Postdoctoral student Jens Schmidt works on his cancer research at the Cech Lab in the Jennie Smoly Caruthers Biotechnology Building in 2016.
Sept. 18–22 marks the eighth annual National Postdoc Appreciation Week (NPAW). In light of the significant contributions made by postdocs, the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs (OPA) and Postdoctoral Association of Colorado would like to thank CU Boulder postdocs during NPAW by highlighting their research during Postdoc Appreciation Day events Sept. 21.
Who: Postdocs, mentors and family members
What: Postdoc Appreciation Day events
When: Thursday, Sept. 21, 2 to 6 p.m.
Where: Koenig Alumni Center
RSVP: Requested
Community members and postdoc alumni are invited to attend the networking hour from 2 to 3:30 p.m.
Institutions across the nation use NPAW to raise awareness and acknowledge the hard work and substantial contributions that postdocs make to the national (and international) research and teaching enterprise.
The postdoctoral training period allows researchers to focus on their research and career development, transforming them into major drivers of research productivity.
Postdocs at CU Boulder are impacting the research landscape not only by growing the body of knowledge in the social, physical and biological sciences, as well as engineering and mathematics, but also by making significant contributions advancing technology, infrastructure and policy worldwide.
Postdoc Appreciation Day events, awards
Postdocs and their mentors and family members are invited to attend Postdoc Appreciation Day events, including a networking hour, two-minute flash talks of postdoc research, presentation of Outstanding Postdoc and Mentor awards, lawn games and dinner.
Postdocs can sign up for the Flash Talk Competition. The top two talks will be selected by secret ballot of those present, and competition winners will each recieve a $50 Visa gift card.
Two postdocs will be awarded with the 2017 Outstanding Postdoc Award, which comes with a $250 Visa gift card. Postdocs are encouraged to nominate their mentors for the 2017 Outstanding Mentor Award. Learn more or apply online. The awards will be announced during Postdoc Appreciation Day.
CU Boulder postdocs making waves
Ed Marti helped develop the most accurate atomic clock built to date as a JILA postdoc. Featured on ABC News and in Cosmos Magazine as one of the top 10 tech stories of 2015, the Sr-based optical lattice clock will remain accurate to the second for 15 billion years: the approximate age of the universe. Marti’s technological advancement could be used to improve global navigation systems like the global positioning system (GPS), global computing and quantum physics research.
Kimberly Rogers, a postdoctoral scholar at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR), is investigating the interactions between human and natural systems in deltas. Rogers’ research has far-reaching implications for infrastructure governance and responses to climate-related coastal flooding and has been featured in Slate and Environmental Health Perspectives.
Aaron Palumbo, a postdoc in Chemical and Biological Engineering, developed a new method for extracting magnesium metal from ore—the first revamping of magnesium extraction beyond a World War II-era process. Palumbo's research led to the foundation of Big Blue Technologies, and he currently serves as its CEO as well as the executive vice president at Nevada Clean Magnesium.
