The 2016 UCSF Postdoc Symposium showcased some of the most innovative and exciting research being done by Postdoctoral Scholars at UCSF. In a daylong event held at Genentech Hall on June 17th that gathered over 200 attendees, including Postdocs from all campuses: Mission Bay, Parnassus, SFGH and Mt. Zion, Graduate Students and Principal Investigators. Posters and selected talks by postdocs represented the wide range of research that Postdoctoral Scholars do at UCSF.
TEDMed 2015 speaker, Laura Schmidt, PhD, was the opening keynote. Laura Schmidt is a Professor at UCSF and Sugar Scientist questioned whether consumers have freedom of choice when it comes to sugar intake and food consumption, and stressing the importance of combining research and policy to create better evidence-based policies.
In between outstanding scientific talks by postdocs and the poster session, there was time to discuss the future of postdoc research with panelists Panel session: Gary McDowell (Future of Research), Katie Peer-Thompson (P-value and Women in Life Sciences) and Dmytro Lituiev (Postdoc Union).
Paul Ekman, UCSF Professor Emeritus in Psychology, discussed how his postdoctoral training at UCSF in the early 1960s, served him as a launchpad for his lifelong research on nonverbal communication. And closed the event with a tip for all postdocs -‘immerse yourselves in the data, until it speaks to you. Your postdoc is a launching pad, be a pionneer!’- he said.
The Symposium was organized by at the time UCSF postdocs Luke Bonser, Björn Harink, Kate Lowe, Elena Minones-Moyano, Julie Roignot & Andrea Serra-Marques.
The organizers would like to thank everyone who attended the Postdoc Research Symposium 2016 making it such a successful and interactive event, Christine Des Jarlais and UCSF Postdoc Office (https://postdocs.ucsf.edu) for the support and help throughout the planning and on the event day, as well as all the volunteers that helped out on the day.
Also a big thank you to all the Sponsors that made the event possible
