Celebrating National Postdoc Appreciation Week

National Postdoctoral Appreciation Week was different this year due to COVID-19 event restrictions. Unfortunately, the Annual Appreciation Breakfast and end-of-the-week family picnic were both canceled.  In their place, however, a robust collection of postdoc research was presented during the Second Annual Arizona Postdoctoral Research Conference.

The ASU Postdoctoral Affairs Office partnered with the University of Arizona Office of Postdoctoral Affairs to co-produce the event filled with 12 minute Research Talks, and three minute Lightning Talks. The event featured over 30 presentations from postdocs all over the state.

Joining the event for the first time were postdocs from Northern Arizona University and Barrow Neurological Institute, who rounded out the slate that included University of Arizona and ASU.

The event planning committee was chaired by Grace Niemiro, a postdoc from University of Arizona.  Arizona State University Postdocs Devon McAslan, Eric Chen, and Tara Nkrumah also helped with the planning. The University of ArizonaA “hosted” the three-day virtual event.

“I felt that the event went well despite the many challenges we have been experiencing during this pandemic,” Niemiro remarked.  “Our presenters showed up and asked incredibly intelligent questions of their fellow presenters.”

The Graduate College is looking forward to next year’s Arizona Postdoc Research Conference and is hoping normal activities can resume in time for National Postdoc Appreciation Week 2021.