One-hundred and Twenty-ninth Meeting Minutes
April 4th, 2011 5:00 P.M. (Stellar-Chance 104)
Attendance: Jingwen Niu, Lisa Ambrose-Lanci, Guray Erus, Kathleen Haines, Tim
Connelly, Arindam Basu, Patrick Rose, Angela Brown, Caleph Wilson, Weiwei Dang,
Qiaobin Xiao, Kathleen McGlade, Rohinton Tarapore, Jason Moore, Caroline Brun
Minutes of last month’s meeting approved.
Updates from Co-Chairs:
Rohington spoke to the local IRS office and they are willing to come and talk to us regarding the
tax issues. But they won’t be able to do it before April 18th (the tax filing deadline). Guray
commented on the e-mail from the tax office being confusing.
NPA Meeting Update: Lisa wrote a report of this year’s NPA meeting. (Attached with the
minutes at the end).
Lisa reported that some Universities like TJU cannot do vendor shows because it’s considered a
conflict of interest. Weiwei said that he spoke with the Purchasing Department, and there is no
problem for us to go ahead with the vendor show. This was verified by Kathleen.
She highlighted the importance of Ombudsmen’s office in universities in dealing with conflicts
and problems at work.
Regarding alternative career paths, Caleph mentioned that different funding sources are helping
postdocs to move away from bench towards policy making and administrative positions. Apart
from the AAAS fellowship there are fellowships from the University of Phoenix.
Patrick was very enthusiastic about alternative career options and wants to organize seminars to
bring people who can provide proper guidance. He has done extensive research on funding
agencies and the possibilities of moving away from the bench and is willing to share his
experience and knowledge regarding alternative careers. He also mentioned that the Department
of Biology is regularly having seminars on alternative careers, including policy making. Jason
and Patrick will work together to bring people in our Seminar Series.
Arindam suggested that there should be a subsection on our BPC website highlighting Women in
Science. Lisa shall mail Prema and get that going.
Lisa noted that we do not have any links to the NPA on our website. Angela will coordinate with
Prema.
Updates from Subcommittees:
a) PEA. No new manuscripts have come in. Katy is going to meet with the editors and make
sure everyone understands the guidelines and what the editors are supposed to do.
Because they don’t meet regularly, some of them are unaware of what the exact role of
the PEA editors is.
Some editors have expressed interest in editing for content in addition to editing just for
grammatical errors. Angela cautioned that it can be tempting to “rewrite” sections, but
that it is better to leave it as a comment on the side instead. Susan thought that a
scientific critique would be helpful. Most of the members agreed that it might be an
additional benefit.
Kathleen mentioned that to give more exposure to the PEA, there will be a hand out in
the welcome packet that every new postdoc receives.
b) Community Service. The Belmont Charter project has been completed successfully, and
winning teams were announced. Because of our participation in the program for the past
3 years, iPRAXIS has named us Partner of the Year. We will receive an award and
recognition at the awards ceremony in May. The Science Festival in Philadelphia is
coming up. However, Sarah found out about the program too late for us to participate this
year, but hopes we can participate next year. Sarah is investigating other opportunities
for the spring/summer.
c) Diversity. The committee is working on the next edition of our newsletter. Lauren
Graham is the first recipient in the SOM to receive the Postdoctoral Fellowship for
Academic Diversity at the University of Pennsylvania, which is a university-wide award.
Also, the committee will co-host (with the E.E. Just Biomedical Society) a Mentoring
Program Meet-Up on Tuesday, April 26 at 5:30 PM.
d) Environmental. Guray and Caroline said that the committee has one additional member.
Since they are mostly computational people, its easier if someone from wet-lab helps
them out. They would like to touch base with Reena for some direction and suggestions.
They plan to compare with other universities and get information about how to have
better recycling.
e) Fundraising: 2 more vendors have agreed to be sponsors for the vendor show. Weiwei
said that he is going to send one more round of letters in May and talk to the vendors
personally. The Sanyo corporate office is mailing the check.
f) Foreign National Committee. Elaine did the monthly orientation. She is not going to do
any more, as she got a job with AAAS. We need a new FNC chair.
g) Treasurer. Our balance was $2027.80. BPC sponsored Lisa for the NPA meeting (~$
650.00), Jason (~$ 20.00) for the Seminar series and Angela for Arindam’s gift ($ ……).
Hopefully we will have more money after the vendor show in July.
h) Seminars. Jason is starting the Seminar series again. The first one is on Friday April 8th
at 3.30pm in BRB 251. He is trying to get sponsorship from Yards.
Next Meeting May 2nd, 2011
BPC Meeting
April 4, 2011
Report following the NPA Meeting
March 25-27th @ NIH in Bethesda, MD
Lisa M. Ambrose-Lanci, PhD
Meetings Committee Member
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Distinguished Service Awards Subcommittee
2012 Site Selection Subcommittee
***The University of Pennsylvania is a member of NPA therefore all postdocs are NPA
affiliate members free of charge upon registration. Everyone is encouraged to become
individual full members which will allow for full access to relevant resources***
DAY 1
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Participated in Panel
o National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics’ Early Career Doctorates
Group Discussion
o NSF survey
Conflict management
o http://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit
o Ombudsmen
Future of Postdoc Training
Fundraising
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Report the results of our vendor show (how are we allowed to do this?)
Mentoring Award
Deans of each school/ $ for awards
Letters sent asking for sponsorship of a specific event
DAY 2
NPA ADVANCE-PAID: Facilitating the Advancement of Postdoc Women at Your Institution
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Issues discussed
o Postdoc women with new children are twice as likely to “leak” out of the pipleline
compared to men and women who don’t have children
o Dual career issues
o Lack of confidence/encouragement
o Limited family friendly benefits
o Low salaries but need to pay childcare, mortgage, immigration
What to do
o Mentoring
o Professional & Career Development
o Policies and benefits
o Reduce stigma of staying at an institution
o NIH Working Group on Women in Biomedical Careers
 NRSA leave doubled to 60 days
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 NIH re-entry supplement program
 Change in biosketch to explain leave
 Technical replacement for a postdoc researcher
 Childcare must be identified at conferences
ADVANCE programs- Negotiation the Ideal Faculty Position (RICE University)
AWIS- WORK-LIFE Satisfaction Workshop
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Work Life Satisfaction is not just for women with children- Everyone Needs this Balance
Workshop coming soon to Philadelphia sponsored by AWIS-PHL!!!!
NPA Core Competencies- on NPA website
 Discipline-specific conceptual knowledge
 Research Skill development
 Communication skills
 Professionalism
 Leadership and management skills
 Responsible conduct of research
DAY 3
Advocacy: A Tool for Change
o Respond to action alerts
o Call, email, fax and visit your legislators
o Send your research articles to legislation with a brief cover letter
o Invite legislators to visit your lab
*** Stipend levels- If the 2012 budget, which contains a 4% increase for NRSA stipends, is
approved the start date is October 1, 2011***
Slides from annual meeting are available on the NPA website
Helpful links to place on our Penn sites
NIH Working Group on Women in Biomedical Careers
http://womeninscience.nih.gov/pdf/WG_Accomplishments_September_2010.pdf
NPA http://www.nationalpostdoc.org/
Maternity leave policy links