The Professional Development Committee is tasked with conceptualizing and organizing programming meant to enhance the postdoctoral training and professional experience. Our committee coordinates efforts with campus partners to create programs featuring advice from UI experts and to build skills during your postdoctoral experience.

Check the UI calendar for upcoming professional development opportunities.

Events being planned include but are not limited to:

• Non-Academic Careers Seminar Series
• Negotiation Bootcamp
• Grant-Writing Workshop (How to write and revise)

• Academic Career Seminar Series

   

Looking to start your career planning? Start here...

• UI Grad Student Success: This team of amazing individuals in the Graduate College are here to help you with Individual Development Plan (IDPs), skills assessments, finding training opportunities, and more! Sign up for their newsletter for regular updates about programming.
• National Postdoc Association Core Competencies: "The NPA has established six core competencies to offer guidance to individual postdoctoral scholars who must seek out relevant training experiences, in collaboration with mentors, institutions, and other advisors who provide this training. "Competency" has been defined as "an acquired personal skill that is demonstrated in [one's] ability to provide a consistently adequate or high level of performance in a specific job function." [BNET Business dictionary] These competencies are meant to serve primarily as: (1) a basis for self-evaluation by postdoctoral scholars, and (2) a basis for developing training opportunities that can be evaluated by mentors, institutions, and other advisors."
• Research Development Office: Housed within the Office of the Vice President for Research, RDO is your central hub for seminars around grant writing, data/project management, and enhancing research communication skills. Take advantage of their resource library, regular Pivot funding training sessions, and their networking surveys to facilitate collaborations. Sign up for their newsletter for regular updates about research opportunities and seminars.
• Obermann Center for Advanced Studies: "The Obermann Center for Advanced Studies (OCAS) serves the research mission of the University of Iowa. The Center is a convening space dedicated to debate and discovery. Our grants for University of Iowa artists and researchers support imaginative collaborations and multi-disciplinary exploration. Our programming connects scholars across campus and engages the larger public in the ambitious, illuminating, and transformative work of the artists and scholars we serve." More information about programming can be found here. Sign up for their newsletter for regular updates about events and upcoming working groups.

• Also, check out our resource database.

   

Professional Development Spotlight 

For postdocs interested in undergraduate education and/or mentorship 

• CIRTL@Iowa
• Center of Teaching in the Office of Teaching, Learning, & Technology
• FUTUREs in Biomedicine
• Iowa Center for Research by Undergraduates (ICRU)
• Iowa Biosciences Academy & Entering Mentoring Training
• CCOM Summer Undergraduate Research Programs
• CCOM Summer Professional Development & Seminar Series for Undergraduates