Opening Announcement January 2008

January 15, 2008

MSU Opens an Office for Postdoctoral Trainees

The Graduate School and Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies announce the opening of an Office for Postdoctoral Trainees. The Office will formalize the ongoing Graduate School professional development support for postdocs over the past 2 years. The Office will be functionally located in the Graduate School and tied closely to the VPRGS.

Associate Dean Tony Nunez (Neuroscience Program in the Department of Psychology) will direct the office. Assistant VP for Research Dr. Estelle McGroarty (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology) will serve as liaison in the VPRGS. Dr. Terry May (Graduate School and VPRGS) will provide additional support to the Office.

With the new requirement (not yet implemented) by NSF to provide “mentoring for postdoctoral trainees” (America Competes Act), one of the goals of the Office is to provide a resource for faculty in meeting the new guidelines.

Dr. Nunez will establish an Advisory Committee of faculty PIs, a postdoctoral trainee, and appropriate administrators to identify specific needs at MSU. The Office will continue with current programs and efforts that have been underway in the Graduate School since 2005. These include:

• Provide professional development programming, e.g., responsible conduct of research, preparation for job searches across a variety of employment sectors, pedagogy
• Support the MSU chapter of the National Postdoc Association, http://www.nationalpostdoc.org/site/c.eoJMIWOBIrH/b.1388059/
• Host the MSU-PDA website: http://grad.msu.edu/pda/index.htm,
• Network with the NPA through its annual meeting
• Support coordination with similar offices across the CIC and AAU

Please direct suggestions for additional activities to Tony Nunez (nunez@msu.edu)