POSTDOCTORAL SEMINAR SERIES

This monthly postdoctoral seminar series is sponsored by the RWJMS Office of Research and supported by the UMDNJ Office of Postdoctoral Affairs. All UMDNJ postdoctoral appointees are invited to participate and meet your colleagues. Lunch is provided. Please contact Dr. Martha Soto for additional details or if you wish to participate.

Unless otherwise noted, seminars will be held at:
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway
Research Tower, Dean's Conference Room, Room 123/124

Friday, June 21, 2013
"Planning the Postdoc Symposium on September 18"
Time: 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm

Our June meeting will be to start getting into the planning for our annual career development symposium, held September 18th in the West Lecture Hall, during National Postdoc Appreciation week. We will be announcing our keynote speaker, Dr. Howard Adams, and starting to plan the logistics of arranging the conference, putting together speakers, and managing everything else. Please come and help us out. Everyone is welcome!

Friday, May 10, 2013
"How to transform science education: Workshop on applying Scientific Teaching techniques to new and existing courses "
Time: 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm

Speaker:

• Dr. Mary Konsolaki, Associate Professor, Dept. of Genetics, Rutgers U.
• Dr. Karen Schindler, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Genetics, Rutgers U.
• Dr. Michael Verzi, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Genetics, Rutgers U.

There is a growing national movement to improve the quality of science education at all levels, from K-12, to college, to graduate programs. Extensive research studies in different fields of science show that the use of active learning and Scientific Teaching techniques helps students to learn and retain scientific concepts. These techniques help students who are struggling, and they help the best students do even better. So why don't most faculty use these techniques? Faculty are very busy, and do not usually get training in teaching. Today's presenters are busy too, but they took the time to attend a week-long training in Scientific Teaching offered by the National Academies of Science and the HHMI. They will share some of the key features of Scientific Teaching, lead an active learning lesson, and explain their experiences in adapting these techniques to new and existing courses.

Friday, February 22, 2013
"Workshop: Networking 101 and Beyond..."
Time: 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm

Speaker:

• Vicki Gaddy, SPHR, Vice Pres. of the NJ Life Scineces Talent Network

Vicky Gaddy has been invited back for a longer presentation after her dynamic session during this year's Postdoc Symposium. She has worked in diverse biotech and technology companies, from start-ups like Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, to MannKind Bio., as well as Virgin Mobile USA. Her consulting business, NewSuit, LLC, coaches and advices employers on how to connect with the local talent market, and assists job seekers by creating strategies to discover new job and career possibilities. She uses a blend of social media and vigorous personal outreach methods. These skills have allowed her to help build and manage the NJ Life Sciences Talent Network (www.BioNJTalentNetwork.org), a growing, centralized resource for talent acquisition and development across the life sciences industry in New Jersey. Her advice and ideas are presented in ways that enable job seekers to think beyond traditional job search methods, and open their minds to new directions. Her techniques will benefit the careers of all scientists, even those who are not seekeing to work within the life sciences industry at this time.

Networking 101 and Beyond... will provide guidance and tactival advice on:

• What is Networking?
• The realitites of networking today and why you need to care about doing it right.
• Why do I even need to network if I am going to find my job online?
• And much more.

Friday, February 1, 2013
"Scientific Writing Workshop for Postdocs, Session II: More on the Writing Dimensions; writing self analysis; feedback on your writing"
Time: 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm

Speaker:

• Dr. Darcy Gioia, Ph.D., Associate Director, Rutgers U. Writing Center

Dr. Darcy Gioia, Ph.D., Associate Director of the Rutgers Writing Center, has generously offered to run two writing sessions to support the writing skills of our postdocs and others wishing to attend this session. Dr. Gioia is the instructor for the graduate class "Scientific Writing for the 21st Century." She also conducts faculty workshops to teach faculty how to improve their students' written work through comments that address not just scientific content, but also writing and organizational issues. Dr. Gioia's second session will include feedback on the revised paragraphs submitted after the first session, and more review of sample paragraphs to illustrate how to use the Writing Dimensions to improve scientific writing. Participants should read or re-read and bring the attached Writing Dimensions handout to the session this Friday. Finally, each participant should email their revised 2-paragraph sequential piece of writing to Dr. Gioia. The instructions for submitting to Dr. Gioia are attached. If you missed Session 1, we will have additional copies of the materials, and you will benefit from learning how to apply the Writing Dimensions to your writing.

Friday, January 11, 2013
"Scientific Writing Workshop for Postdocs, Session I: Introduction to Writing Dimensions; writing self analysis; writing peer review "
Time: 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm

Speaker:

• Dr. Darcy Gioia, Ph.D., Associate Director, Rutgers U. Writing Center

Dr. Darcy Gioia, Ph.D., Associate Director of the Rutgers Writing Center, has generously offered to run two writing sessions to support the writing skills of our postdocs and others wishing to attend this session. Dr. Gioia is the instructor for the graduate class "Scientific Writing for the 21st Century." She also conducts faculty workshops to teach faculty how to improve their students' written work through comments that address not just scientific content, but also writing and organizational issues. Dr. Gioia's first session will introduce Writing Dimensions (purpose, audience and tone, global organization, local development, clarity and fluency). Participants will do a brief writing self-assessment and cover some sample paragraphs as a model of how to approach writing using the Writing Dimensions. Participants should read and bring the attached Writing Dimensions handout to the session this Friday. Finally, each participant should bring a 2-paragraph sequential piece of their own writing (from a manuscript, grant, etc.). The sentences should be numbered and lines should be 1.5 spaced. We will end the workshop with a peer review session so each person will be reviewed by someone else to get a preliminary assessment modeled after what we observed as a group with the samples. The revised writing samples will be used during session II on February 1st.