested in working at a startup or as an entrepreneur?
Ulyana Desiderio, PhD
Director, Office of Life Sciences
Maryland Department of Commerce

12 p.m. - Lunch - MSTF Atrium

1 p.m. - 1:45 p.m. - Fundamentals of Negotiation - MSTF Leadership Hall

Negotiation is an essential skill not only as you apply for your next position, but also in the lab and with collaborators. Come learn about the fundamentals of negotiating and then hear from speakers with experience in different biomedical career fields to see what advice they have.

Vijaya Venkataramani, PhD
Professor of Management and Organization
R.H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland

1:45 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. - Negotiation Experience Panel

Asaf Keller, PhD
Chair, Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology
University of Maryland School of Medicine
 
Associate Professor, Department of Biology
Loyola University Maryland
 

2:30 p.m. - 3 p.m. - Coffee and Snack Break - Outside of MSTF Leadership Hall

3 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. - Keynote Address

Organs on Demand: The Potential for Genetically Engineered Xenotransplantation

featuring Bartley Griffith, MD, Professor of Surgery, University of Maryland School of Medicine

Dr. Griffith is The Thomas E. and Alice Marie Hales Distinguished Professor in Transplantation at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Continuously funded as a principal investigator at the NIH since 1990, he has published more than 795 peer-reviewed papers and 84 book chapters. On January 7, 2022, Griffith led the team that placed the first successful pig-to-human cardiac transplant into a 57-year-old morbidly ill patient with heart failure. The operation has been hailed as a breakthrough procedure 

Tuesday, September 13 - 2 p.m. - Coffee and Cookies - Second Floor HSFII Lounge

Tuesday, September 13 - 3 p.m. - Responsible Conduct of Research Training


Wednesday, September 14 - 5 p.m. - Board Game Night - Bressler Research Building Room 1-008


Monday, September 19 - 3 p.m. - Apple Cider Day - Bressler Research Building Room 4-002

Drop by to celebrate postdoc appreciation month and the beginning of fall with apple pie, apple cider, caramel apples, and apple cider donuts.


Friday, September 23 - 12 p.m. - Wild About Postdocs Lunch - MSTF Atrium

It's National Postdoc Appreciation Week (we celebrate the whole month), so come be appreciated, have lunch, and have a great deal of fun with animal games.