Trainee Initiatives
Trainee Congress activities and initiatives (September 6-9, 2022)
To carry out the Committee’s commitment to trainees, we are pleased to announce the following Congress activities and initiatives.
Fellowship/Grant Writing Workshop
Grant writing is quite daunting, and understanding what assessors are looking for can be incredibly challenging for early career and graduate researchers. With us, we will have Dr. Virginia Salo (Program Officer, NIH), Dr. Darby Saxbe (Associate Prof., USC), Dr. Tiffany Ho (Assistant Prof., UCSF/UCLA), and Dr. Katie McLaughlin (Prof., Harvard University), who will use their knowledge and extensive experience to shed light on how to write competitive grant applications.
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Career Perspectives Panel
This year we are hosting two separate pre-recorded career perspective panels where speakers share more about their journeys and their current roles. One panel will focus on traditional academic career paths. A second panel will focus on non-academic careers. For our academically focused panel, we are joined by Dr. Laurel Gabard-Durnam (Northeastern), Dr. Tiffany Ho (USSF & UCLA), and Dr. Elizabeth Norton (Northwestern). For our non-academic career panel, we are joined by Dr. Laura Engelhard (Direct TV Donors), Dr. Aarthi Padmanabhan (Limbix), and Dr. Shabnam Hakimi (Toyota). Given both panels are pre-recorded, you are welcome to listen to them at any point throughout the conference, and feel free to reach out to any of the panelists via email if you’d like to hear more about their experiences.
“Sensitive Periods” Podcast
We’re thrilled to announce the official Flux Trainee podcast: Sensitive Periods. The podcast will discuss current topics in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience through the lens of our ever-changing career stages. Episodes will be released monthly wherever you get your podcasts.
The inaugural podcast episode will feature a conversation with the current Flux President, Dr. Damien Fair. Future episodes will cover big data, mentor-mentee relationships, international collaborations, equity and inclusion, science communication, and much more! The first episodes will be released soon - more information will be posted on Twitter (@fluxDCN).
Mentor/Mentee Match
The Mentor/Mentee Match is pairing mentees with someone in a more advanced career stage to provide mentees with valuable insights, guidance, and advice to help students and early career researchers be successful in their academic pursuits and professional development. We aim to match across career levels (students, postdoc, faculty etc.), and individuals can apply to be both mentors and mentees.
All are encouraged to participate as a mentor or mentee! Sign up now until 8/24 using this link https://forms.gle/utChX6Bwsi1tpFBz7.
Student and Early Career Researchers Lunch
Get to know fellow students and early career researchers and join our outdoor lunch gathering on Wednesday, September 7, between 12:15-1:30 pm. The group will meet at the main conference entrance and head to Luxembourg Gardens (Fontaine Médicis) around 12:25 pm. Please bring your own lunch and join the Flux Trainee Slack channel, which will be used as the primary source of communication. We hope to see you soon!
Slack: https://join.slack.com/t/fluxtrainees/shared_invite/zt-1eesf5eyo-Ip2ITtLsuYFR_dd2SVPt5A.
Trainee Values
During this year’s Flux Congress, we’d like to take some time to think about how we can align the work of the Trainee Committee with our values as scientists and members of the Flux community! To do so, we will be asking conference participants to share with us what they value as a trainee and about trainees. This activity will take place both in person and remotely throughout the conference.
Mission
The Flux Trainee Committee is responsible for ensuring that trainees’ interests are represented in the Flux Society by providing training, resources, and avenues for connecting with other professionals in the field. Specifically, this committee is responsible for:
1) Researching the needs of predoctoral and postdoctoral members to determine how the Flux Society can provide support.
2) Generating opportunities for networking and mentorship.
3) Organizing symposia and workshops designed to address trainee members’ career development.
Committee Members
Sofia Cárdenas (co-chair)
Maximilian Scheuplein (co-chair)
Leehyun Yoon
Jessica Flannery
Paola Odriozola
Eliya Ben-Asher
Tehila Nugiel
Andrew Lynn
Divyangana Rakesh
Matt Mattoni
Teresa Cheng
Nicolas Murgueitio