97th Penn Biomedical Postdoctoral Council Minutes, June 09, 2008

Ninety-seventh Meeting June 9, 2008, 5:00 PM (Stellar-Chance 104) BPC: Stacy, Miku, Laurence, Matt, Arindam, Meda, Sebastien, Ginny, Yu-Chen, Yuxing, Reena, Prema Sundaram, Steven Bloomer (PEC) BPP: Kryste Absent: Yvonne Paterson, Dave Hokey, Meda Higa, Jennifer Bachorik, Lingli, Tobias, Jenn BPP Update from Yvonne: a. No update this month (IRACDA Meeting)

2. BPP Update from Kryste: a. Regional NPA Meeting—June 16th, full day of workshops and meeting with industry and academic leaders at the Penn Museum.

3. BPC Committee Updates: a. PEC—new editor, Steven Bloomer, will take over from Katie for the next 6 months. He will organize the information to pass on to the next editor and help out with the symposium abstracts. Stacy will email Dave Chimento to see if he has a list of participants from his membership drive. b. Diversity—No update (IRACDA Meeting) c. Seminars—The Professionalism seminar was held on May 20th. Alan Wasserstein and Tony Rostain presented. Tony went over the case studies, which spurred a lot of discussion. Alan’s part was more of a powerpoint presentation on professionalism. Attendance was around 36 people, everyone seemed to enjoy this seminar and all the food went too. This topic will be further discussed over email and at future council meetings. A committee may be formed to determine how we can incorporate mentor evaluations into the postdoc’s duties. Also, part of the problem is that postdocs do not know about the BPP/C until they are already here. The BPP may have a link on the new SOM website and we are also considering joining LinkedIn. Currently there is no exit interview and often the BPP does not know a postdoc is leaving until they are already gone. Suggestions include an exit interview and also a Mentor Award for the PIs. Also, the professionalism seminar could be included into the bioethics

training, which is currently being revamped. October seminar slot is still open, but most likely we will have a seminar on consulting careers. d. FNC—Small meeting in May, two people. Will most likely remain like that throughout the summer e. Website—All additions/information should go to Sebastien at [email protected]. f.

Symposium—we will begin putting together a manual while we are planning this year’s symposium. Also, Peter Doherty has agreed to be the keynote speaker for the symposium in 2009. The first planning meeting will be on June 24th from 12pm in Stellar Chance Room 104.

g. Board Development—It was a close vote, but Laurence was elected as the new co-chair of the council. We also discussed the possibility of playing an intramural sport in the fall. h. Next Meeting: MONDAY JULY 7th, 5PM, Stellar Chance Room 104