By Benjamin Nault
The Postdoctoral Association of Colorado, Boulder (PAC Boulder), in partnership with the NIST Postdoctoral and Early-career Association of Researchers (PEAR), held the first ever Front Range Industry and Postdoctoral Summit (FRIPS) on September 27, 2018. The purpose of the event was to bring postdoctoral researchers and industry together for postdoctoral researchers to learn about careers outside of academia, to network, and to create potential collaborations. Nearly 100 postdoctoral researchers from CU Boulder, Colorado State University, CU Anschutz, NOAA, NIST, NREL, and other institutes both within and outside of Colorado attended, along with nearly 20 industrial representatives, making the first FRIPS very successful. The biggest thing said by many of the industrial representatives was that they had wished they had an event like FRIPS when they were in graduate school and postdoctoral research, to better learn about careers outside academia.
We are hoping to make this an annual event, as both industry and postdoctoral researchers indicated that this was a needed and enjoyed event. We have started our preliminary planning for FRIPS 2019, which includes increasing our industrial contacts and attendance, and improving aspects of the event.
If you are interested in assisting in planning FRIPS 2019, please contact either the president of PAC Boulder, Benjamin Nault (benjamin.nault@colorado.edu), the president of PEAR, Jasper Drisko (jasper.drisko@nist.gov), or mastermind behind FRIPS, Callie Higgins (callie.higgins@nist.gov).