Highlights
Weekly Highlights – 28th August 2015
Upcoming Events:
Sept 9
Get Powerful: Achieving influence, a MASS-AWIS Seminar
Click on link for more details
Sept 15
Futures in Life Sciences: Big Data Careers
(One of our former postdocs, Viktoria is a panelist!)
Saturday, Sept 19th
Sarah Cardozo Duncan: the Career Strategist’s guide to finding a job after your PhD.
A Career Development Workshop
12pm – 4pm
Behrakis Auditorium, Jaharis Building, Boston campus, 150 Harrison Ave, Boston MA 02111
- Identify your best skills to fit your dream job and how to leverage them
- Learn how to network from a pro!
- Includes a free lunch!
12pm – 4pm, Jaharis Auditorium, Boston campus, 150 Harrison Ave, Boston MA 02111
Register for free HERE!
Thursday, Sept 24th
Postdoctoral Office Poster Competition
9am – 11:30am
Sackler 114, Boston Campus
The event will be a great opportunity for postdocs across all of Tufts to come together and present a poster showcasing their research! First and second place winners in junior and senior categories will receive a travel award to be used towards travel to a meeting or conference. First place awards will be $1,000 and second place will be $500. Please contact Sara for entry form and guidelines. Entries are due by September 16th. Please send completed applications and any queries to Sara: Sara.Abbott@tufts.edu
Take your PI to lunch (Boston campus)
12pm – 1pm
Sackler 216A
Bring your PI to a nice lunch to celebrate postdocs or come by yourself!
Please register with Sara: Sara.Abbott@tufts.edu
Friday, Sept 25th
Take your PI to lunch (Medford campus)
12pm – 1pm
Aidekman Arts Center, Remis Sculpture Court
Bring your PI to a nice lunch to celebrate postdocs or come by yourself!
Please register with Sara: Sara.Abbott@tufts.edu
Aeronaut Brewery Tour
5:30pm – 8:30pm
14 Tyler St
Somerville, MA, 02143
Join the Tufts Postdoctoral Association in celebrating the end of Postdoc Appreciation Week! We’ll be touring the inner workings of the Aeronaut Brewing Co. and then sampling their wares (try a craft beer on us) and dining on the finest local pizza!
It’s going to be a fun night of the science of brewing, enjoying great beer and company. Come and meet your fellow postdocs! Significant others are welcome at this social event.
Tours are available 5:30pm – 6pm and 6pm – 6:30pm.
You can register online HERE. Cost is $19.45 and includes the tour, a craft beer and pizza. Password is pstdocslovebeer
Please note, you can also register and pay for the tour in person via cash (only $17.50) at the Boston and Medford campuses and save yourself the processing fees! Please see the following locations. Please bring correct change!
Boston campus: Jaharis cafe, Mon 8/31 & Wed 9/2 from 12pm – 1pm (Ania – anna.wronski@tufts.edu)
Medford campus: 8/28 from 12:30pm-1:30pm at 200 Boston Ave, 4th floor lounge and 9/1 from 3:30pm-4pm in the Barnum lobby (Sarah – sarah.dykstra@tufts.edu).
Posts from our Facebook page:
Career development:
- Taking my Parents to College (a great essay with helpful insights into understanding classroom experiences) by the New York Times
- A week in the life of: Benjamin Levitt (Friday) – Editor at Springer Press by PhDs at Work
- Advice for the first year on the tenure track by The Professor is In
- Online collaboration: Scientists and the Social network by Nature News
- How to stop overplanning (even it you’re a perfectionist) by Harvard Business Review
- Why the best grad students make the worst job candidates via LinkedIn
- What it’s like to get your PhD in Science by Slate
- $10 National Postdoc Association Membership Drive: Convert your Tufts Affiliate membership to full membership for just $10.
- Career Lingo: “Ability to teach the following…” by Chronicle Vitae
- Ode to scientists on visas and permits by Olga Degtyareva
- 3 Keys to transitioning into industry by Cheeky Scientist
- Effective Laboratory Management by ASBMB
- Advice from MCB-funded Investigators to young scientists by MCB
- [Book Review] What color is your parachute? 2016 by PhDs at Work
- Papers with shorter titles get more citations by Nature News & Comment
- Latest issue of POSTDOCket by NPA
- Top STEM jobs: 8 science and tech careers in high demand by AOL
- UW struggle: Scrap the Tenure File Edition by Chuck Rybak
- 25% discount on SciPhD Online Self Assessment Training Course. Now only $14.95 for National Postdoc Association Members (NB: All Tufts Postdocs are Affiliate members!)
Lab Resources:
News/Opinions
- What’s your burning science-careers question? A survey by Naturejobs blog
- Working long hours is linked to significantly higher risk of stroke by ScienceAlert
- Adjunct Faculty: Highly educated, working hard for society and struggling to survive by American Psychology Association blog
- The Widening world of hand-picked truths by NY Times
- White House Office of Management and Budget wants feedback on reducing federal grant reporting burden
Fun
Job Opportunities:
- Rancho Biosciences are looking for exceptional curators with backgrounds in genetics, biology & diseases. Viktoria is a former Tufts postdoc!
Highlights of the Week – 21st August 2015
Upcoming Events:
Sept 9
Get Powerful: Achieving influence, a MASS-AWIS Seminar
Click on link for more details
Sept 15
Futures in Life Sciences: Big Data Careers
(One of our former postdocs, Viktoria is a panelist!)
Sept 19
Postdoc Appreciation Week: Career Development Workshop with Sarah Cardozo Duncan
Details TBA
Sept 24
Postdoc Poster Competition on Boston campus
Details TBA
Take your PI to lunch – Boston campus
12PM Sackler 216A
Sept 25
Take your PI to lunch – Medford campus
12PM Aidekman Arts Center, Remis Sculpture Court
Posts from the Tufts PDA Facebook page:
Career Articles & Resources:
- Turning your complex career path into a coherent story by Harvard Business Review
- Freelance academics as public intellectuals by Chronicle Vitae
- Science communication: keep it simple on Nature blog
- Just say “thank you” to the people you work with by NY Magazine
- Metrics with meaning: shaping your scholarly identity by Nature Blog
- How to embrace complex change by Harvard Business Review
- Ask the expert: Meet Thi Nguyen, career development programme director at UCSF by Nature blog
- Creating a research brand by Science Careers
- A week in the life of: Benjamin Levitt (Mon); editor at Springer by PhD at Work
- How to know if you should leave academia… before wasting years in postdocs by Next Scientist
- Transferable skills: seek development opportunities by Nature blog
- Uncertain what to do next? Career options for life science graduates by Aspiring Professionals Hub
- What can you do with a humanities PhD anyway? by the Atlantic
- How to prepare a syllabus for a college course by Inside Higher Ed
- Book suggestion: What you really need to lead: the power of thinking and acting like an owner by Robert Steven Kaplan via Harvard Business Review
- How to plan your research and writing trajectory on the tenure track by the Professor is In
- The research is clear: long hours backfire for people and for companies by the Harvard Business Review
- I look like a professor … gender struggles in academia by Chronicle Vitae
- Career A or B: Making the decision by Nature blog
- Writing in the Sciences by Stanford Online
- How to go from unemployed PhD to successful industry professional by the Cheeky Scientist
- What distinguishes great leaders from average ones? Emotional Intelligence by Harvard Business Review
- Understand the 4 Components of Influence by Harvard Business Review
- When to give feedback in a group and when to do it one on one by Harvard Business Review
- Career destinations by discipline infographics by the Vitae
- Advice for academics starting their careers by Insider Higher Ed
- HOWTO: Get Tenure (article) and video by Matt Might (warning – this may make you tear up!).
- Teaching how to think is just as important as teaching anything else by The Conversation
- Postdocs, put your best foot forward for industry jobs by Science Careers
- How to inspire future generations without quitting our day jobs by ASCB
News/Opinions
- Ending All-Male Panels by Insider Higher Ed
- More gay and lesbian researchers are out in the lab by Nature
- Scientists share their funniest blunders with #FieldWorkFail by the Washington Post
- Judge invalidates component of foreign student work program by Inside Higher Ed
- Another mass retraction by The Scientist
- Essay by a gay faculty member at a Christian college on Inside Higher Ed
- Grad students discuss next steps after losing health insurance by KBIA (Note: NOT at Tufts! This was at the University of Missouri).
Awards, Grants, Job Postings & Other Opportunities
- Publishing better science through better data writing competition by Nature Magazine
- Genetics Careers: faculty positions at NC State, Louisiana-Lafayette and Cornell. Postdocs at UT Southwestern, Belgium, research scientist at DuPont, Pioneer
- Early career leadership opportunities with the Genetics Society of America
Fun
- An assay (on cards) for ‘reliably funny’ scientists by ASCB (i.e. cards against science!)
Highlights of the Week – 14th August 2015
Upcoming Events:
Sept 9
Get Powerful: Achieving influence, a MASS-AWIS Seminar
Click on link for more details
Sept 19
Postdoc Appreciation Week: Career Development Workshop with Sarah Cardozo Duncan
Details TBA
Sept 24
Postdoc Poster Competition on Boston campus
Details TBA
Take your PI to lunch – Boston campus
12PM Sackler 216A
Sept 25
Take your PI to lunch – Medford campus
12PM Aidekman Arts Center, Remis Sculpture Court
Posts on the Tufts PDA Blog:
Posts from the Tufts PDA Facebook page:
Career Articles & Resources:
- STEM Education: To build a scientist by Nature
- Lab budgets: a numbers game by Nature
- Finding career and Family balance in a naturally imbalanced situation by Pipette Gazette: UT Health Science Center Graduate School.
- Science communication: a new generation of communicators by Nature Careers
- Build STEM skills, but don’t neglect the humanities by Harvard Business Review
- Work less, Play More, Go to Sleep by Chronicle Vitae
- Why you should join a professional society by Aspiring Professionals Hub
- Why you need a 5 year plan by The Professor is In
- Avoiding “Drive by” Job Searches, an interview with the founder of Cheeky Scientist by NatureJobs Blog
- A guide to applying to jobs at small liberal arts colleges by Daily Nous
- Create a “Mastermind group” to help your career by Harvard Business Review
News/Opinion pieces/Other:
- Summer reads selected by Nature
- Podcast from Eppendorf 2015 Winner
- We must prepare PhD students for the complicated art of teaching from the Chronicle
- International Postdoc Survival Guide by the National Postdoc Association
- Membership in the National Postdoc Association – note: you are already an associate member by being a Tufts postdoc!
- Should PhD students be classified as employees? By The Guardian
- Interview with NIH director, Dr. Francis Collins on how science happens and scientific breakthroughs by our very own Sarah Dykstra for Science Sound Bites.
- Postdoc Symposium Toolkit by National Postdoc Association
- It’s time to take some of the secrecy out of science by the Slate/Retraction Watch
- The trouble with reproducibility in Science by The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Science Writing and Communication Club
- Nominations for AAAS Award for Public Engagement with Science
- Celebrating R & D Expenditures badly misses the point by PNAS
- The future of science will soon be upon us by Nature
- AAC&U’s moderate, strong voice on competency-based education and disruption by Inside Higher Ed
Events:
- Get Powerful: Achieving influence; Wednesday September 9th from the Association of Women in Science
Fortnightly Highlights – 08/07/15
Interesting posts from our Facebook page:
Career Articles and Resources:
– 9 Ways to Manage and Overcome Academic Stress and Transition into Industry by Cheeky Scientist
– Best industry transition articles of the week for PhDs (July 26 2015) by Cheeky Scientist
– Job seekers: How to banish those job interview jitters by Forbes
– Why PhDs shouldn’t overlook a career with a non-profit organization by Cheeky Scientist
– What you need to know before inviting people to connect on LinkedIn by Career Sherpa
– So you want to be a science writer by Cell Press
– Basics of Venture Capital by BiotechLikeMind
– In conversation with Brian Schmidt, podcast with the Nobel Prize winner about training researchers by NatureJobs
– Insider Knowledge (how to get ahead in science) by NatureJobs
– Leaving academia: Do’s and Don’ts by NatureJobs
– How to survive your PhD – a free course (works well for postdocs too!) by The Thesis Whisperer
– Why not have a life? from our very own Gary McDowell in Science Magazine
– 5 Mistakes to avoid in your one-on-ones with your manager by Quickbase Intuit
– What is it like to be an AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow? from Brandeis U Blog
– Tips for writing a scientific review article by ASCB
– Best industry transition articles of the week for PhDs (Aug 2, 2015) by Cheeky Scientist
– 12 ways to get more out of attending a conference by US News and World Report
– Essay on how academics should approach “revise and resubmit” responses from journals by Insider Higher Ed
– How to choose a postdoc position: A step by step guide by Biotechin Asia
– 12 tips for scientists writing for the general public by American Scientist
– How to get your boss to read your emails – and act on them by Quickbase Intuit
– International Postdoc Survival Guide by National Postdoc Association
– 10 steps to executive-level confidence by Wall Street Journal
– How to use your LinkedIn profile to power a career transition by Harvard Business Review
– Making it in academia: Before and after you apply by NatureJobs blog
– Gaining leadership skills volunteering at a professional organization by Addgene blog
– How to break up with an innovation project by Harvard Business Review
News and Opinions
– Rethinking graduate education by Science Magazine
– Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: Chronicling Change, Inspiring the Future by AAAS
– Elizabeth Warren and Newt Gingrich agree on call for more NIH funding by the Boston Globe
– Shaping the Future of Research: a perspective from junior scientists (from the Future of Research group, including many Tufts postdocs!) in F1000Research
– Request for information on the NIH-wide 5 year strategic plan. Have issues with postdoc training? Tell the NIH!
– White house announces nominees for NSF deputy director and head of the Energy Department’s Office of Science by Science News.
– Subscription to Nature magazine for only $50
Events
– August 9: MASS AWIS Annual Summer Potluck
– August 13: Women in Bio: Fundraising Bootcamp: Step by step guide for success.
Job Opportunities and Fellowships
– Desktop Genetics on the AngelList startup database
– American Council of Learned Societies
– Graduate Research Fellowship Program by NSF
–
Highlights of the week – 07/24/15
Interesting posts on our Facebook page:
Career Articles & Resources
– Balancing Career and family by Science Careers
– 7 Questions to Guide your Research on Non-Academic Careers by Beyond the Tenure Track
– iLearn Courses and Seminars by Tufts Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI)
– A PhD is a fixed-term job, not a passport to a professorship by Jobs on Toast
– Publishing workshop by Linguistic Society of America
– 5 Email Templates that Make Following up with Anyone Way Less Awkward by The Muse
– Making a Multimedia Elevator Pitch by American Society of Cell Biology (ASCB)
Scientific Tools
– Faculty of 1000 new reference tool by F1000
Funding Opportunities & Job Postings
– Postdoctoral Fellowships in the Humanities for US Postdoctoral Scholars in the US and Germany by the Volkswagen Foundation