A postdoctoral scholar presenting her research to her audience.

UC Davis Postdoctoral Scholars Shared Their Research at the First Annual Postdoctoral Research Symposium

June 02, 2015

Quick Summary

The inaugural event showcased UC Davis postdoctoral research in topics ranging from advances in stem cell research to the progress in environmental science and policy.

UC Davis has a large community of approximately 840 postdoctoral scholars who conduct ground-breaking research and contribute greatly to the University’s research enterprise. Despite these impacts, postdocs from across campus seldom have the opportunity to share their research with each other or the broader campus community. In order to highlight and celebrate the excellent postdoctoral research carried out at UC Davis, Kaisa Kajala, a postdoctoral scholar in Plant Biology and a Professors for the Future (PFTF) fellow, organized the inaugural UC Davis Postdoctoral Research Symposium on May 14, 2015. The symposium was Dr. Kajala’s project for the PFTF program and generated an enthusiastic response among other postdocs. An eight-member organizing committee was formed and 120 abstracts were submitted for oral presentations and posters exceeding the event capacity and further demonstrating the desire for postdocs to get together to share their research. Over 270 attended the event which was generously supported by funding from UC Davis colleges, offices, and schools.

The symposium showcased top-quality postdoctoral research taking place at UC Davis, and the diverse topics ranged from advances in stem cell research to the progress in environmental science and policy. The symposium included 54 short talks divided into nine themed sessions, where researchers succinctly presented their work to general science audience. In addition to these brief talks, 50 posters created by postdoctoral researchers from a variety of fields were presented at the poster session, allowing researchers to communicate their work in a more conversational format. The interdisciplinary nature of the symposium and format that brought together researchers from similar themes was well-received, and the conversation about research continued into the lunch break and the social hour at the end of the day. Many attendees felt that the symposium was an unprecedented opportunity for postdoctoral researchers to meet and learn from each other. The symposium also served as great training opportunity for postdocs who volunteered as session chairs, abstract raters, presentation judges and for other organizational aspects, bringing the event together as a celebration of postdoctoral excellence at UC Davis.

The day was crowned by the Awards Ceremony, where the best presentations of the day were awarded and prestigious campus- and UC-wide postdoctoral awards were presented. Vice Provost of Graduate Education and Dean of Graduate Studies Jeffery C. Gibeling presented two scholars with the Award for Excellence in Postdoctoral Research, an honor presented to postdoctoral scholars for their outstanding research at UC Davis. Parth H. Pathak received the award for his contributions in the field of computer science and Hyeong-Moo Shin for his research in public health sciences. Dean Gibeling also recognized four awardees of the very prestigious Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, a fellowship given to postdoctoral researchers who specifically focus on developing modes of public service that address the current state of our society, advancing the potential accesses to higher education, and understanding inequalities that deal with factors of race, gender, disabilities, or the LGBT community. The four recipients were Javier Arbona for his research of military landscapes in American Studies, Lindsey Dillion for her work in examining the geographies of toxic waste in American Studies, Sarah Hird for her research of microbial biodiversity at the Genome Center, and Felipe Godinez for his development of a high image resolution positron emission tomography scanning for human extremities in Biomedical Engineering.

Based on the merit of their presentations and posters, 14 symposium participants were presented with Best Talk or Best Poster Awards along with a prize of $500.