Argonne Postdoctoral Blog

The National Postdoc Appreciation Week (NPAW) is approaching, and the NPAW committee has been hard at work to organize a great series of events. Please check the schedule below to see the details for each event and sign up!

2024 NPAW Event Schedule

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     Relive the highlights from 2023 with us.

The Postdoctoral Society of Argonne (PSA) held the annual postdoctoral research and career symposium on November 9^th, 2023.  This in-person event had a great turnout where 173 postdoctoral researchers registered to attend the event. Out of the attending postdoctoral researchers, 80 presented their research via poster presentations from divisions around the lab.

The symposium highlighted research performed at Argonne as well as at partnering institutions and allowed participants to network with representatives from industry and research institutions, giving them the opportunity to understand different career paths relationships.

2023 PSA president, Claire Chang, opened the event and the welcome remarks were given by Laboratory Director Paul K. Kearns. Dr. Kearns conveyed to the postdoctoral participants the crucial role they play in the Argonne community and our capacity to make pivotal discoveries, pursue pioneering leadership, and advance science on a large scale. He emphasized that the success of postdocs is intertwined with the success of the laboratory, encouraging them to focus on their careers and explore the numerous ways they can apply their skills.

The Keynote Speaker was Dr. Dava Keavney, program manager at the U.S. Department of Energy. Dr. Keavney began with a brief introduction to the DOE’s research priorities, followed by sharing her own career journey as a researcher. She detailed her career, starting as a postdoc at Argonne, and then transitioning between roles in universities, national labs, and government positions. She also shared valuable lessons she learned throughout her career: “career paths only make sense in retrospect,” “your science could have impacts you don’t anticipate,” “your science will not speak for itself,” and “your psychological safety is as important as your physical safety.” The talk concluded with a lively question and answer session, covering pivotal skills for early-career scientists, opportunities for research policy fellowships, and science communication skills.

Postdocs had the chance to interact and network during a networking lunch with 12 different companies, national labs, and universities: Argonne National Lab, Corvid Technologies, Exponent, Ecolab, Great Lakes Crystal Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Idaho National Laboratory, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute, KLA, Kurt J. Lesker, and Northwestern University.

An in-person career panel featured some Argonne alumni working in DOE/National Labs, “traditional” academia, and “nontraditional” PhD level science careers. Career panelists were:

• Professor Tobin Marks, Northwestern University
• Ilke Arslan, Argonne National Laboratory
• Ming Du, Argonne National Laboratory
• Professor Christos D. Malliakas, Northwestern University
• Pallab Barai, Argonne National Laboratory
• Vivian S. Sullivan, Argonne National Laboratory

The panel focused on diverse career paths in an academic and national laboratory setting, and how to navigate through challenges and instability as postdoctoral researchers. The panelists shared their experiences in career development, highlighted the most valuable aspects when hiring early-career scientists, and emphasized the importance of maintaining passion and flexibility in career development.

Ming discussed his journey from an Argonne postdoc to industry and then back to Argonne as a computational scientist. He stressed the importance of adjusting your expectations based on your workplace. Pallab shared his experience of securing a staff scientist position as a postdoc at Argonne. He emphasized the need to communicate your goals to others so that they can assist you when opportunities arise. Vivian offered advice on building scientific skills from her perspective as a funding program manager. Ilke, Tobin, and Christos provided guidance on being a long-term scientist: don’t be afraid of career transitions, follow your passion, and foster collaborations with people from different backgrounds. Additionally, all the panelists shared their experiences of overcoming failures in their careers, highlighting the importance of learning from mistakes, being persistent, and finding the positives in challenging situations.

Poster presentations at the symposium gave participants the opportunity to showcase their research to a broad audience and provided an opportunity to practice valuable communication skills. Presentations were judged for overall appearance and quality, topic organization, and clarity. Additionally, the question answer (Q&A) component of presentation was evaluated based on the presenter’s expressed knowledgeability and communication skills. This year, nine individuals were selected to receive awards for outstanding presentations. The works also demonstrate the wide diversity of research conducted by Argonne postdocs and visiting postdocs/graduate students:

• Joshua Christopher,TAPS Transportation and Power Systems, Impacts of Hydrogen-Natural Gas Fuel Blends on Fuel-Air Stratification and Flame Properties in a Microturbine Combustor
• Kevin Brown, MCS Mathematics and Computer Science, The Kronos Project: Hybrid Discrete Event Simulations
• Tyler Eastmond,XSD X-Ray Science Division, Development of Electrical Resistivity Measurements at Extreme Conditions in a Paris-Edinburgh Press
• Tugba Isik, XSD X-Ray Science Division, Cryogenic Focused Ion Beam (cryo-PFIB) Supported X-ray Microscopy for Discoveries in Multi-Dimensional Biological Systems
• Akilesh Venkatesh, CSE Chemical Sciences and Engineering, Resonant Elastic X-Ray Scattering from Intense Ultrafast Pulses
• Danielle Hutchison, CSE Chemical Sciences and Engineering, Synthesis of Single Crystal Lithium Neptunates from Aqueous Lithium Hydroxide Solutions Under Mild Hydrothermal Conditions
• Jessica Catherine Jones, MSD Materials Science Division, Site-Selective Atomic Layer Deposition on TiO2 Surfaces
• Tupendra Kumar Oli, HEP High Energy Physics, Investigation of the Use of SVM Models and Devices in Future HEP Experiments
• Archit Kumar Vasan, ALCF Argonne Leadership Computing Facility, Scalable Lead Prediction with Transformers Using HPC Resources

The Annual Postdoctoral Research and Career Symposium would not be possible without the support of our sponsors and participating companies.  Postdoc volunteers who served on the 2023 committee include:

• Symposium organizing committee co-chairs Julia Neumann (CSE) and Cailin Buchanan (MSD)
• Invited speakers and panels led by Oleksandr Narykov (DSL) with team members Srutarshi Banerjee (XSD), Sagar Bhatt (AMD), Shana Havenridge (CSE), Tugba Isik (XSD), and Mustafa Unal (MSD)
• Marketing and publications led by Tyler Haddock (CSE) with team members Nwamaka Okafor (LCF), and Caroline Williams (MSE)
• Technical programs led by Chandrachur Bhattacharya (HEP) and Sajag Poudel (ESI) with team members Ayorinde Ajiboye (AMD), Tai-Yuan Huang (ESI), and Robert Underwood (MCS)
• Companies outreach and networking led by Michael Dziekan (AMD), with team members Frederick Agyapong-Fordjour (MSD), Chiara Bissolotti (HEP), Farah Ferdaus (MCS), Luke Johnson (TPS), Sixbert Muhoza (AMD), Oli Tupendra (HEP), and Katerina Vriza (NST)
• Community engagement led by Joshua Christopher (TPS), with team members Nicole Byrne (CSE), and Kumar Neeraj (MSD)

And of course, nothing would be possible without the help from:

• Tina Henne, Postdoctoral Program Lead
• Kathy Eggers, Executive Secretary
• Lynnean Celmer, Event planner

The Postdoctoral Society of Argonne issues a call for abstracts for the 2024 symposium being held November 21^st, 2024.

All abstracts must be submitted by September 2^nd. To submit your abstract, please see the abstract template and send your abstract, in this format, to [email protected]. Please additionally include your name and division in the email. Everyone should receive a confirmation email by late September. Further information and dates are included in the registration packet. Abstracts should highlight original research, quality improvement projects, evidence-based practice, or programmatic innovations.

Please note that Argonne researchers MUST submit both the abstract and presentation to PANDA for approval before presenting at the event.

We look forward to receiving many abstracts representing the broad variety of exciting research performed at Argonne!

Shana Havenridge & Songrui Hou

2024 Postdoc Research and Career Symposium Organizing Committee Co-Chairs

Greetings, Postdocs! Since beginning our roles this year, we (the 2024 officers) have collaborated to establish a set of goals for the upcoming year. These were selected to further improve experiences for post-docs across the laboratory and follow up on our individual platforms. This year, we want to ensure that you are all given opportunities to interact with your fellow postdocs, develop professionally, and share any concerns you may have related to your postdoc position. Given those goals, we have developed the following list of priorities. If you’re interested in advancing these goals by serving on a PSA committee or want to get involved in another way, please reach out to Allen, our Engagement Officer. 

1. Career Development: We will continue annual career development events like the Postdoctoral Research and Career Symposium and National Postdoc Appreciation Week, as well as coordinate with the Postdoctoral program office to introduce informal events for postdocs to connect, discuss, and practice career development skills. Please check the career development survey that was sent out on Monday, February 19th from the Postdoc Program Office.  
2. Social: To continue building connections among Argonne postdocs, we plan to introduce additional social opportunities. In addition to the weekly fitness socials, we will introduce weekly social lunches, Members-at-Large hosted coffee events, and larger events (think pizza, bowling, etc!). Starting Friday, February 23rd, you can join one of the PSA officers every Friday for lunch from 12-1 pm in the cafeteria for casual conversation. To keep up-to-date with upcoming events, check our online calendar. 
3. DEIA: Further improving diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) within the postdoc community at Argonne is crucial. We are actively seeking collaboration with other Employee Resource Groups and divisional DEIA groups to understand how PSA can become more engaged in DEIA efforts on campus. 
4. Transportation: We know getting to, from, and around campus is a challenge for many postdocs. We aim to leverage the PSA’s reach to identify possible solutions to this challenge and engage with leadership to enact these solutions. 
5. Engagement: To strengthen lines of communication between postdocs at the laboratory, we’ve appointed Members-at-Large for 11 divisions, who will serve as liaisons between the PSA board and their divisions. Members-at-Large will work to promote PSA events in their divisions and communicate any issues they hear from postdocs to the board. We will start featuring Members-at-Large in the weekly PSA newsletter so that the broader community can learn who their point person is.   
6. Climate Survey: While we believe focusing on these priorities will benefit postdocs across the laboratory, each postdoc faces unique challenges these may not address. To help better understand postdocs’ needs, we will update and carry out a new Climate Survey. Our goal with this comprehensive survey is to get real data about what postdocs want, ultimately allowing officers to know what initiatives to prioritize. 

As the year progresses, we are sure additional topics will arise. To share your views, please feel free to join our monthly PSA board meetings which occur the third Monday of every month from 1-2 pm.  

Thanks again for your trust in us! 

Your 2024 PSA Officers (Cailin, Sixbert, Wilkie, Evelyna, and Allen) 

Looking for a new read to discuss with other post-docs at the laboratory? Look no further than the inaugural meeting of the Book Club, hosted by Claire Wei-Ju! Claire provided the following to introduce the book club and its choice of novel for the first meeting:

As we prepare for our inaugural meeting, we invite you to join us in exploring the themes of societal challenges and ethical dilemmas within the first five chapters of Aldous Huxley’s timeless novel, “Brave New World.” Together, let’s embark on a journey of discovery and reflection, delving into the intricate layers of this dystopian masterpiece. Our discussions will be a safe space to share thoughts, feelings, and experiences surrounding these thought-provoking topics. Let’s come together to learn and brainstorm actionable ways to promote empathy and understanding in our communities. Your presence and participation are invaluable as we begin this literary exploration together.

Be sure to join the Book Club for its inaugural meeting on March 7th, at noon in Bldg. 201 room 2J09-T. The first meeting will discuss chapters 1-5.