On Tuesday June 18th, the MIT postdoctoral Association (PDA) organized the first annual “Postdocs Share their Science” event. This event was organized by the PDA after recognizing that there was no scientific gathering at MIT specifically for postdocs. To fill this void, the PDA created a poster session, where postdocs from all departments or MIT affiliated institutes could present their research area and their own contributions in the field to a diverse audience. We asked the presenters to take a step back, and introduce their field, keeping in mind that most of the visitors would not be experts. The event was open to all MIT faculty, students and postdocs.
The MIT postdocs did not disappoint, and nearly 50 poster abstracts were submitted. The event attracted a sizable crowd, which led to ~2 hours of intense discussion and fruitful interaction. Postdocs and visitors alike were intrigued by the possibility to discover and learn about different areas of research and the ability to interact with experts in these fields.
The PDA also awarded prizes for the best posters adjudged by the fellow postdocs and PDA officers serving as judges. First prize, an iPad, was won by Gabriel Juarez, in the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, for his poster titled Biophysics of microbial oil degradation; The second prize, a$200 Amazon gift certificate, by Nicole Iverson for her poster on In Vivo Utilization of Near Infrared Fluorescent Single Walled Carbon nanotubes as Tissue Localizable Biosensors, And the third prize, a$50 Amazon gift card, by Xu Liu for his poster about Controlling Memory with Light.
We were also pleased to be able to organize a vendor fair that was collocated with the poster session, featuring vendors such as Westnet, Airgas and Digital Science. Several MIT services such as the Industrial Liaison Program (ILP) Work-life center and Spouse and Partners were also present to connect with postdocs. The vendor fair event also had a raffle at the end of the event and the winners were given amazing prizes like, i-Pad, Amazon gift cards, coffee maker and backpacks.
The PDA would like to thank all presenters, visitors as well as all volunteers that made the event possible, especially Suresh Maddur Ganesan , the PDA fundraising committee chair and David Engel, PDA community building chair. And as always we welcome comments and suggestions in preparation of the next year’s “Postdocs Share their Science” event. We hope to get your continued support for this event for the years to come.
Thomas Crouzier – PDA president