SPEX at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Postdoctoral Symposium, August 6th
Oak Ridge National Laboratory Postdoctoral Association (ORPA) symposium on Tuesday, August 6th.
SPEX (Southeastern Postdoctoral Exchange)
Mission: To give postdocs opportunities to network and present their work in ways not normally available to them: through invited seminars, symposia, and targeted exchanges with other local institutes
Current Partners: University of Kentucky – Lexington and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (more to be included in the near future)
Future Directions: After the symposium at ORNL, we will follow up these visits with targeted exchanges in the winter and spring at ORNL and at University of Kentucky – Lexington. In these exchanges we aim to foster lasting collaborations with faculty/scientists you have networked with at the symposia, facilitate invited speaking opportunities such as departmental seminars, and exchange targeted career advice with the institutes participating in SPEX.
Benefit: SPEX is a great opportunity to present your research to people outside your familiar network at Vanderbilt and will give you the opportunity to grow your network to support your future career efforts.
For the ORPA Symposium:
This is a one-day trip on Tuesday, August 6th. Selected postdocs from Vanderbilt will present their work, and the VPA and SPEX organizations will facilitate meetings with staff scientists in your field (similar to PI in an academic institution), career development officers, etc. ORPA has generously reserved one oral presentation and four poster presentations for Vanderbilt postdocs at their symposium. Please see the attached preliminary schedule for the symposium. Industry representatives will also be present at the symposium, this is a great networking opportunity if you are interested in an industry career! Additionally, we want to ensure you get to network and discuss your work with any staff scientists at ORNL that you think you could benefit from; These meetings will be scheduled to take place during the symposium. If you are interested in attending the ORPA symposium in August, please fill out this survey and identify scientists/offices you would like to directly interact with. You can find more information on the research done at ORNL and the people at www.ornl.gov.
Please complete the survey by 5PM on Monday July 8th. We will inform those chosen to represent Vanderbilt’s postdoc community at ORNL on July 9th.