Postdoctoral Development

The CUNY Postdoctoral Development Program was initiated to meet the training and professional development needs of postdoctoral researchers at the University. The program is administered through the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and overseen by a six-member postdoctoral planning committee comprised of three faculty and three postdoctoral research fellows chosen based on consultation with the Research Deans and/or Deans of Science at the CUNY campuses. The committee... >>

---

Postdoc Research Spotlight

Dr. Parag Narvekar (Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, City College )

Dr. Parag Narvekar, a postdoctoral research fellow at City College, has been working with Dr. Marco Tedesco in the Department of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences for the past year through a NASA GSFC sponsored project. Based on this work, they have come up with corrections for NASA algorithms for snow water equivalent over United States. This work has been accepted and will be published soon in an IEEE journal. This work received notable attention from NASA and the Canadian remote sensing community. Parag has also submitted several journal manuscripts on his other work at CUNY. His previous work resulted in several journal papers. He completed his PhD at Germany (while working on collaborative project of NASA GSFC at USDA in Maryland). During his PhD, their work on estimating melting of Greenland was greatly appreciated by European space agency and resulted in one journal paper on this work. The respected German news channel, ZDF, has publicized this work across Germany.

---

Responsible Conduct of Research Training (RCR)

All postdoctoral researchers at CUNY who are supported by sponsored projects, regardless of sponsor, must receive and participate in RCR training as directed in the following document HERE <pdf>

All postdoctoral researchers at CUNY must take the most appropriate CITI course in RCR, these courses are accessible through the CUNY's RCR Resources page >>

Postdoc RCR Workshop 

The next RCR workshop will be held on May 21, 2010, 9:30 AM-12:00 Noon at the CUNY Graduate Center

The University provides workshops on a variety of career related issues for all postdoctoral researchers at the University.   The previous RCR workshop for postdoctoral researchers was presented on Friday, October 23, 2009 with featured speaker Terry Krulwich, PhD from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Download Dr. Krulwich's presentation HERE <pdf>

---

Mentoring

In compliance with the America COMPETES Act, all NSF proposals received on or after April 6 2009 must include a maximum one-page description of mentoring activities if the proposal includes post-doc researchers.  Currently, mentoring activities are described in a separate section in the 15-page "project description."  NSF has made this change, mandated as part of the America COMPETES Act and is contained in the revised NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide.

The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and the CUNY Postdoctoral Development Program have developed a brief document (HERE <rtf>) that provides details of University-wide mentoring resources available for CUNY postdoctoral researchers.  This document should prove useful for CUNY faculty submitting NSF proposals that include funding for postdoctoral support.

---

Career Development Workshops & Networking Events

The next Postdoctoral Career Development Workshop will take place on Thursday, April 15, 2010 at the Grad Center.

Topics to include:

Introduction to Sponsored Programs
Building a Budget
Online Funding Resources
CUNY-specific Guidelines

Panelists include:

Stephanie Endy (Director of Office of Research & Sponsored Programs, Lehman College)
Robert Buckley (Director of Research Administration, Hunter College)
Dominic Esposito (Assistant Director of OSRP, Lehman College)
Laurence Frabotta (Director of Special Research Programs, CUNY)

Register HERE >>

Download event flyer HERE >> <pdf>

Read about previous events:

The Postdoc Development Program presented "Preparing for the Interview" and "Negotiating Your Startup Package" on October 31, 2008 at the CUNY Graduate Center. Topics included: "Preparing for Interviews," "Negotiating Startup Packages," and Dual Career Placements: Resources for the two-body problem.

On February 26th, 2007, the Postdoc Program presented a workshop entitled "Alternatives to Academic Careers", featuring distinguished speakers who have established careers in the Pharmaceutical, Biotechnological Industries and in Patent Law. Click here to view slides >>

The Postdoctoral Program presented its first workshop on November 8th, 2006, entitled "Advancing Your Academic Career: How to Get the Job You Want." Over 30 postdoctoral associates from research laboratories across CUNY campuses gathered at the Graduate Center to attend the event. Read more >>

---

Postdoc Travel Awards

The aim of this program is to provide postdoctoral associates at CUNY support for presenting scholarly activities at national or international conferences. 

Revision (April 7, 2010)
To accommodate different conference schedules, we will have two deadlines for applications for travel in 2010 (Jan 1 to Dec 31).  The first deadline will be in April and the second deadline will be in September.  Each postdoc may only submit one proposal per calendar year.

Postdoctoral Travel Awards - Round 5 2010 (January 1 to December 31)

First Deadline: 5:00 PM on Friday, April 30, 2010

A second deadline for 2010 will be 5:00 PM on Friday, September 24, 2010

NOTE: Download Revised Guidelines and Application HERE <doc>

---

Funding Opportunities

The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research occasionally receives information on funding opportunities geared specifically to postdoctoral fellows.  Follow the link to view recent  Requests for Proposals as well as links to useful web portals to search for additional postdoc-related funding opportunities... >>

---

Stipends Guidelines

CUNY strongly encourages all faculty to adher to the annual stipend levels put forth by the National Institutes of Health... >>

---

Links

Includes links to the National Postdoctoral Association, the New York Academy of Sciences, and other local postdoctoral communities... >>

---

If you would like to receive information about future events or be featured in the Research Spotlight, please register yourself in our CUNY Postdoc Database.

Register HERE >>

For more information on the CUNY postdoctoral community, please contact:

Laurence Frabotta, PhD
Director of Special Research Programs
212 794-5470
laurence.frabotta@mail.cuny.edu