Keynote | Plenaries | Concurrent Workshops | Innovation in Action Discussion Topics

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Agenda*

Friday, March 15

Saturday, March 16

Sunday, March 17

Download the Agenda at a Glance.

View the 2013 Annual Meeting workshop presentations.

*Agenda is subject to change.

Keynote Speaker

Paula Stephan, Ph.D.

Named 2012 Person of the Year by Science Careers
Professor, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University
Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research
Visiting Faculty Member, Department of Economics S. Cognetti de Martiis, University of Turin, Italy

Paula Stephan, Ph.D., is professor of economics, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University, a research associate, National Bureau of Economic Research, and a visiting faculty member, Department of Economics S. Cognetti de Martiis, University of Turin, Italy. Her research interests focus on the careers of scientists and engineers and the process by which knowledge moves across institutional boundaries in the economy.

Stephan is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the Board of Reviewing Editors, Science. Her book How Economics Shapes Science was published by Harvard University Press, 2012.

Stephan currently serves on the National Research Council Board on Higher Education and Workforce and on the Committee to Review the State of the Postdoctoral Experience for Scientists and Engineers. She served on the National Advisory General Medical Sciences Council, National Institutes of Health, 2006-2009, and served on the Advisory Committee of the Social, Behavioral, and Economics Program, National Science Foundation, 2001-2008. She was a member of the European Commission High-Level Expert Group that authored the report "Frontier Research: The European Challenge." She has served on a number of National Research Council committees including the committee on Dimensions, Causes, and Implications of Recent Trends in the Careers of Life Scientists, Committee on Methods of Forecasting Demand and Supply of Doctoral Scientists and Engineers, and the Committee on Policy Implications of International Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Scholars in the United States. Her research has been supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellow Foundation, and the National Science Foundation.

Stephan has published numerous articles in journals such as The American Economic Review, The Journal of Economic Literature, Management Science, Nature, Organization Science, and Science. She co-wrote, with Sharon Levin, Striking the Mother Lode in Science, Oxford University Press, 1992.

She graduated from Grinnell College (Phi Beta Kappa) with a B.A. in Economics and earned both her M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Michigan. She has been a visiting scholar at Katholeike Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, a Wertheim Fellow, Harvard University, and an ICER fellow, Turin, Italy.

Plenary Speakers

Plenary Session I: Tools and Resources for Achieving Core Competencies 

The NPA Core Competencies offer guidance to individual postdoctoral scholars who must seek out relevant training experiences and to the mentors, institutions, and other advisors who provide this training.  This plenary will highlight new tools and resources that have been developed to assist early career researchers in achieving high levels of competency and advancement of their careers, including the new Science Careers online tool myIDP, the Research Development Framework (RDF) developed by Vitae, and the SciPhD industry self-assessment tool. 

Speakers:

Philip S. Clifford, Ph.D.

Associate Dean, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and Professor of Anesthesiology and Physiology, Medical College of Wisconsin
NPA Advisory Council Member

Philip S. Clifford, Ph.D., is associate dean of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and professor of anesthesiology and physiology at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW). As associate dean, he oversees professional and career development for postdoctoral scholars and graduate students. A long-time National Postdoctoral Association (NPA) member, Clifford serves on the NPA's Finance Committee and has organized the Innovation in Action sessions at the NPA Annual Meeting for several years. In 2012 he was honored with the NPA Distinguished Service Award. He contributed to the development of some of the key documents used in the postdoctoral community including the NPA Postdoctoral Core Competencies, the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) Individual Development Plan for postdoctoral fellows, and the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Graduate Research, Education, and Training (GREAT) Group "Compact Between Postdoctoral Appointees and Their Mentors." He is a coauthor of the recently launched career Web site, myIDP.sciencecareers.org. He completed his postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Dallas, Texas. His research investigating the physiological mechanisms regulating skeletal muscle blood flow during exercise has been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the American Heart Association, and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Alison Mitchell

Director of Development, Vitae, United Kingdom

Alison Mitchell is director of development at Vitae, realising the potential of researchers, working with institutions across the United Kingdom, and promoting world class researcher development. As head of the Postgraduate Research Office, University of Strathclyde, she established the university-wide framework for developing researchers, managed the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Collaborative and Knowledge Transfer Accounts, and led researchers in high technology SMEs. Mitchell leads major Vitae projects including the Vitae Researcher Development Framework and Planner, the Every Researchers Counts equality and diversity programme, and Enterprise and Intrapreneurship. At the University of Glasgow, she was engaged in national and international postgraduate recruitment, and student support. She is a member of the Institute of Knowledge Transfer and Chartered Management Institute, a fellow of the Association of University Administrators, and an associate fellow of the University of Warwick.

Randall K. Ribaudo, Ph.D.

Co-founder, SciPhD Training Programs, President, CEO, Human Workflows, LLC

Human Workflows and SciPhD co-founder, Randall Ribaudo, Ph.D., has over 20 years of experience in the Scientific Research and biotechnology field, and has successfully made the transition from academia to industry. He co-founded Human Workflows after more than five years at Celera Genomics. During his time at Celera, Ribaudo has acted as a liaison between Celera and the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and academic communities; served as product manager responsible for developing support products for the Proteomics Groups mass spectrometry software; led the iScience Task Force to define strategic directions for sister company Applied Biosystems; advised on product development for the Celera Discovery System and enterprise solutions for information integration; and worked as a Manager of Strategic Solutions in the Informatics business.

Prior to Celera, he worked at the biotechnology and bioinformatics company Molecular Applications Group (MAG). MAG developed pioneering bioinformatics solutions for molecular modeling, information integration, gene expression analysis, and protein function prediction. While at MAG, he was responsible for presenting the revolutionary capabilities of MAG's products to representatives in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and academic communities.

He also has extensive experience in the academic biological life sciences arena as well. After receiving a Ph.D. in Immunology at the University of Connecticut, he joined the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Laboratory of Immunology where he studied the molecular basis of antigen presentation. Ribaudo then accepted a position in the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in the Laboratory of Immune Cell Biology as a Principal Investigator where he developed his own research program studying the immune response to viruses and tumors, leading a team of postdoctoral fellows, technicians, and University and High School students. His work at the NCI led to the development of a novel technology to develop vaccines against tumors and viruses. He holds patents for this technology which are now being further developed by private companies.

 Plenary Session II: Mentoring for Diversity, Mentoring for Success

Sponsored by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Tillman is a recognized leader in the field of mentoring with a proven record of advocating for best practices for mentoring diverse faculty. The objective for this plenary is twofold: (1) to recognize the challenges and perceptions faced by diverse groups and (2) to provide solutions to overcome these challenges through mentoring.

Speaker:

Linda Tillman, Ph.D.

Professor of Educational Leadership, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Linda C. Tillman, Ph.D., is a native of Columbus, Ohio. She earned a bachelor's degree in secondary education, a Ph.D. in educational leadership and policy studies from The Ohio State University, and a master's degree in educational administration from the University of Dayton. She is a full professor in the Educational Leadership Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a former vice president of Division A (Administration, Organization, and Leadership) of the American Educational Research Association and the former associate director of Graduate Student Development for the University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA).

Much of her scholarship focuses on mentoring teachers, administrators, graduate students, and faculty. As Division A vice president, she instituted the Early Career Mentoring Workshop which is designed to assist pre-tenure faculty in understanding and preparing for the requirements for the promotion and tenure process. As director of Graduate Student Development for UCEA, she directed the Barbara L. Jackson Scholars program, a mentoring initiative aimed at increasing the pipeline of graduate students of color who enter the professorate in the fields of educational leadership, policy studies, and higher education administration.

Tillman has mentored numerous graduate students and pre-tenure faculty across the country, and regularly participates in mentoring seminars and workshops at national conferences, has served as a mentor to Barbara Jackson Scholars, and advises campus level and unit level administrators on mentoring strategies that will facilitate a diverse faculty and a community of scholars. She was recognized for her commitment to mentoring when she received the 2009 Jay D. Scribner Mentoring Award from the University Council for Educational Administration.

Tillman is also a nationally and internationally recognized scholar. She has published in numerous peer reviewed journals and is the editor-in-chief of the SAGE Handbook of African American Education, the first comprehensive collection of scholarship written by African American scholars and leaders on the education of African Americans. She is also the co-editor (with Len Foster) of the edited book African American perspectives on schools: Building a culture of empowerment which explores the various dimensions of school leadership and educational policy, and co-editor (with James Scheurich) of the forthcoming Handbook of Research on Educational Leadership for Diversity and Equity.

Concurrent Workshops

This year's Call for Workshop Proposals was competitive, with over 30 proposals submitted for 15 slots. The slate of workshops offers sessions for postdocs, postdoc offices, postdoc associations, and "all." The workshops are organized by the NPA's recommended audience, but attendees should feel free to attend any of the workshops. (This list is subject to change.)

Postdoctoral Scholars

Academia to Entrepreneur: How to Start Your Own Company
A Postdoc's Guide to NPA's Resources: Everything Postdocs Need to Know!

Postdoctoral Offices (PDOs)

A Coaching Approach to Postdoctoral Scholar Engagement and Development

Postdoctoral Associations (PDAs)

Orientation Strategies for Effectively Integrating Postdocs into Your Institution (also for PDOs)

All Audiences

Data on Postdocs in the United States: Where Have We Been, and Where Are We Headed?
Expand Your Research and Presentation Capabilities Using Prezi
Getting What We Want Without Being a Jerk: The Elements of Assertiveness
How to Advocate for Postdocs
Job Offer Negotiation Skills for the Scientist
Negotiating for Equal Pay in the Postdoctoral Community and Beyond
Far from the Homeland: How Helping Internationals Adjust to Academic Life in the United States also Benefits Training of All Postdocs
Postdoc Diversity: A Solution for Faculty Diversity
Setting Expectation and Managing Conflicts in Research Teams
Straddling Two Worlds: Addressing the Needs of First-Generation Scholars
Top 10 Behavior Mistakes for Interpersonal Communications

Innovation in Action Small Group Discussion Sessions

Session I

You will be asked to choose one of these sessions during registration.

Communicating with Postdocs
Engaging Postdocs and Faculty
Facilitating Good Mentoring Practices by Postdocs
New Postdoc Associations and Offices
Postdoc Onboarding and Orientation
What is the mission of your PDA/PDO?

Session II

Professional Development
This discussion will focus on topics, ideas, resources, speakers, and use of the Core Competencies as a basis for professional development.