University of Kansas Postdoctoral Association

Welcome to the University of Kansas Postdoctoral Association. Our goals are to:

  • Improve postdoctoral training on the KU campuses by developing a variety of professional development activities.
  • Promote a community of postdocs on campus that will lead to fruitful interdisciplinary collaborations and help raise the national profile of the KU research community.
  • Ensure that opportunities at KU are open to all postdocs regardless of demographics.

Travel awards for 2013

The KU Postdoctoral Association (KPA) was pleased to sponsor two travel awards for $500 for travel to a scientific or professional development conference happening any time in 2013, judged by a panel of KU faculty. These were awarded to Geoffrey Akien and Katie Becklin-Atkinson, and we hope to be able to sponsor these awards again in 2014.

KU Postdoctoral Research Day & STEM Graduate & PhD Career Fair - Friday 15th March

This event was a resounding success, and we hope to organize this event next year. The abstracts for the talks and the posters are still available here.

Events

We normally run events at 12-1 pm on the last Friday of each month, but this sometimes changes so pay attention to your e-mail or check this page nearer the time. We try to supply free food for all our events, so to make sure we get our numbers right you need to tell us you are coming along by e-mailing us.

In past we've had speakers from the KU careers service, advice on grant-writing from academics and KU support services, as well as local companies to talk about opportunities in the area. We are always open to suggestions for new events, so if you have any good ideas please e-mail us.

Upcoming events

Calendar

The KUPostdocs calendar is public, so you can easily add it to your personal Google Calendar to save you from checking back here.

Previous events

The PowerPoint slides from one of our recent events, "Successful Academic Job Searches: Part II - From Job Ad to Application" are available here and here.

Our previous event, "Successful Academic Job Searches: Part I - Advice from the Search Committee" was recorded for the benefit of those who could not attend. To watch it, e-mail Bibhas Sarkhar (who helpfully arranged it) with your KU e-mail address so that you can be registered to watch it. Unfortunately we cannot make this available to those without a valid KU e-mail address.

Survey

We are interested in putting on the events that you want to see, so we've created a survey for you to be able to quickly give us your feedback. Any and all feedback is welcome!

Courtesy of SurveyMonkey.

Contact us

We are readily accessible by e-mail at KUPostdocs@gmail.com, and we have also have a group on LinkedIn. Alternatively, check out our #KUpostdocs Twitter feed.

Who are we?

The Executive Board is made up of:

  • Co-President and Founder: Jamie Alan (LinkedIn)
  • Co-President and Founder: Dyan Morgan (LinkedIn)
  • Treasurer and webmaster: Geoffrey Akien (LinkedIn)
  • Secretary: no-one yet! We are still actively looking to fill this position, so if you are an interested postdoc at KU feel free to contact us.
  • Faculty Advisor: Erik Lundquist, Professor Of Molecular Biosciences (group page).

The University of Kansas prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, national origin, age, ancestry, disability, status as a veteran, sexual orientation, marital status, parental status, gender identity, gender expression and genetic information in the University's programs and activities. The following person has been designated to handle inquiries regarding the non-discrimination policies: Director of the Office of Institutional Opportunity and Access, IOA@ku.edu, 1246 W. Campus Road, Room 153A, Lawrence, KS, 66045, (785)864-6414, 711 TTY.