Washington, DC, September 25, 2014 /PressReleasePing/ -- The National Postdoctoral Association (NPA) celebrated the fifth annual 'National Postdoc Appreciation Week' (NPAW).

The week-long celebrations were marked and celebrated under diverse themes of different disciplines, across the U.S. and other parts of the world.

NPAW evolved out of National Postdoc Appreciation Day, has now become the nation's largest celebration of postdoctoral scholars. The Postdoc Appreciation Week was launched in order to increase awareness of postdoctoral scholars, and to recognize the tremendous contributions, they make to the U.S. scientific enterprises of research and discovery.

A postdoctoral scholar "postdoc" is an individual who has completed his or her doctorate in a specific area of research and becomes engaged for a certain period of time in mentored research and/or scholarly training under the direct supervision of a principal investigator (PI) for the purpose of acquiring the academic proficiency, needed to pursue a scholarly track of his or her choosing.

In 2010, National Postdoc Appreciation Week was officially recognized by the U.S. House of Representatives, culminated with the passage of H.RES. 1545.

During the week-long celebrations, institutions are encouraged to plan activities that increase awareness of postdocs. Celebration activities included the formal institutional events ranging from postdoc orientations, webinars, research symposiums, technical descriptions and scientific expositions, panel discussions and informal social junctures including open house events, networking socials, coffee & ice-cream gather-ups, social walks and other communal podia.

Since 2009 participation for the event has grown. This year, nearly 300 events were hosted at over 117 institutions in 36 states. The NPAW events were held throughout the week across U.S., Canada, the SAARC countries region in an institutional conjunction with Asia and Oceania.

NPAW-2014 was coordinated by the NPA Outreach Committee, which works to promote the mission, values, goals, and business objectives of the NPA. Dr. Majda Haznadar, Ph.D., and Dr. Barbara Natalizio, Ph.D., served as co-chair of the committee.

Amongst the noted events taken place during the NPAW-2014, include:

A postdoc webinar entitled "Increasing Your Visibility and Participation in SOT as an Early Career Toxicologist" was hosted by Kathryn Page. This session included a diverse panel of speakers covering several different areas surrounding the value of SOT membership to professional advancement. Panelists include: Dr. William Slikker Jr., Ph.D., ATS, Director of US FDA-NCTR; Lauren M. Aleksunes, Ph.D., Associate Professor at Rutgers University; Dr. Mary Beth Genter, Ph.D., DABT, ATS, Associate Professor at University of Cincinnati; Dr. Betina J. Lew, Ph.D., Senior Toxicologist at Church & Dwight.

Dr. Patrick Allard, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at UCLA, with "Transitioning into an Academic Position: The Entropy of an Exciting Period of your Career"; Dr. Chris Banks, Ph.D., Associate Toxicologist at California EPA in the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, with " Transitioning into Government: From Academia to a Stable Government Position"; and Dr. Katie Paul, Ph.D., Scientific Advisor in the Regulatory Toxicology Group at Bayer CropScience with "Transitioning into Industry: Steps to Take to Work in Regulatory Toxicology".

The Robert Wood Johnson/Rutgers PDA held symposium, during NPAW, highlighting the work done by postdoctoral researchers at institutions in New Jersey, New York City, Philadelphia, and surrounding areas. This year, they expressed and conveyed the feelings of being extremely honored for their keynote speaker Dr. Shirley Tilghman, Ph.D., a prominent researcher, educator, advocate for biomedical research training and the 19th president of Princeton University. They also featured an invited thematic talk by Dr. Linda Stomato, co-director of the Center for Negotiation & Conflict Resolution at Rutgers University.

During the course of Postdoc Appreciation Week Celebrations by the SAARC Region Post-doc Network, the SAIRI Research Initiative presented a special annotation-note annexed to a post-doc cloistered marginal-note on 'The United Nations MDGs and Post 2015 Extension-scenarios', that entails the multifarious academic aspects of the Millennium Development Goals, and the thematic marginal segments of MDGs in post 2015. The first 'postdoc annotation-note' on UN-MDGs was prepared by Qadhi Prof. Aurangzeb Al Hafi, D. Litt., a multidisciplinary arch-researcher of 'Disability Prevention' and the principal investigator at SAIRI and UNESCO Chair at University of Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan.

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute's (DFCI) Postdoc and Graduate Student Affairs Office (PGSAO), together with DFCI's Postdoc and Graduate Student Association (PGA) hosted events and provided an opportunity for postdocs and graduate students to meet with the President Edward Benz, M.D., in a relaxed setting to enjoy lunch and ask questions.

The University of Notre Dame planned for 2014 NPAW, a Demonstration comprising a repository for academic and professional information.

The Post-Doc Network Asia-Oceania (PDNA-O) marked the NPAW celebrations. The mentored sessions at PDNA-O were presided by Justice(R) S.S. Paru Dehlvi, L.L.D., who also holds at present the PDNA-O chief patron-ship, Dr. Mahateer from Malaysia, Dr. Dass U from India, and Dr. Wickrema Weerasooria, former Sri Lanka's Ombudsperson and High Commissioner in Australia, co-chaired the NPAW sessions. Justice Paru (L.L.D.) presented a thorough analysis with a tri-fold synthesis of the prevalent situation of 'social injustice' that is gradually becoming predominant in the customary frameworks of nearly every sector, segment and section of human life.

The University of California (UC), Berkeley hosted a luncheon reception at the Bancroft Hotel, The Vice Chancellor for Research, who has governance over postdocs, presided the event.

SciPhD co-founders, Dr. Randall Ribardo and Larry Petcovic, led a half day training workshop entitled "Preparing for Careers in Industry".

Dr. Robert Tanguay at Oregon State University (OSU) gave post-doc orientations as the keynote speaker on "Starting a career in academia as an independent investigator".

Noted institutional participations for 2014 NPAW events, emanated from: The University of California (UC), Berkeley, University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), Saban Research Institute at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, UT Health Science Center San Antonio (UTHSCSA), UT San Antonio (UTSA), Texas Biomedical Research Institute, U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA), San Antonio Postdoctoral Research Forum,Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, University of Southern California, Stanford University, University of Colorado, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), UNESCO Chair at University of Punjab-CIMR, Lahore, NextGen Association for Postdocs, University of Florida, University of Miami, Moffitt Cancer Center Postdoctoral Association (MPDA), The Offices of Academic Affairs and Mentoring Programs at Rush University, University of Iowa (UI), Dana-Farber Cancer Institute's (DFCI) Postdoc and Graduate Student Affairs Office (PGSAO), UNESCO- SAARC Hydro-toxicology Observatory at Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi, The Brigham & Women's Hospital (BWH) Office for Research Careers (ORC), University of Rochester, Society of Toxicology (SOT), SAIRI Research Initiative Pakistan, Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, Penn State Hershey Postdoctoral Society, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), UT Health Science Center San Antonio, University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and University of Pennsylvania.

Press Contact:
Amy Wilson
National Postdoctoral Association
1200 New York Avenue NW· Suite 956· Washington, DC 20005.
(202) 326 - 6428
http://www.nationalpostdoc.org/