Prioritizing Postdoctoral Fellows at the UW
When asked to identify the various members of the UW family, most alumni think immediately of students, staff and faculty. And when pressed, we can break down the student category to undergraduate and graduate students. However, this analysis misses an important and significant additional group at the University, postdoctoral scholars, or postdocs.
Postdocs at the UW can be found in a wide range of departments where they are typically gaining added experience and training in research techniques of their field, having recently completed a Ph.D. Currently there are in excess of 1,100 postdocs on the Seattle, Tacoma and Bothell campuses.
To serve the postdocs and bring more attention to their individual and academic needs a new Office of Postdoctoral Affairs (OPA) has been established. This new unit will act as a resource for faculty who are overseeing postdocs and will offer programs and assistance to the postdocs themselves. Surveys conducted across the country have shown that postdocs have benefited substantially from workshops on such topics as grant preparation, laboratory management, mentoring, career options and publishing. In addition, OPA is collaborating with the UW Postdoctoral Association to gain input from current postdocs to set priorities for the remainder of this academic year.
Funding for the OPA has come from the Office of the Provost and from deans of Arts & Sciences, Engineering, Medicine, Pharmacy, Public Health & Community Medicine and The Graduate School. Additional assistance for initial programming by the new office has been provided as part of a grant to the University from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. As part of the programming this initial year, The Graduate School, UW Press and UW Libraries will offer a publishinig workshop for postdocs focusing on issues faced by scholars working on their first or second books, and by those advising graduate students and junior faculty during the spring quarter. For more information: http://depts.washington.edu/pdafrs.