LEXINGTON, KY. (Oct. 11, 2021) – The University of Kentucky Office of Postdoctoral Affairs (OPA) in the Graduate School, in partnership with the Society of Postdoctoral Scholars (SOPS), hosted its seventh Annual Research & Career Symposium the last week of September. The purpose of this symposium is to showcase the work of UK postdoctoral scholars and fellows, promote networking among the UK research community, and encourage discussions on career paths for postdocs and PhD students. Roughly 98 attendees participated in the symposium, either face-to-face or virtually, representing 9 different colleges across the university, including the College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Medicine, and the College of Pharmacy.
"Postdocs have been referred to as the Invisible University and our annual postdoc symposium is an opportunity to celebrate our postdocs and take stock of the immeasurable and visible contributions in research, teaching, and mentoring they provide to the UK community,” said Joseph Lutz, Director of the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs in the Graduate School.
Two sessions in particular – The Postdoc Research Talk Competition and The Postdoc Science Café Competition – gave postdocs the opportunity to showcase and present their research or engage the broader public about a research-related topic within 10 minutes. The Research Talk Competition was judged by a faculty panel representing 5 main colleges where postdocs are housed: Clare Rittschof from CAFE, Jared Hammill from Pharmacy, Jonathan Pham from Engineering, Jeremy Van Cleve from Arts & Science, and Mariana Nikolova-Karakashian from Medicine. The Science Café Competition, on the other hand, was decided by audience members!
“Glad everything went well and that I could help. I definitely enjoyed it,” remarked Jared Hammill. “I think the whole symposium was a great success” said Jeremy Van Cleve, and “this was something that our postdocs really need” commented Mariana Nikolova-Karakashian. Jonathan Pham agreed, “Our postdocs benefit from these events.”
The winners are as follows:
Postdoc Research Talk Competition
1st Place ($300): Sudip Gaire, Department of Entomology (CAFE)
2nd Place ($200): Jong Hyun Kim, Department of Chemistry (A&S)
Postdoc Science Café Competition
1st Place ($300): Maryam Dehghanian, Department of Physics & Astronomy (A&S)
2nd Place ($200): Allison Young, Department of Entomology (CAFE)
All entries can be viewed here: 2021 Annual Research & Career Symposium Videos.
When asked about his 1st place win in the Postdoc Research Talk Competition, Sudip Gaire remarked, "Thanks for the opportunity to share my bed bugs research with the broader campus community. I enjoyed meeting such diverse postdoctoral colleagues at the symposium."
Likewise, when asked about her 1st place win in the Postdoc Science Café Competition, Maryan Dehghanian commented, "I never knew giving a talk (with the assumption that your audiences have zero knowledge of your work) can be very difficult. I have given a lot of talks around the US and yet this one was the most challenging. Thanks to the Symposium, I now know how to talk about my project without confusing the audience. It will definitely have a great impact on my job interviews in near future. Meetings were well organized, professional, and still very friendly. I cannot wait to attend again next year."
Carl T. Bergstrom, Ph.D., also presented a keynote address titled “Fighting the Misinfodemic: How quantitative misinformation misleads the public, and what scientists can do about it.” In this talk, Dr. Bergstrom presented an overview of how misleading numbers, statistics, mathematics, and data graphics have muddied the social and traditional media streams that we all rely upon during COVID. He also gave examples of deliberate disinformation, and examples of unintended misinformation around the pandemic, as well as explored how as scientists, citizens, and educators we all can promote data reasoning and quantitative literacy around the pandemic and more broadly.
To view the keynote, please visit: 2021 Annual Research & Career Symposium Videos
In addition to the keynote presentation and pitch competitions, attendees also had the opportunity to participate in one of three career-related workshops, depending on their career goal(s). Two workshops featured panel of past postdoc and current Ph.D. professionals from a variety of “bench” and “non-bench” scientific careers, while the other workshop helped postdocs develop a strategy and identify documents needed when applying to faculty jobs.
“Over the past two years SOPS, along with the Office for Postdoctoral Affairs, has been working hard to provide postdocs with tools and opportunities to cultivate their science communication skills,” said Erome Hankore, newly elected President of SOPS, “The 2021 SOPS symposium was a culmination of these efforts and further underscored the importance of science communication by highlighting how misinformation continues to exasperate the COVID-19 pandemic. It is our hope that all who attended and participated in the event have benefited from the symposium.”
The Graduate School's Office of Postdoctoral Affairs is designed to develop the next generation of independent researchers by enhancing the postdoctoral experience at the University of Kentucky through building an integrated postdoc community, providing career and professional development opportunities for postdocs, managing centralized postdoc administrative services, and measuring and tracking postdoc success. Similarly, the Society of Postdoctoral Scholars (SOPS) is an organization of postdocs at UK that assists current, past, and incoming postdocs with career advice, professional development, and networking opportunities.