Postdocs Continue to Connect with Research Talks, Industry Networking, and Career Advice at the 2021 Virtual Postdoctoral Research and Career Symposium

The Postdoctoral Society of Argonne (PSA) held the Annual Postdoctoral Research and Career Symposium on November 4th and 5th, 2021.  This virtual event had a great turnout where 163 postdoctoral researchers from Argonne as well as from universities across the nation registered to attend the event.  Additionally, 56 postdoctoral researchers from 14 divisions presented their research via recorded presentations followed by live Q&A sessions on Teams. The symposium highlighted research performed at Argonne as well as at partnering institutions. The symposium also allowed participants to network with representatives from industry and research institutions, giving them the opportunity to understand different career paths and engage in long-lasting professional relationships.

Symposium Co-Chair Prajay Patel (Chemical Sciences and Engineering) opened the event, and the welcome remarks were given by Laboratory Deputy Director Stephen Streiffer. Streiffer highlighted the importance of postdoctoral researchers for enabling world class science at Argonne and encouraged postdocs to build networks, explore careers, and learn from the Argonne Alumni who participated in the symposium as company representatives and career panelists.

The announcement slide for the keynote presentation with Dr. Linda Horton.

Our Keynote Speaker this year was Dr. Linda Horton, the Associate Director of Science for Basic Energy Sciences in the Department of Energy Office of Science. Dr. Horton spoke about her career path and current work as the Associate Director of Science and featured some of her important mentors. She noted the wide expanse of resources available to current postdocs ranging from digitally accessible research articles to virtual conference attendance to facilitated networking. Dr. Horton also highlighted the many funding opportunities for Basic Energy Sciences currently available, as well as career opportunities for current postdocs interested in Department of Energy leadership.

Postdocs had the chance to interact and network with 13 different companies and national labs: Aramco Americas, Bruker Nano Science, Cerebras Systems, Corning Inc., General Motors, Hewlett Packard Labs, Honeywell-UOP, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Lam Research Corporation, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Phillips 66, and Spectral Sciences Inc.There were three career panels featuring some Argonne alumni working in DOE/National Labs, “traditional” academia/industry R&D, and “nontraditional” PhD level science careers. The panels were:

DOE/National Lab Panel

  • Giselle Sandi, Deputy Division Director, Chemical Sciences and Engineering, Argonne National Lab
  • Ashley Head, Associate Scientist, Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Brookhaven National Lab
  • Anibal Boscoboinik, Staff Scientist, Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Brookhaven National Lab
  • Paulina Rychenkova, Business Development Executive, Argonne National Lab
  • Paul Albertus, previous Program Director, Advanced Research Programs Agency – Energy, US Department of Energy

Academia/Industry R&D Panel

  • Kiran Sasikumar, Researcher, Avant-garde Materials Simulation
  • Matt Smylie, Assistant Professor of Physics, Hofstra University
  • Sarah Phan-Budd, Associate Professor of Physics, Winona State University
  • Santanu Chaudhuri, Professor of Materials Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago
  • Badri Narayanan, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, University of Louisville

Nontraditional Career Panel

  • Aaron Fluitt, Senior Manager, Initiative Development, Argonne National Lab
  • Aeraj Haque, Senior Patent Agent/Patent Law Clerk, Foley & Lardner LLP
  • Jenny Morber, Freelance Science Writer and Journalist
  • Joseph Barforoush, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, Avium LLC
  • James Dolan, Science Communicator, King’s College, University of Cambridge
  • David Nackashi, Chief Executive Officer, Protochips

 

These panels focused on the differences in between academia and national lab environments, development strategies for current Argonne postdocs, the hiring process for academic institutions with an emphasis on researching the institution for academic job applications, as well as the necessity for an open mindset and short-term goals while traversing and planning the career path. All the panels discussed developing a high-quality professional network and how their network helped shaped their career paths, whether for asking for reference and recommendation letters or hearing about job positions via word-of-mouth. One of the key takeaway messages as stated by Nackashi during the nontraditional career panel was that “picking a career where I could surround myself with mentors and colleagues who constantly challenged my understanding of things was very important.”

Research presentations at the symposium gave participants the opportunity to showcase their research to a wider 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, six individuals were selected to receive awards for outstanding virtual presentations. The works also demonstrate the wide diversity of research conducted by Argonne postdocs and visiting postdocs/graduate students:

  • David Lenz (Mathematics and Computer Science Division) “Improving Scientific Data Analysis with Functional Approximations​”
  • Rakesh Krishnamoorthy Iyer (Energy Systems Division) “Vehicle-cycle and life-cycle analysis of Class 6 vocational trucks: Conventional, hybrid and electric​”
  • Ethan Kamphaus (Materials Science Division) “Site-Selective Atomic Layer Deposition On Rutile TiO2 Via Selective Hydration​”
  • Daniel Trainer (Nanoscience and Technology Division) “Manipulating topology in tailored artificial graphene nanoribbons​”
    Michael Ricketts (Environmental Science Division) “The Biofuel Crop Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) Genot
  • ype x Environment Interactions and Soil Bacterial Community Associations​”
  • Lily Robertson (Chemical Sciences and Engineering Division) “Dimeric Redoxmersthat Self-Report Flow Battery State of Health”

The CrowdCompass app provided a landing point for Postdocs to interact with others’ virtual presentations and industry representatives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The CrowdCompass app provided a landing point for Postdocs to interact with others’ virtual presentations and industry representatives.

After the closing remarks made by Symposium Co-Chair Pallavi Bobba (ES) and Deputy Director Stephen Streiffer, a trivia social hour took place where Carla Mann, Tony Montoya, and Lily Robertson received prizes for being the top scorers.

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 2021 committee included: Pallavi Bobba (Energy Systems Division) and Prajay Patel (Chemical Sciences and Engineering Division), Symposium Co-chairs; Amanda Carr (Chemical Sciences and Engineering Divsion) and Saurabh Saxena (Applied Materials Division), Invited Speakers and Panels Co-Leads; Pubudu Walamasiri (Chemical Sciences and Engineering Division), Marketing and Publications Lead; Ganesh Tiwari (Accelerator Systems Division), Natalia Zuniga (Energy Systems Division), and Ahsan Ali (Data Science and Learning Division), Technical Programs Co-Leads; Jessica Lamb (Chemical Sciences and Engineering Division), and Mark Meijerink (Nanoscience and Technology Division), Companies Outreach and Networking Co-Leads; Sami Khairy (Mathematics and Computer Science Division) and Shishir Kumar (Energy Systems Division), Community Engagement Co-Leads. The Postdoctoral Society of Argonne issues a call for volunteers in the months leading up to the symposium starting in March/April. All postdocs interested in planning next year’s event are encouraged to contact their PSA officers.

Looking Back with Former Argonne Postdocs who Continued to Staff: Advice for Today’s Postdocs*

 

Top Row: Dr. Julie Carrera, Dr. Ahmet Uysal, Dr. Leighanne Gallington, Dr. Gregory Halder, Dr. Gina Magnotti. Middle Row: Dr. Stefan Wild, Dr. Alex Martinson, Dr. Giselle Sandi, Dr. Vineeth Gattu. Bottom Row: Dr. Yasaman Ghadar, Dr. Kamila Wiaderek, Dr. Lindsey Bleem, Dr. Kawtar Hafidi, Dr. Todd Munson.

This year, as part of our celebrations of National Postdoc Appreciation Week, the PSA prepared a video series featuring former Argonne postdocs reflecting on their experiences. You can watch the final version of these videos in the linked tweets, but we also wanted to provide a written summary of some common themes from all of the interviews as well.

The interviewees were asked to answer the following questions:

The most memorable experiences that people had varied from traveling for international conferences, to volunteering as a part of “Introduce a Girl to Engineering” day, to even going skydiving with their advisor! Overall, many responses echoed one common theme: working with excellent mentors and in interdisciplinary teams made their postdoctoral experience at Argonne memorable.

These former postdocs wanted to tell their past selves: take advantage of this unique time in your career – enjoy the dedicated time to develop your research, but also be flexible and get out of your comfort zone! Use the time to build both technical and leadership skills. For the former, avail yourself of LDRD funds and the impressive research facilities at Argonne. For the latter, network and build relationships in the lab, and consider developing your leadership skills by supervising summer students.

Advice for current postdocs had similar themes. These former postdocs highly recommended getting involved in the greater community at Argonne – scientific and otherwise. Get involved in committees, Employee Research Groups, and volunteer and outreach work. Take advantage of the unique and impressive resources and user facilities, such as the Advanced Photon Source, the Center for Nanoscale Materials, and the supercomputing facilities. And of course, enjoy this unique part of your career – a time where you have both the expertise and the freedom to really develop your voice and direction as a scientist.

Thank you to Dr. Julie Carrera, Dr. Gregory Halder, Dr. Alex Martinson, Dr. Lindsey Bleem, Dr. Giselle Sandi, Dr. Kamila Wiaderek, Dr. Vineeth Gattu, Dr. Kawtar Hafidi, Dr. Todd Munson, Dr. Leighanne Gallington, Dr. Ahmet Uysal, Dr. Yasaman Ghadar, Dr. Gina Magnotti, and Dr. Stefan Wild for taking the time to be interviewed for this series.

*Posted on behalf of the Postdoctoral Society of Argonne.

Postdoctoral Society of Argonne to Host NPAW Events to Celebrate Postdocs!

 

Did you know there are around 70,000 postdocs nationwide? Postdocs at Argonne and across the national celebrate postdocs annually during National Postdoc Appreciation Week (NPAW)! Join the Postdoctoral Society of Argonne (PSA) as we host and share several events during NPAW 2021.

We encourage postdocs to attend a speech by our Executive Champion, Dr. Valerie Taylor Wednesday September 22nd at 11 AM Central. This past year, PSA became an Employee Resource Group (ERG), and our Executive Champion promotes our group. Check out the other ERGs here!

Join the National Postdoctoral Association (NPA)!  Join 18,000 other postdocs to foster your career goals. It’s free! Sign up as an Argonne affiliate postdoc at https://www.nationalpostdoc.org/ and click on “Join” in the upper right corner. Those who join will be entered for a raffle prize for joining the NPA.

Postdoctoral Society of Argonne NPAW Events

Wednesday September 22nd 11 AM Central

PSA NPAW 2021 Keynote Speaker

Join PSA for a motivational speech from Dr. Valerie Taylor, director of the Mathematics and Computer Science Division. Dr. Taylor has extensive experience in academia, national labs, and leadership. Bring your questions for a 20–30 min Q&A at the end of the speech! RSVP at https://forms.office.com/g/hj0kpDTpGz

Friday September 24th at 12 PM Central

The Versatile PhD: Exploring Diverse Career Paths

Join PSA during the Postdoctoral Appreciation Week on for an open panel discussion about diverse PhD career paths. Invited speakers from different backgrounds will join to discuss their career paths and share advice for postdoctoral researcher aiming to understand more about the versatility of the PhD degree.

Invited speakers:

Joe Grange, PhD – AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowships, USAID

Hal Finkel, PhD – Program Manager, Computer Science, ASCR at DOE

Azucena Rodriguez, PhD – Argonne Science Education and Outreach,

Lake Paul, PhD – Founder & President of BioAnalysis, LLC

RSVP at https://forms.office.com/g/eYieMF43k6

National Postdoctoral Association NPAW Events

Register for these events and more at https://www.nationalpostdoc.org/page/2021NPAW!

The Postdoctoral Society of Argonne Announces 2021 Officers

The Postdoctoral Society of Argonne recently elected new officers for the 2021 calendar year. The PSA Officers serve as the Executive Committee for the PSA Board and set the direction for PSA efforts. Last year’s PSA Board wrote and approved the new PSA Charter as we became an Employee Resource Group (ERG), moved all our social and professional development events to virtual and organized yet another successful Annual Postdoctoral Research and Career Symposium. The 2021 Officers are excited to build on these successes, while spearheading new initiatives. Please welcome the 2021 PSA Officers!

President, Juan Diego Colmenares Fernandez:

I received my PhD from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of New Mexico (UNM), having done my previous studies at the Universidad de los Andes, Colombia. I started working at Argonne in 2019 as a postdoctoral appointee in the Energy Systems Division, doing research in computational modeling of fuel sprays for internal combustion engine applications using the HPC resources at the lab. I was president of the Mechanical Engineering Graduate Student Association at UNM and I lead the Company Outreach subcommittee for the 2020 Argonne Postdoctoral Research and Career Symposium.

As President of PSA, I would like to explore new ways to engage with postdocs at Argonne so they feel supported through these trying times. I would like to promote social activities, since I’ve found that Argonne postdocs are not only intelligent, but also incredibly kind and talented outside of work. Finally, I would like to support the efforts from the PSA to help postdocs find their career path, whether inside or outside of Argonne.

Vice President, Lily Robertson:

My background starts with a love for new ideas. In high school, I discovered a love of chemistry and distilled my creativity into a scientific career. I’ve moved east from graduate school in Colorado to postdoc in Illinois at UIUC and Argonne and now work on flow batteries. My credentials include serving on the Postdoc Symposium Organizing Committee (ANL), a department climate committee (UIUC), and a non-profit board. As PSA Vice President I will champion postdocs whose career paths and sense of community feel uncertain during Covid-19. Postdocs need a way to reengage and reconnect. I will seek to connect us in ways that overcome BlueJeans fatigue including social activities like introducing each other to family recipes and open mic nights and networking activities with non-Postdoc staff and crossdivision working groups. With skills and strengths provided by the PSA, postdocs will never walk alone in their career paths.

Secretary, Cody Nunno:

I am the current Secretary of the Postdoc Society of Argonne, serving a second term. I work in the Energy Systems division in the Multi-Physics Computation group, performing CFD simulations on combustion devices. Prior to coming to Argonne, I was a PhD student at Princeton University in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. While at Princeton, I spent 5 years as a member of the MAE Graduate Student Committee, including two years as the chair, addressing issues that affected graduate students in our department and serving as a liaison between the administration and the graduate student body. I don’t have any grand or specific plans as PSA secretary, other than to continue to serve as a communicator to the Argonne postdoc community, but I enjoy service, and I look forward to the opportunity to continue to give back to the postdoc community here at Argonne.

Social Liaison, Andrea Nicolas:

I am currently a Postdoctoral Associate at Argonne National Laboratory under the Applied Materials Division, working on the evaluation of Additive Manufacturing Technologies (AMTs) for nuclear applications, the uncertainty quantification of nuclear materials, and the development of frameworks that can evaluate both metallic and nonmetallic nuclear components using ASME rules. I received an MS and a PhD in Aerospace Engineering from Purdue University, where I focused on the environmental damage of aerospace-grade materials from both a mechanical and a chemical perspective. Prior to graduate school I worked for ITP aero as a structural analyst, where I worked on the development and production of aircraft turbine components subjected to high-temperature working conditions. During my graduate studies I acted as social chair for the aerospace graduate student organization at Purdue. I enjoy organizing events that brings people together, especially when they relate to celebrating cultural holidays across the world. I hope that my contributions as social chair will enable the postdocs across Argonne to keep a sense of community in the current virtual environment.

 

Postdocs Engage with Research Talks, Industry Networking, and Career Advice at the 2020 Virtual Postdoctoral Research and Career Symposium

The Postdoctoral Society of Argonne (PSA) held the Annual Postdoctoral Research and Career Symposium on November 4th – 5th, its first time as a virtual event. The annual symposium aims to highlight postdoctoral research and provide opportunities for participants to focus on career exploration and development.

This year’s symposium had record turnout, with 205 postdoctoral researchers from Argonne and universities across the nation registered. Seventy-three postdoctoral researchers presented their research via recorded presentations followed by live, virtual question and answer sessions. The symposium also allowed participants to network with representatives from industry, research institutions and academia, learn about different career paths and build professional relationships.

Symposium Co-Chair, Kevin Brown (LCF) opened the event and Laboratory Director Paul Kearns gave the welcome remarks. Kearns highlighted the importance of postdoctoral researchers for enabling world class science at Argonne and encouraged postdocs to build networks, explore careers and learn from the Argonne Alumni who participated in the symposium as company representatives and career panelists.

Professor Todd Allen (right) delivers the keynote address at the 2020 Postdoc Symposium with welcome remarks by Argonne Director Paul Kearns (left).

Todd Allen, Professor of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, University of Michigan, delivered the Keynote Address entitled “21st Century Nuclear Energy (And How I go here)”. Allen mentioned the different paths he had taken over the course of his career and provided invaluable advice to postdocs on career planning. He remarked that attendees should “Never assume that your current adventure will be your last. If you do well with things you will be offered a series of other exciting adventures from which to choose. As long as you are having fun and growing, the adventure goes on”. Using his personal experience, Professor Allen went further to caution against planning for next 20 year, and instead make full use of every opportunities in the present moment.

The symposium included three career panels featuring Argonne alumni working in academia, national labs, and industry.

Academic/national labs panel

  • Erin Iski (Associate Professor of Chemistry, University of Tulsa)
  • Leonardo Bautista-Gomez (Senior Researcher at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center)
  • Ilias Bilionis (Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University)
  • Julie Bessac ( Assistant Computational Statistician, Argonne National Laboratory)

Industry panel #1

  • Giovanni Ramirez (Sales Manager US-West and Mexico, and Applications Scientist, Bruker Nano Surfaces and Metrology Division)
  • Zina Jarrahi Cinker (Director General of Advanced Material Pandemic & Future Preparedness Taskforce)
  • Greg Halder (Business Development Executive, Technology Commercialization & Partnerships Division, ANL)
  • Steve Letourneau (Senior Process Engineer, ASM)

Industry panel #2

  • Chris Claxton (Principal, Volta Energy Technologies)
  • Fu Lin (Staff Research Engineer in Autonomous & Intelligent Systems, Raytheon Technologies Research Center)
  • Marvin Cummings (Program Manager at New York Academy of Sciences)
  • Youssef Nashed (Lead Computer Vision scientist at Stats Perform)

Research presentations at the symposium gave participants the opportunity to showcase their research to a wider 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 depth of knowledge and communication skills. This year, eight individuals were selected to receive awards for outstanding virtual presentations. These presentations also demonstrate the wide diversity of research conducted by Argonne postdocs and visiting postdocs/graduate students:

  • Amanda Carr (Chemical Sciences & Engineering Division), “Manipulation of Graphene-Polymer Interfaces for Improved Graphene Transfer”
  • Feng Gao (Advanced Materials for Energy Water Systems Division), “Maximizing Selectivity: An Analysis of Isoporous Membranes”
  • Ali Murat Gok (Mathematics & Computer Science Division), “Application-Specific Lossy Compression Algorithmsfor Scientific Data”
  • Manoj Jadhav (Physics Division), “Picosecond Timing Resolution Measurements of Low Gain Avalanche Detectors with a 120 GeV Proton Beam for the TOPSiDE Detector Concept”
  • Sayop Kim (Energy Systems Division), “Exploration of Combustion Dynamics in a Multi-Mode Combustion Engine”
  • Zachary Lebens-Higgins (Binghamton University), “Identifying the Delithiation Mechanisms for the Li-rich Li1.3Fe0.4Nb0.3O2 Disordered Rocksalt Cathode”
  • Aleena Rafique (High Energy Physics Division), “Search for Michel Electrons in ProtoDUNE”
  • Lei Wang (Chemical Sciences & Engineering Division), “New Chromophores for Photochemical Water Oxidation at Low pH”

The CrowdCompass app provided a landing point for Postdocs to interact with others’ virtual presentations and industry representatives.

 

Several presenters also submitted their abstracts to be featured on Argonne’s Instagram feed as part of a promotional effort for the symposium. The presenters include Aleena Rafique,Varun Kulkarni,Yana Karslyan, Partha Paul, Zhe Liu.

 

 

A mystery prize was advertised to encourage postdocs to register, and five randomly selected winners chose from among eight motivating books about career development. Symposium participants also tested their trivia skills at the first Symposium Virtual Trivia Night.

Dr. Stephen Streiffer, Deputy Laboratory Director for Science and Technology at Argonne, concluded the two-day event by emphasizing the role of the symposium in building professional networks and the contributions of postdocs in pivotal discoveries and scientific advances.

The Annual Postdoctoral Research and Career Symposium would not be possible without the support of our sponsors and participating companies. Symposium co-chairs, Kevin Brown and Srikanth Nayak expressed that “given the circumstances this year, we had to rethink the symposium format and the overall organization. It was a unique challenge, and it was very thrilling to see the event come together. Thanks to creative and dynamic work of our awesome team, we were able to host this impactful event without ever having a face-to-face committee meeting!”

The committee would like to thank Materials Development, Inc. for their continued and long-standing support for the symposium. Postdoc volunteers who served on the 2020 committee included Srikanth Nayak (CSE) and Kevin Brown (LCF), Symposium Co-chairs, Darren Driscoll (XSD), Amanda Lenzi (MCS), and Chris Otolski (CSE), Invited Speakers and Panels Co-Leads, Ritesh Uppuluri (CSE), Lily A. Robertson (CSE), and Adarsh Bafana (ES), Marketing and Publications Co-Leads, Zahmeeth Sayed Sakkaff (DSL), Dezhi Dai (NSE), and Brian Thomas Phelan (CSE), Technical Programs Co-Leads, Juan Diego Colmenares Fernandez (ES), and Thomas Gage (NST), Companies Outreach and Networking Co-Leads, Katherine Hepler (SSS) and Carla Mann (DSL), Community Engagement Co-Leads. The Postdoctoral Society of Argonne issues a call for volunteers in the months leading up to the symposium. All postdocs interested in planning next year’s event are encouraged to contact their PSA officers.