The George Washington Post Doc Appreciation Day went virtual this year.
During this time of uncertainty, connecting with others has been difficult to say the least. This hugely successful event, however, brought together speakers and post-docs in a one day event in celebration, appreciation and education. From their homes, work offices, and labs, post docs from every George Washington School attended the event throughout the day to learn how to navigate post-doc life and beyond and familiarise themselves with research topics presented by their colleagues.
The morning began with welcoming words from Dean Wahlbeck from CCAS and Dean Lach from SEAS. Both highly engaging speakers provided much welcomed encouragement to the Post-Doc community. Our guest speakers provided interesting talks including “The art of negotiation” led by Dr. Joshua Weiss, “How to successfully transition from postdoc to PI” from Dr. Colin Young, and “Careers in government and the non-profit sector” by Dr. Lauren Ullrich. The morning session concluded with a presentation from James Chang from the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
During the afternoon session, post-docs were given the opportunity to present their research topics. A total of 9 highly motivated post-docs volunteered to educate the community as to what exactly their research entails. The day concluded with an awards ceremony. Prizes were awarded on the best research talks of the day, as well as an appreciated mentor of the year. Sharon George won first place for her talk “Sexual dimorphism in the roles of p38 MAPK isoforms in Doxorubicin”. Second place went to Gaige Kerr presenting ““Impact of coronavirus lockdowns on air pollution:Successes and challenges for environmental inequality in the US”, and third was awarded to Preethi Bala Balakrishanan for her talk “Nanoparticle-based photothermal therapy combined with agonistic
immunotherapy: a novel treatment strategy for aPD-1 non-responder in latestage melanoma”. Finally, Dr. Rodriguez was presented the mentor of the year award, and provided closing remarks, concluding a very successful Post Doc Appreciation Day.
