SoPS Guides

If you are looking for information that is not below, please post a question to the appropriate discussion forum

Ask Wolfsdorf Immigration Law Group

SoPS has a new alliance with the Wolfsdorf Immigration Law Group. The lawfirm has offered to answer visa & immigration related questions from UCLA postdocs, if they were not satisfactorily answered by either the postdocs's department, the UCLA postdoctoral office or the Dashew Center for International Affairs.

Follow this link for the SoPS-UCLA Ask Wolfsdorf Feature to submit your immigration / visa question:
Ask Wolfsdorf.

HOWTO use the SoPS Website

This page provides a collection of resources on how to use the SoPS website.

How to post Classified Ads on the UCLA SoPS Website

Creating content on the SoPS website is straightforward and only requires SoPS membership.
Utilizing this information (and sharing this link with other SoPS members!) helps SoPS keep the community informed about job postings inside and outside of UCLA as well as moving sales, share/trade, requests, apartment/house rentals, etc...

HOW TO CREATE SoPS CONTENT, STEP-BY-STEP
1) Login into the SoPS website: https://www.postdoc.ucla.edu/
2) Click on the green "create content" link that appears after you login.
3) Click on the "Classified Ad" option.
4) Currently there are several categories for classified ads:
i) Opportunities Outside UCLA for PhDs
ii) Positions at UCLA for PhDs
iii) For Sale or Rent
iv) Looking to Share
v) Want to Buy or Rent
5) Choose a category and fill out the required information (these are indicated by the red asterisk). NOTE:
Ads for commercial products and services are NOT allowed.
6) There are a number of advanced options that allow you to embed google maps or to upload documents
that are then made available for download. Feel free to experiment and to “Preview” your posting before
final submission.
7) Click on the “Submit” button at the bottom of the page to post your ad!

Important notes about classified ad postings:
1) Ads automatically time-out and are hidden from the site. This occurs after 60 days for opportunities
outside UCLA and after 90 for opportunities at UCLA.
2) The poster can see a list of all their ad postings under "My Profile" once logged in. You can remove or
renew old ads for another 60/90 days as desired from your profile page.
3) An email is sent one week before the post expires, giving the details and enough time to extend the
post if desired.

HOWTO - Join the SoPS Facebook Group?

WHY Join?

  1. Stay connected with you UCLA postdoc peer while you are here and after you move on.
  2. Join community organized local Facebook events (eg. ski trips, tennis games etc) and causes (political, environmental etc.).

HOWTO Join?

  1. Login to your Facebook account.
  2. If you are not already a part of the UCLA network, join this network. Under Settings > Account Settings > Networks, add "UCLA" as one of your networks (see image below for how this looks). If you are a former postdoc, note that your Bruin (BOL) email address is a lifetime address and can still be used to join the UCLA network.
  3. Finally, "Join" the group by going to the new SoPS FB group page. The page is accessible by clicking on the blue Facebook icon on the top right side of any SoPS webpage. (Note if you don't see the "Join" link you may have to refresh the page after joining the UCLA network.) Once a member, you can invite other Facebook friends on the UCLA network to join the group too.

Adding the UCLA Network on Facebook:


Maternity Leave Information for UCLA Postdocs

Many Postdocs have questions about Family/Maternity Leave policy at UCLA. We've included some printable information pages to help you prepare for a new family member.

Be sure to download and print the information pages designed to be a guide for Postdocs who become pregnant during their time at UCLA.

Included:

* Checklist of tasks you should take care of at each stage of your pregnancy

* Several scenarios to help you decide which combination of reimbursement
types you would like to utilize during your maternity leave

SoPS Newsletters

Link to SoPS Newsletters

Please check out our current and past SoPS newsletters about activities of the Society of Postdoctoral Scholars and about the postdoctoral experience at UCLA:

http://www.postdoc.ucla.edu/newsletter

Videos of SoPS Career Events

SoPS provides videos of recent career events with guest speakers and panel discussion on career advancement for your convenience:

For videos of recent career events:Link SoPS Videos

http://www.postdoc.ucla.edu/videos

Web Resources for UCLA Postdocs

Cheatsheet

Download and print the SoPS Cheatsheet for your desk.

Postdoc organizations

UCLA Graduate Division Postdoc Pages - These pages are packed with useful information - this should be your first stop for questions about your postdoc.

National Postdoctoral Association - The National Postdoctoral Association (NPA) is a member-driven organization that provides a unique, national voice for postdoctoral scholars.

University of California Council of Postdoctoral Scholars - Their webpage may be a bit out of date but the council is still active and holds regular meetings that are attended by SoPS reps.

Useful Resources

Read the UC Postdoc Policy - APM 390

The Dashew Center for International Students and Scholars (DCISS)

Internationl Issues - http://www.foreignborn.com

Faculty Handbook and Resource Guide

Earthquake Prepardness - California Science center

University of Califiornia

Information about postdocs

Sigma Xi Postdoc Survey - Sigma Xi carried out a national survey of postdocs in 2004 - the results are online fo you to browse.

Around Campus

UCLA live - UCLA Live hosts various music, theater, dance and spoken word around campus.

UCLA Campus Calendar - Keep an eye on this calendar for the latest happenings around campus.

Melnitz Movies - Melnitz movies are free screenings of films at James Bridges Theater. They have a mailing list to keep you updated.

Eateries

There are several coffee shops around campus - sign up for wireless network access at BOL. http://www.bol.ucla.edu/services/wireless

Campus restaurants: http://www.asucla.ucla.edu/restaurants http://food.uquad.com/ucla

Faculty Center - Open to Postdocs

Find Local places http://losangeles.citysearch.com

Reviews Check out member favorites and add your own - http://www.postdoc.ucla.edu/node/773

Transport

Use your BruinCard to get discounts on buses.

Need a car? Sign up for a Zipcar

Tired of driving? Hop in a vanpool

Don’t feel safe walking around at night? Call (310) 794-WALK

Too lazy to walk - take a campus shuttle

FlyAway Bus Service to LAX - http://www.lawa.org/lax/LAXflyAway.cfm

Grievances

Lisa Itagaki is Director Postdoctoral and Visiting Scholar Services (litagaki.at.gdnet.ucla.edu)

UCLA Ombuds Services - (310) 825-7627 http://www.ombuds.ucla.edu

Buying and Selling

Bruin Classifieds - Place your ad in the Daily Bruin Classifieds section. This is also a good place to look for used furniture / apartment shares.

Craig's List LA - This is a great way to find cheap stuff or sell off your junk before you leave.

Recycler LA- Another place to buy and sell your stuff - also available in print form.

iHomeConnect - free, volunteer-driven site focusing on roommates and home rentals.

Los Angeles Listings

Citysearch LA - Citysearch has listings of restaurants, bars, clubs, hotels, shopping, events and more. They have member reviews but these are not always reliable.

LA.com - Another listing site with nightlife, dining, shopping, attractions, hotels, and events.

CultureMob - Events, Tickets, Movies, Theatre, Art, Dance, and Sports in Los Angeles.

Best of the Web: Los Angeles - Online resource for finding information about Los Angeles.

Useful UCLA Websites

Campus Map - This color map is zoomable and is quite pretty. It also links to images of the buildings.

UCLA At your service - This site is essential for managing your benefits online.

UCLA Mailing Lists - Most UCLA societies have a mailing list - here is a list of all of them.

Career Services

UCLA Career Center - Although technically postdocs are not supposed to use the career center we can use some of their facilities. They have a library of useful books and their website has lots of useful information.

findajob.com - self explanatory.

Research Tools

Grants Database - GRAPES - http://www.gdnet.ucla.edu/grpinst.htm

Science NextWave - career tips - http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org

CiteULike - CiteULike is a free service to help academics to share, store, and organise the academic papers they are reading.

Grants Net - Sponsored by HHMI and AAAS, this tool allows you to research available Fellowships and Grants in your field.

Rental Websites

http://www.mdrents.com/rentalserv.htm -- no pets

http://losangeles.craigslist.org -- individuals and complexes

http://www.rent4la.com -- membership fee

http://roque-mark.com

http://www.westsiderentals.com -- membership fee, tends to be $$$

http://www.data.cho.ucla.edu -- must be ucla member to login

http://www.centurywestproperties.net -- somewhat nicer/more expensive, lists amenities

http://www.apartments.com/California/GreaterLosAngeles/WestLosAngelesCou...

http://www.rent.com

http://www.westparkvillageapts.com/leaseterms.php

http://www.sullivan-dituri.com

http://lidoapartments.com -- specializes in Palms area

http://www.rstrents.com

SoPS URLs

SoPS RSS Feeds List - http://www.postdoc.ucla.edu/feeds

Contact SoPS - http://www.postdoc.ucla.edu/contact

Event Videos - http://www.postdoc.ucla.edu/videos

The UCLA Postdoc Survival Guide

WHAT IS IT? The Survival Guide is intended to help new and established postdocs survive life as a postdoc at UCLA. It is intended as a local supplement to a really insightful set of documents provided by the National Postdoc Assoc here:

http://www.nationalpostdoc.org/committees/IPC_Committee/IPSurvivalGuide

Also look at our web resources guide.

The Graduate Division maintains pages with information for postdocs and also has an Orientation Guide for Graduate Students that has some useful information.

YES YOU CAN ADD TO IT! It is a collaborative project and the website allows all logged-in members to edit pages. Don't worry if you mess up - all previous versions are saved. If you want to stay anonymous or don't have a login, feel free to post a topic in the forum or contact us with any information you have instead.

Accommodation


Types of Accommodation


University Housing

UCLA provides housing for postdocs. Here’s the website : http://housing.ucla.edu

There is a complex near campus on Veteran and Wilshire (Weyburn Terrace) and there are several complexes south of the University in the Palms/Venice Area. These are collectively called the University Apartments/South (UA/S) complexes. These are all within 4-5 miles from UCLA (~30min by bus).

Rents are cheaper for UCLA housing. Equivalent housing in the Palms area costs ~$200-$300 more.

Requirements and hierarchy in housing processing:

  1. 1. Married graduate students with kids
  2. 2. Married grad students
  3. 3. Single Grad Students
  4. 4. Married postdocs with kids
  5. 5. Married postdocs
  6. 6. Single postdocs

You can apply for housing online. You have to submit an application (with a fee). After applying, your name will be put on a waiting list for people wanting housing. Usually you will not hear anything for a couple of months from the Housing Office. I encourage you to call them and inquire whether they have received your application and where you are on the waiting list.

Generally speaking, postdocs have lower priority, but if you’re married with kids, you have a pretty good chance. One advice about housing is to keep on calling the housing office and politely ask the person talking to you to see is he/she can expedite your application and whether there’s any vacant apartments. Current residents of UA/S pay on a month-to-month basis and they can leave the complex at any time as long as they give a 1 month notice. If you happen to call when a vacancy just opens, the housing officer might decide to just offer you the apartment. Clearly this means that you have to decide prior to calling them, whether you’re willing to leave your current apartment and move to the UA/S complex in a short period of time.


Appartments


Sharing


How to find a place


Buying Furniture etc


Insurance


Renter's Insurance

Before You Arrive

Arriving at LAX

Most foreign postdocs will arrive in Los Angeles at LAX. To get from the airport to campus you can take a Taxi, Airport Shuttle, arrange for a lift or by Hire Car. If you are a light traveller or short on cash, taking the free LAX parking lot shuttle to the bus transit terminal located on 96th street (Long Term Parking Lot C) and the Culver City Bus route 6 or Big Blue Bus route 3 from there get you to campus for $0.75 (but account for about an hour of travel time).

Getting Around


Car

Los Angeles is the city of the car. This is mainly due to the fact that it is so huge! Public transport is available between some popular destinations (see below) but if you want flexiblity you will need a car.

Click on Car Guide for more information.


Busses


Big Blue Bus

The Big Blue Bus has a fairly extensive service within Santa Monica and parts of LA. For example, you can take one bus from UCLA all the way to LAX. With a Bruin Card, the ride is 25 cents. Because the price is relatively cheap (normal fare is 75 cents) they don’t offer day-passes, but you can get a transfer to another Big Blue Bus or another city bus line. Note that if you need to get off of the bus for some reason and want to get back onto the same line, the transfer is not accepted. (It’s only good for transfer to a different line). Also note that during the summer quarter, the discount with Bruin Card is no longer effective. More maps and information on the website.

http://www.bigbluebus.com/


Culver City Bus

http://www.culvercity.org/depts_bus.asp


Metro Bus and Rail

http://www.mta.net/


General Comments

If you’re riding anything other than the Big Blue Bus (which offers a discount for UCLA employees), you can purchase monthly passes and tokens at the UCLA Central Ticket Office, which are slightly discounted from the daily fare.

http://ev1.evenue.net/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/evenue/ev66/se/Main.d2w/report?linkID=ucla

Most of the city buses have bike racks. Just hope that there aren’t already two bikers on the bus.


Bikes


Bike Safety

California has strict rules for cyclists. You should read the DMV cycling pages for more information:

If you do not hold a CA driving licence you should probably read the Driver’s Handbook.


Commuting by Bike

Biking in LA is not as dangerous as people seem to think as long as you pick your route carefully. Also it beats the traffic and tends to be faster than the bus. If you want to find a safe bike route there is a great website which will give you the safest route from your door to wherever you want to go...check it out!

http://www.bikemetro.com/home/home.asp


Buying a Bike

In terms of buying a bike you can pick up a second hand one from a cool little shop on Pico and either Main or 3rd street in Santa Monica (can’t remember which!) for around $80, a new bike from Sportmart from around $200-$1000 or for better bikes check out Helen’s cycles in Westwood on Gayley for bikes from around $400 to whatever you want to spend!


Ride Share


Walking

If you live in Westwood it is possible to survive without transportation by using local stores and walking to campus. Please see the WestwoodGuide for more information about stores. If you have more information about walking then please edit the ByFoot page.


Taxi

Taxis are not cheap on your own but they can be economical if you are a group. Be very careful about illegal taxis. Check this site for more information about taxis: http://www.taxicabsla.org

Getting Help

Did you know that every postdoc has access to their own financial planner for retirement/savings for FREE?

The university has contracted the services of folks from Fidelity investments who can meet with postdocs as a group or one-on-one to go over investing and to help you make a savings plan. Fidelity is one of the investment firms that offers investment products available through the UC Retirement system. Even though postdocs are not technically part of the UC Retirement system, the vast majority of us are automatically put into the safe Harbor plan - which takes money out of our paychecks and puts in into a savings fund directly. If you want that money to be invested in stocks or bonds (instead of simply a savings fund), you can go online to change your allocations. To learn how to do this - or to track down the Fidelity rep on campus, contact Campus Human resources 10920 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 200 Los Angeles, CA 90024-6504 Campus Mailcode: 146548 (310) 794-0830; (310) 794-0835 FAX and they will get you all sorted out.

Also, when you leave the University - if you never dealt with this money while a postdoc - be sure to contact Human Resources to get your money out of the account. Though I am sure they try, apparently lots of money goes unclaimed every year because people don’t update their addresses with the university - and they simply can’t track you down. So, at the very least, call them when you leave, fill out the paperwork and get your cash back - it will easily be in the thousands of dollars!

Shopping Guide

This guide is aimed at new post-docs not already familiar with the typical stores that carry goods of interest. This information is provided as an orientation tool -- SoPS does not endorse any of these stores.

[DRAFT: This page needs to be tidied up]

Furniture

Ikea (super cheap), Korea Town, Goodwill/Salvation Army, Craig's List, Pottery Barn (more expensive)

Household Goods

Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, Linens and Things, Sears, Surfas (chef’s stuff), Sur La Table (kitchen)

Electrical

Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, Fry’s, UCLA bookstore

Groceries

Ralphs (medium), Whole Foods (high end, organic), Bristol Farms (high end), Wild Oats (high end, organic), Albertsons (medium), Vons (lower), Trader Joe’s (fantastic), 99c store, Food 4Less (low end)

Bulk Foods

Smart and Final, Costco, Big Lots

Drug Stores

CVS, Long's Drugs, Rite Aid, UCLA Pharmacy (westwood medical plaza)

Hardware

OSH, Home Depot

Markets

Farmer’s market, Westwood, Santa Monica, 3rd & Fairfax

International Foods

Cost Plus World Market (International), Santa Monica King’s Head (British), Tudor House (British), India Sweets and Spices (Indian), Soliel (Qeubec), Mitsuwa (Japanese), Artesia Blvd (Little India), Sawtelle (Japanese), European Sausage Co (South African)

Automotive

Repair and Parts

Find mechanics on Klick and Klack's Car Talk database at cars.com Pep Boys, Firestone, Kragen, Autozone, 76 Gas stations / Shell, Costco Fuel / Tires

Rental

Rent-a-Wreck, UCLA Travel Center, FlexiCar, Hertz (UCLA has a nifty contract with them for official business)

Sports and Recreation

REI, Adventure 16, Sports Authority, Big5 Sporting Goods

Comparison Shopping

Consumer reports, Consumer Reviews

Malls

Westside Pavilion, Century City, Santa Monica 3rd Street, Sherman Oaks, Beverly Center, The Grove, DSW, Fox Hills

Shoes

DSW, Shoe Pavillion, Aldo, Footlocker, Footnotes

Bikes

Helen's Cycles Wheeles (sepulveda) Craig's List University Impound lot Sports Authority Costco

Museums

Hammer Moca Getty Center Getty Villa Huntington Gardens Rodeo Drive Art Galleries Science Museum Park (near USC) UCLA Live Aquarium of the Pacific Museum of Jurasic Technology

Mainstream Vistors

Universal Studios Rodeo Drive Disneyland

Visitors

Zuma Beach Santa Monica Mountains Will Rogers Park & Hike Venice Canals Bike Venice Beach La Brea Tar Pits Hollywood Blvd Cantalina Island Channel Islands Mullholand Drive Disney Concert Hall

Snowboarding

Big Bear Mountain High Mammoth Mount Baldy

Discount Airlines

Southwest Frontier Jet Blue Alaska

Travel Agencies

STA Travel Travelocity Expedia Travel worm Orbitz hotels.com sidestep.com priceline.com

Hiking

A foot and a field in LA County Another book Amalfi Wesrtidge Pallisades Temescel Topanga Trippet Ranch Malibu Creek

Personal Finance

http://atyourservice.ucop.edu/contact/retire_save.html


Sports and Recreation


Hiking

The Santa Monica Mountains are great for hiking. There are several trail guide books available - try the UCLA store (Ackerman), REI or Adventure16 to buy them. You can also check the state park website - http://www.nps.gov/samo. There is a local hiking group: http://www.outdoorsclub.org. You can also try posting to the Sports forum.

If you have any recommended trails please edit the HikingGuide.


Surfing

If you live in LA you have to go surfing at least once! The easiest way to get started is to befriend someone who surfs and go out with them. True surfers have lots of boards and are normally happy to let you borrow one (briefly). Please edit the SurfingGuide if you know about places to surf, where to rent boards, good websites etc.


Biking


Yoga


Gyms

Postdocs are considered as staff when it comes to UCLA gym membership. There are several packages available which offer access to different facilities around campus.The Pyramid Pass offers best value and is $175 per year at time of writing. For more information check the official pages:

http://www.recreation.ucla.edu/

Commerical gyms may be more convenient but they are generally more expensive. Some of the (larger, more expensive) apartment buildings have a gym for the use of residents.


Tennis

There are quite a few tennis courts on campus. To use them you must have an appropriate Recreation Card. Check the facilities pages:

http://www.recreation.ucla.edu/recreate/facilities.aspx

Other tennis courts are scattered around LA. There are courts in Westwood Park behind the Federal Building car park. These are free on weekdays but $8/hour at weekends. You can book in advance.

Stoner Recreation ground has courts that are free all week and are floodlight at night. Find these at Stoner / Nebraska.

You can take very cheap (<$10 per quarter) group tennis lessons through UCLA recreation if you have a Rec. card. All levels from beginning to advanced are covered in weekly sessions.


Badminton

Badminton courts are setup in the Woodden Center main hall at certain times. Check the recreation pages for times.


Table Tennis

There are tables in the Woodden Center. You have to be a member to use them.


Squash / Racquetball

The Wooden Center has 2 squash and about 8 racquetball courts. You can hire racquetballs and racquetball racquets at the desk opposite the entrance as you walk in (not on the right). You can book courts but you must do so the day before. They get pretty busy during the quarter. If you want someone to play you can post a message to the sports forum.


Swimming


Aerobics / Step / Taebo Classes


Snowboarding / Skiing


Skiing and Snowboarding


Where to go

Have a look at http://www.californiaskiresorts.com/

The nearest are:

Then there is Mammoth Mountain which is 300 miles away but much bigger: http://www.mammothmountain.com/


Where to buy equipment

* Sportmart * Sportchalet * Doc’s Ski Haus * Big 5 Sporting Goods


Renting

You can rent equipment at the resorts for about $25-35 per day.


Lessons

Group lessons are normally fairly inexpensive and you can sometimes get good deals online. Mammoth has an $80 beginner ticket that includes a 3 hour lesson and rental. You can also get lower lift only passes which are much cheaper than full mountain.


Getting There

You’ll need a car or a ride to get to most resorts independently. There are also groups like 4 Seasons West Ski Club. They do everything from day trips to local mountains to week long trips in other countries. They are apparently a fun group.


Other Websites


Horseback Riding


Volleyball

There are beach volleyball courts on Santa Monica and Venice beaches. They are free to use.


Softball / Baseball


Soccer


Rock Climbing

There is a rock climbing wall in the Wooden Center.


Mountain Biking

There are trails in the Santa Monica Mountains that are ok to cycle on. Try these sites for inspiration:

Tax Information

Tax Information for Post-doctoral Scholars

Post-docs on the Payroll System:

US Citizens & Green card holders

– Payroll will withhold taxes from each paycheck according to the withholding information you submitted when you were hired. Tax filing links are available below.CA State Tax:

Non-residents

– To determine your tax status based on your country of origin, refer to the following IRS publication: [[http://www.irs.gov/publications/p519/index.html|Publication 519 – Tax information for aliens]]

Post-docs on Fellowship:

US Citizens & Green card holders – You will NOT have tax withholding from your paycheck, so you must file estimated taxes on a quarterly basis. The deadlines for 2005 taxes are:

* For Jan 1 – Mar 31 Apr 15
* For Apr 1 – May 31 Jun 15
* For Jun 1 – Aug 31 Sep 15
* For Sep 1 – Dec 31 Jan 15 (2006)

Federal Taxes: To determine your estimated federal taxes, refer to the following IRS publication: Publication 505 – Tax Withholding and Estimated Tax

CA State Taxes: You must also file estimated CA state taxes. Follow these instructions from the CA Franchise Tax Board: CA Form 540-ES To determine estimated taxes

Social Security: Finally, fellowship holders are considered self-employed, so you must file a Schedule SE form in addition to your IRS 1040 each year. This form includes payments for your Social Security and Medicare taxes. Information on this form is available here: Publication 533, Self-Employment Tax

Nonresidents – You will have federal taxes withheld from your stipend awards. One’s visa status determines the rate of withholding. Payees on F (student) or J (exchange visitor) visas are automatically assigned a withholding rate of 14%. All other visa holders are assigned a withholding rate of 30%. If your home country has an applicable fellowship tax treaty, you should complete the tax treaty packet, which, when returned to the Graduate Division, may reduce or eliminate federal tax withholding from the stipend.

Your CA State taxes will also be withheld.

Tax Preparation Services for Foreign Students

Tax Filing Information:

Federal Tax:
* IRS Website
* Form 1040 and Instructions (there may be more appropriate forms for you, so check the IRS website before filing)

CA State Tax:

* CA Franchise Tax Board Website
* Resident Forms and Instructions: 540/540A and 540 2EZ
* Nonresident Forms and Instructions: 540NR

Things to do

Attractions

Los Angeles has hundreds of museums, galleries, theme parks, famous landmarks and other attractions. Check out the attractions section of www.la.com for a comprehensive guide.

Nightlife

Nightlife is less important in LA than in other cities mainly due to the traffic. Westwood, a college town of many 10s of thousands of students, has only 2 bars! Going out mostly involves dining - see next section. If you do brave going out there is still plenty to do - comedy, music, dance - you name it you can find it. Check out www.la.com nightlife section or the weekly free paper:

http://www.laweekly.com/

Events

Check listings in http://www.laweekly.com/

Other Guide Sites

Where to Eat

Online Reviews

L.A. Living by Eugene Volokh

Based on 28 years of living and eating in Los Angeles, including 3 years as a UCLA law student and 10 years as a UCLA law prof. (reproduced with permission from the author)

EATING CHEAP

(about $15 or less, less if you economize)

Argentinian: Empanada's Place, 3811 Sawtelle Bl., pretty much on the corner of Sawtelle & Venice, (310) 391-0888, open until 9 pm every night, but only until 8 pm Mon; also 1040 Holloway, just a bit north of Santa Monica on La Cienega, (310) 358-0588, open until 9 pm every night. This is a hole-in-the-wall that specializes in the stuffed Argentinian pastries called empanadas. I love both the chewy dough and the yummy fillings, of which they have about a dozen varieties; I also recommend the Argentinian tamale, which is more like a corn pudding than like the Mexican version. They have little else - just sandwiches and a not very interesting salad - but the empanadas are well worth the trip. No liquor license, so bring your own beer or wine.

Brazilian: Cafe Brasil, 10831 Venice Bl., Culver City, (310) 837-8957, open until 10 pm daily, 10 or so minutes from campus if there's no traffic. Very good stuff, cheap, and mildly exotic; again, bring your own alcohol.

Cambodian: Battambang, 648 New High St., Chinatown, (213) 620-9015. Cambodian is, unsurprisingly, like Thai and Vietnamese, but there are quite a few differences. Try pretty much any of the dishes that aren't the normal Chinese ones. The sour fish soup and the sour beef soup are particularly good, as is the "curry fish" entrée (which I believe is actually made with fish and pork).

Chinese: JR Seafood, 11901 Santa Monica Bl., a bit east of Bundy, (310) 268-2463, open Sun-Thu until 10 pm, Fri-Sat -11 pm. Seafood and a lot more. Particularly good: Their special pork spareribs (under specials, not appetizers) and the orange beef. Call ahead for reservations, since it's usually jammed.

Chinese Islamic: China Islamic Restaurant, 7727 E. Garvey Ave., Rosemead, (626) 288-4246, open daily except Wed until 9:30 pm. This is probably my favorite of the regional Chinese cuisines. There is no pork or alcohol, because of Islamic dietary laws, but there are excellent lamb, bread, and lots of other goodies. Especially noteworthy: Lamb with green onions, sesame bread (add some hot chili oil or soy sauce to liven it up), any noodle dish with dough slice noodles, chicken curry, and sliced ox tongue (get over your inhibitions). Go about 15 minutes east past Downtown on the 10, take the Del Mar exit south to Garvey, take Garvey west a few blocks. It ends up being about 30 minutes from the interchange of the 10 and the 405, but very much worth the drive. As with most food in the New China­town area of Monterey Park/San Gabriel/environs, the prices are very low.

Cuban: Versailles, 10319 Venice Blvd. (near Motor), Palms, (310) 558-3168, open daily until 10 pm. Versailles, it turns out, is the name of a town in Cuba, not just a palace in France. Cheap, tasty, quick (but not fast) food. Check out especially the garlic roast chicken and garlic roast pork.

Dim Sum: There are no great dim sum restaurants on the Westside, so one still has to go to the old Chinatown in Downtown or the new one in Monterey Park. Try Empress Pavilion, 988 N. Hill St., (213) 617-9898, in Chinatown (open until 10 pm), or Ocean Star, 145 N. Atlantic Bl., (626) 308-2128, in Monterey Park (only about 10 minutes further than downtown). The time to go on a weekend is 10:30 am any later, and you can get lines that are 30 minutes to an hour long. For Ocean Star, take the 10 east to Atlantic, Atlantic south a few blocks; after dim sum, stop by Shun Fat, a Chinese supermarket that's just a block north.

Italian: Cafe Angelino, 8735 W. 3rd St., in Beverly Hills a few buildings east of Robertson, (310) 246-1177, open daily until 10 pm. Tasty and inexpensive California Italian food. I particularly recommend the Antipasti Assortiti (a plate of roasted and marinated vegetables), the roast chicken with potatoes (I believe a leg and thigh with potatoes is still only about $4), and the spinach and ricotta ravioli with alfredo sauce (on the menu it's with tomato sauce, but it's best with the alfredo).

Indonesian: Indo Café, in a little strip mall at 10428 National Bl. (between Motor and Over­land), (310) 815-1290, open Tue-Thu until 9:30 pm, Fri-Sun until 10 pm, closed Mon. As you might guess, Indonesian food is akin to Thai and other southeast Asian cuisines, but a bit different. Indo Cafe is a good specimen of it - interesting, tasty, and cheap.

Japanese (Noodles): Yashima, 11301 Olympic Bl., on the corner of Olympic and Sawtelle, just a titch west of the 405, (310) 473-5297, open daily until 10 pm. No sushi, but excellent noodles, rice dishes, and tempura.

Mexican: La Serenata, 10924 W. Pico Bl., (310) 441-9667, a couple of blocks west of Westwood Bl., about ten minutes from campus, open until 10 pm during the week and 10:30 pm on the weekend. A bit more expensive than most Mexican holes-in-the-wall, but worth it. Make reservations.

Middle Eastern dive: Falafel King, 1059 Broxton Ave., a block west of Westwood and a few blocks north of Wilshire, (310) 208-4444, open daily until midnight and Fridays and Saturdays until 1 am. Very cheap and very good, even if you (like me) aren't wild about middle Eastern food. I go for the various salads, mostly with eggplant, zucchini, and the like, and for the best potato chips (batter-fried!) I've ever had; but the meat is very good, too.

Middle Eastern dive: Sunnin, 1779 Westwood Blvd., a block north of Westwood, (310) 477-2358, open Monday-Saturday until 9:30 pm, Sundays until 9. Also very good; I like Falafel King a bit better, but other friends of mine disagree. Note: No liquor license, and they don't let you bring your own. Drat.

Middle Eastern: Gaby's Mediterranean, 10445 Venice Blvd., (310) 559-1808, open Sunday-Thursday until 11, Fridays and Saturday until midnight. A bit less downscale than Falafel King and Sunnin, but still inexpensive and good.

Sushi: Hide Sushi, 2040 Sawtelle (a few blocks north of Olympic and West of the 405), (310) 477-7242, until 9 pm weekdays, 8 pm Sun, closed Mon. Cheap, tasty, and usually crowded, unless you get there early.

Thai: Sanamluang, 5176 Hollywood Bl., a few blocks east of Western (and the 101) in Hollywood, (323) 660-8006, open until 4 am. Much better and much cheaper than most Thai places in West L.A., and I imagine more authentic, too. Try especially the roasted duck noodle soup, the Indian curry soup, and the Pad See Ew; but it's all great.

If the Thai dessert place, Kamonthai Ramsong, 5185 Hollywood Bl., (323) 667-2055, across Hollywood is open - it closes at 10 - go there and try the little corn-and-coconut pancakes, about the size of an old Eisenhower dollar, but thicker. They're very good, and virtually never seen at Thai restaurants.

EATING MUCH LESS EXPENSIVELY THAN YOU’D THINK

(about $20-$30 a head, but for fabulous food)

French: Soleil, 1386 Westwood, 310-441-5384, open Mon-Sat until 10 pm, closed Sun. Very good food and a great deal at those prices.

More French: Cafe Bizou, 14016 Ventura Bl. (east of Hazeltine), Sherman Oaks, (818) 788-3536, about fifteen minutes from Westwood north on the 405 and the east on the 101. The last reservation during the week is 9 pm, Fri-Sat 9:30 pm. Deservedly popular; make reservations a few days in advance.

Still More French: Le Petit Bistro, 631 N. La Cienega Bl. (a bit north of Melrose), West Hollywood, (310) 289-9797, open daily until 11 pm and Fri-Sat until midnight or so. Excellent food, fun and bustling atmosphere. Whatever meat dish you order - and [EV1] there are lots of great ones, from the lamb chops to the veal short ribs to the duck - make sure you have some of the french fries (pommes frites). Half a block south of the real Melrose Place, a little one-block street occupied largely by very ritzy furniture galleries, with no apartment houses filled with sex-crazed young adults to be seen.

Southwestern: Authentic Cafe, 7605 Beverly Blvd., between Fairfax & La Brea, about 20 minutes east of UCLA, (323) 939-4626, open Sun-Thu until 10 pm, Fri-Sat until 11 pm. Great food, and a pleasant, busy ambiance.

BAKERIES

Good cakes are the key to a fulfilling, meaningful existence, just as supermarket pastries are a sure ticket to Hell. They liven up big parties, are a must for dinners, and let you have cute little sit-down teas for eight to twelve of your friends, where you just have tea or coffee with two or three desserts - no cooking, little expense, and you can feel like you're entertaining. Be sure to invite me. My mother discovered the first two bakeries listed below within about a year of our family's arrival here from Russia, and we've been living off them ever since.

Central European: B & L Gourmet Pastries, 8556 W. 3rd St. in West Hollywood (between Robertson and La Cienega, a block or so from the Beverly Center), (310) 271-8333. Closes at 6 pm weekdays, 5 pm Saturdays, closed Sundays. Fabulous pastries, great prices - you can get wonderful cakes ranging from $7 to $15 or so.

Try the Chocolate Truffle Cake, the Vienna Cheesecake, the Vienna Apricot Cake, the Nusse Torte (hazelnut mousse), the almond cookies, and anything else. The fresh plum tart is amazing, but it's only available from mid-August to mid-October (if for that long). If you need bread for canapes, buy a sliced French baguette; French bread usually bores me, but this one is excellent.

Oh, and the owners' daughter-in-law is a UCLA Law School graduate, and was in one of my classes. Small world; this was many years after I'd started shopping there.

French: Michel Richard, 310 S. Robertson Blvd. in West Hollywood (between 3rd St. and Burton Way), (310) 275-5707, open Mon-Sat until 10 pm, Sun until 4 pm. Besides Central European, the other great dessert cuisine is French, and Michel Richard is a wonderful specimen. It's more expensive than B & L, though no more expensive than most good French bakeries. The best things here are the coffee eclairs, but everything else is good, too. Try the chocolate eclairs, the mado, and the tarts.

Russian: Gastronom, 7859 Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood, on the northeast corner of Santa Monica and Fairfax, (323) 654-9456, 9 am to 9 pm daily. Russian cuisine is not one of the world’s finest, but it has its high points. To begin with, my mother did write an excellent Russian cookbook called The Art of Russian Cuisine (MacMillan), which you must go buy right now. And on top of that, the Gastronom Russian Deli has an excellent cake called a Smetannik - a sort of honey cake with a tasty icing that my American-born friends rave about. Try also the Napoleon, a custard layer cake that's in my view much better than the small French pastry of that name.

FOOD STORES

East Asian Supermarket: See Shun Fat, mentioned above under "Dim Sum"; the supermarket in the San Gabriel Square shopping mall, mentioned below under "Fun Food etc. Shopping"; and 99 Market, mentioned above under "Vietnamese". If you don't want to go to Monterey Park or the Valley, try Bangkok Supermarket, 4757 Melrose Ave., 2 blocks east of Western, in Hollywood, (323) 662-9705, open 9 am to 9 pm.

Good Cheap Yuppie Food: Trader Joe's, which you must have heard about. It has many locations, but the one closest to UCLA is at 10850 National, on the corner of National and Westwood, just south of the 10. Anything TJ's has is probably cheaper than at the supermarkets, as well as generally more interesting and often tastier. Especially good for cheeses and similar snacks, beer, and wine. (310) 470-1917, open 9 am to 9 pm.

Russian Market: See Gastronom, mentioned above under "Bakeries - Russian." If you like pickled herring, the Latvian pickled herring is fabulous.

Wine: The Wine House, 2311 Cotner (between Olympic & Pico, immediately to the east of the 405), (310) 479-3731. Not as cheap as Trader Joe's, but not very expensive, a vast selection, and reliable advice. Open Mon-Thu 10-7, Fri 10-9, Sat 10-7, Sun 11-6.

BETWEEN MEALS

Bookstores, specialty:

  1. Cooking: Cook's Library, 8373 W. 3rd St., a couple blocks west of La Cienega in West Hollywood, (323) 655-3141. Mon 1-5, Tue-Sat 11-6, closed Sun.
  1. Movies: Samuel French, 7623 Sunset Bl., a couple blocks east of Fairfax in West Hollywood, (323) 876-0570. Mon-Fri 10-6, Sat 10-5, closed Sun.

Cleaners: Hollyway Cleaners on 8359 Santa Monica Bl., a few blocks east of La Cienega in West Hollywood, is a good cleaner that keeps amazingly good hours: It's open every day, Mon-Fri until midnight, Sat-Sun until 9 pm.

Fun Food etc. Shopping: The San Gabriel Square shopping mall, a giant East Asian complex with restaurants, a great supermarket, a Japanese-accented department store, and lots more. Valley Bl. & Del Mar in San Gabriel, a few blocks north of the 10 Freeway (Del Mar exit), about 15 minutes east of Downtown.

Target Shooting (Pistols and Rifles): LAX Firing Range, 927 W. Manchester, a few blocks west of the 405 on Manchester, about 20 minutes from campus. An indoor range, most­ly for pistols though you can also shoot rifles. You can rent a gun for $5 and buy ammunition at competitive rates (some ranges charge big markups on ammunition, but this one doesn't). Between range fees, gun rentals, and ammunition, about $20 a person. (310) 568-1515, weekdays 12-10, Sat 11-10, Sun 12-6.

Target Shooting (Trap and Skeet): Triple B, 831 N. Rosemead Bl. (immediately off the 60 Freeway), South El Monte, (626) 579-5201. Tue-Thu 10-9, Fri 11-5, Sat-Sun 8-5. An outdoor range for shooting at moving clay targets with shotguns. Between range fees and ammunition, $13 per round of 25 targets. If you need to rent a shotgun, you can do so for $10 per day.

Guide for Committee Members

Here are some tips for organizing events and using the website to advertise.

See also Getting Food, What to Organize, Reserving a Room

Getting Money

The SoPS money is controlled by Graduate Division and all expenses must be approved. Each event will be evaluated on a case by case basis so please hit Contact Us or discuss with board members.

Advertising

Postdoc Mailing List

You can email everyone on the UCLApostdoc-l mailing list by posting to this address: uclapostdoc-l____AT____lists.ucla.edu

Your post must be moderated before it can be sent - please use the contact us link to alert us that you are posting. Only list members are allowed to post to the list. Please use the address that you are signed up with as the FROM address.

Flyers

Flyers are a good way to advertise but you need to be careful where you post them. Most notice boards, elevators and other places around campus are strictly controlled by administrative staff. Make sure you get permission before posting anywhere. The simplest way is to post an email to committee members encouraging them to print and post in their surrounding buildings. If you need a large number printed the Graduate Division may be able to help. For larger / more expensive posters we may be able to get money to print them using campus services.

Adding information to the website

Permission

If you want to add information to the site you will need the appropriate rights setup for your account. Contact us to have this setup.

Events

Click on 'Create Content' link in your menu. Follow that link and go to 'Event' and then fill in the form as required.

You should set some Tags for your event. For example, social, pub, evening OR career, academic etc.

If you want your event to appear on the front page - expand the Publishing Options menu and click on 'Promoted to front page'.

If you want people to be able to sign up for your event - click on the signup menu to expand it and fill in the information.

You can attach files using the Attach Files menu.

You can create a short URL using the URL Path Settings. This will give your event a shortcut like:

http://www.postdoc.ucla.edu/your_event

News Stories

Click on Create Content in your user menu. Go to Story and add information as required.

Videoing Events

We normally try and borrow a camera from someone. We now have two MiniDV tapes for recording events.

UCLA Audio Visual Services

If you can't get hold of equipment then you can rent it from Audio Visual Services. Check their website for more information:

http://www.oid.ucla.edu/units/avs/

Their rates are quite high so if you can find departmental resources this may be better.

Projectors

The following rooms have built in projectors:

# CHS x3-105 (floors 1-6) # Boyer Hall 159/173

The following rooms do not have projectors:

Laptops Try and encourage the speaker to bring their own laptop. If they can’t then you may be able to find a committee member willing to bring theirs.

Getting Food

Money

Our budget comes through the Grad Division so FIRST you need to contact Kyle Cunningham to OK the expenditure. Tell him the date of the event and the approximate amount of money you plan to spend.

UCLA catering

Once you get the OK - go to http://ayscatering.mednet.ucla.edu/

Click on Proceed-Order Form and download the order form. Go back to the Menu’s button to figure out what you want.

Sign the order form and bring it over to Claudia Mitchell-Kernan in Grad Division for her staff to fill in the direct billing account information. She will also have to sign it - so be sure she is around town when you do the ordering.

Fax the completed order form to 825-8720

Pick up the food near the Med Cafe in CHS room 16-144.

Other catering

If you get food from another source please post here how you got it.

Reserving a Room

RPB Auditorium - Jules Stein Eye Institute, 100 Stein Plaza, Westwood, CA 90024 (capacity 156)
Call Theresa Stockstill at JSEI Administration Office PHONE: (310) 206-6641. If the event is free and beneficial to students/postdocs/faculty, the $525 fee might be waived provisionally.
http://www.jsei.org/PDF%20Documents/AuditoriumReservationForm.pdf

GONDA First Floor Conference Room (behind Cafe Synapse) - (seats 63 theater-style)
Contact Deb Kozel — dkozel [at] mednet [dot] ucla [dot] edu, x5-5061.
http://www.gonda.ucla.edu/rooms/

CHS / MRL

If you want a room in CHS or MRL – Susie Sylvestre is the person to contact. Susie’s number is 825-6373. Just call her and she will tell you of availability and you can just sign up for the room.

These are the following rooms in these buildings over which she has control: CHS Room 13-105 (131 seats) CHS Room 53-105 (160 seats) CHS Room 23-105 (134 seats) CHS Room 63-105 (215 seats) CHS Room 33-105 (134 seats) CHS Room 73-105 (210 seats) CHS Room 43-105 (160 seats) MRL Room 1-441 (40-50 seats)

Boyer Hall

If you want a room with kitchenette facilities, Boyer Hall 159/173 is available and can seat about 100 people. You’ll need to contact Bo Tendis at 825-1018 or botendis [at] mednet [dot] ucla [dot] edu. Bo is located in MBI 168 and handles all the scheduling for MBI.

Molecular Science Building 3440

MSB 3440 seats approximately 50-60 people and is located east of Boyer. To book, go to the Chemistry Department website and click on Facilities–>Room Reservation. Here you can check whether the room is available and book it online by emailing Denise Mantoya (denise [at] chem [dot] ucla [dot] edu)

The Factor Building

Factor 3468, located east of the Life Sciences building and seats approximately 40-50 people. This room is part of the Nursing department. Contact Zoe Taylor (ztaylor [at] sonnet [dot] ucla [dot] edu) for more information.

Boelter Hall Penthouse

The Boelter Hall Penthouse is located on the 8th floor of Boelter Hall. Those not familiar with Boelter Hall may have a tough time finding it. You should take the northwest elevator to the 8th floor and it will be on your right. The penthouse holds 50-60 people and has some A/V equipment in the room. You must reserve the room in advance at a cost of $25/event. Reservations can be made through the following: http://www.matserv.ucla.edu/penthouseReserve.html.

Other locations Please edit this page and include information about how to book other rooms when you find it.

Chemistry, Geology and MIMG

Rooms availability can be checked online:

http://cals.chem.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/cals/webevent.cgi

Mol Sci 3440 – 80 chairs
Mol Sci 3515 – 20 chairs
Young 2033 – 85 chairs
Young 2050 – 19 chairs
Young 3096 – 22 chairs
Young 5076 – 18 chairs
Geology 4608 – 18 chairs

What to organize?

Any event of interest to postdocs should be proposed to the VP of the appropriate committee.

Panels

Panel events are often very helpful since questions can be asked of the panel members. We have found that getting a list of questions before the event can improve the event. You can use the forum, mailing list or RSVP system to get people to ask questions.

UCLA Resources

UCLA has a huge pool of resources and if possible these should be used before resorting to an external speaker. Check with the Career Center or Center for Student Programming to see if they already have expertise in the area you are interested in.

External Speakers

External speakers can often be very expensive but if there is sufficient demand, and lack of local resources, their fees can often be found.

Alumni

Postdocs do not have access to the UCLA alumni database but you may be able to find alumni from your graduate school database. If you were a graduate student at UCLA, or if you can find one, they may be able to help you find someone willing to give a talk.

Company Reps

Some companies are willing to send representatives if they can obtain a benefit from interacting with postdocs or graduate students. Others wish to recruit postdocs and are keen to visit. Check with the Career Center to see if they have contacts within the company.

Other

If you have anything to add to this page then please login and edit it. Click New Revision when finished.

Society Guide

History

The society was formed following a meeting called by Eileen Anderson-Fye mid-2004. Graham Davies setup a dynamic website for the society and soon several career and social events were organized by a core team of half-a-dozen postdocs.

In December 2004 the society became a registered student organization, drafted a constitution and elected officers. The society's name was changed from SPS to SoPS, or Society of Postdoctoral Scholars to avoid confusion with UCLA's Student Psychological Services.

In 2005 SoPS secured a budget with the assistance of the Graduate Division to fund activities relevant to postdocs. To date we have used this money to provide refreshments at workshops, pay professional speakers, fund travel to UC Council of Postdoctoral Scholars meetings and pay for a summer BBQ.

In the intervening time SoPS has grown steadily with the help of a few willing volunteers. SoPS officers and committee members have arranged numerous events, many of which were filmed and are available on this site for viewing.

Our Mission

Our mission is to enhance the postdoctoral experience at UCLA by providing resources to aid postdoctoral scholars with their professional and personal development. We aim to provide information and support on a range of topics including career advancement, financial support, and childcare/family issues. We are also focused on representing postdoctoral causes to the university administration. In addition, we would like to facilitate social interaction between postdocs at UCLA, with the goal of building a community who can benefit from each others’ knowledge and experiences.

Membership

Anyone is eligible for membership, simply create an account on this website using the registration form. We also encourage you to join the uclapostdoc-l mailing list. This list is reserved for official postdoc-related announcements only and is very low volume (at most a few messages per week).

Officers and Committees

The society is run by a President and 5 Vice Presidents who chair committees dedicated to promoting Advocacy, Business and Entrepreneurial Development, Career Development, Communications and Social Activities. Any SoPS member can serve on the Executive Committee and elections are held every year. Positions often open up during the year so please don't hesitate to contact us if you are interested in becoming more involved.

Committee meetings are held on a roughly monthly basis and all SoPS members and UCLA postdocs are encouraged to attend. Times and locations of meetings are published on this site. For more information about each committee see the Committee Guide.

Reasons for helping out

Website

This SoPS website is a collaborative project to provide information of interest to UCLA postdocs. The society is run by postdocs and everyone is encouraged to post messages to our forum, join our mailing lists and get involved. We hold regular career development and social events so check back here often. If you have any comments or suggestions you can send the officers a direct message. For more general postdoc information you should visit the Graduate Division Postdoc Site. To post a message to our forum please login or create an account (use guest & postdoc if you don't want to create an account) and then choose a forum here.

Committees

(Links to individual committee sites can be found at the bottom of this page.)

 

Overview.

SoPS action committees meet to discuss matters of concern to postdocs. Each committee is constituted of several members (all voluntary like SoPS itself) who have offered to contribute to a particular aspect of postdoc life. Committees operate as independent executive bodies, with the head being an elected member of SoPS and given the designation of vice-president (See the Society Constitution for more details). The VPs are responsible for managing the progress, the budget, and making sure that the activites of the committee comply with the constitution.


Advocacy Committee

Advocacy Committee

Current Members:
Aditi Joshi - Chair
Elizabeth Marlow
Christian Abraham
Dimitrios Vatakis

The Advocacy Committee exists to identify and address problems and concerns of postdocs that should be brought to the attention of university administration. Typical problems most postdocs encounter are insufficient salary, housing problems, lack of childcare options, deficient mentoring, and visa troubles. The committee will provide information about policies in UCLA, concerned officials and a forum to share your experiences. By contacting committee members directly, or posting to the forum, postdocs can bring problems to the committee's attention.

The committee is always seeking new members. We typically meet no more than once a month over lunch to discuss any new issues and brainstorm potential solutions. If you are interested in joining this committee, email Aditi: aditi.draditi at gmail dot com

We are currently seeking new committee members. Let Aditi know if you'd be interested in joining.

http://www.gdnet.ucla.edu/

Advocacy Committee Meeting Reports

Advocacy June 2005

Advocacy July 2005

Career Development Committee

The Career Development Committee organizes events that are tailored to the career needs of postdocs at UCLA. We aim to provide information and training on a wide range of subjects fitting loosely into three categories:

1) Preparing for a career in academia

2) Preparing for a career outside the academic sphere

3) Personal and professional development

The committee meets every month to come up with ideas for events, and to deal with the organization of these events. All postdocs are welcome to attend these meetings or to post their suggestions for career events to the website.

Video Webcasts of Previous Career Events
Panel Discussions: From Postdoc to Faculty, Surviving as an Assistant Professor, Academic Publishing, Women in Science, Career Opportunities Liberal Art Colleges

Business and alternative Careers Paths: Intellectual Property, University Based Start-Up, Doctors without Borders.

Minutes of Career Development Committee Meetings

Fellowship and Grant Writing resources - A list of courses on grant-writing held at UCLA, as well as online resources.

Fellowships

UCLA awards - coming soon!

GRAPES database - The UCLA Graduate and Postdoctoral Extramural Support (GRAPES) Database lists many major fellowships

Grant-writing courses at UCLA
UCLA K30 training

NIH Grant Writing Course at UCLA

Online Resources
The Grant Doctor

Grants Net

International Fellowships and Grants

USA Jobs.com - The official website for employment with the United States Federal Government. The United States Federal government hires Ph.D.'s for a wide variety of positions, from scientists to intelligence analysts.

External Career Resources

UCLA Career Center - Although technically postdocs are not supposed to use the career center we have access to some of their facilities. They have a library of useful books and their website has lots of useful information.

UCLA Skillnet -UCLA Campus Human Resources Training and Development Program includes courses on research administration, management and many other topics important for career development.

OID (UCLA Office of Instructional Development) - UCLA Office of Instructional Development runs courses on a range of subjects, with a particular focus on effective teaching. Postdocs interested in learning to teach or gaining teaching experience should look at the CUTF page.

UCLA CHR Traning and Development - UCLA Campus Human Resources: Current Courses listed in monthly Newsletter.

Next Wave - One-stop shop for information on posdoc career issues.

Science Careers Forum - Interesting forum dealing with a range of issues related to careers in academia and careers not in academia.

Bruin Toastmaster - Campus group of Toastmaster International - A place for Improvement of communication and leadership skills

The Chronicle of Higher Education - Weekly paper on higher education in the US - resource of teaching career related issues and job postings.

Survival Skills and Ethics Program of the University of Pittsburgh - Large collection of science career related literature.

Michael Alley from Virginia Tech is the author of The Craft of Scientific Writing - at Virgnia Tech you also find a tutorial to improve your writing skills.

A Fun Read

Piled High and Deeper - A free online comic strip created and written by a Ph.D. When no one will understand the trials and tribulations of your work, check it out.

Career Committee Minutes Thursday July 20, 2006

Career Development Meeting

Boyer Hall 6th Floor Conference Room

Thursday 20th July, 2006

Chair: Sehat Nauli (SN)

Attending: Marcus Kaufmann (MK), Maggie Wang (MW)

Election of new Vice Presidents


SN will serve as VP of the Career Committee until December 2006




 

Brown Bag Lunches


Two BB Lunches are planned for August and September.


SN is organizing a lunch with Earl Weinstein from the UCLA Technology Transfer Group for a lunch between 12-2p on Monday, August 7th. Dr. Weinstein got his Ph.D at MIT working on micro RNA and is currently working with UCLA scientists interested in starting companies or licensing their technologies to other companies.


MK will plan a lunch with Eric Scerri, a Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. The tentative time is September and MK will work out the exact time/date by the next CC meeting. Dr. Scerri requested that the lunch be held in a room with a projector so he could show some slides from his latest book. Dr. Scerri studies how chemical concepts could be explained through Physics as well as how certain aspects of Chemistry is being taught.

 


Events


Two events are planned for Fall 2006.


A seminar discussing various aspects of time management for postdocs and faculty. MW (with some help by SN) is organizing this event. MW has contacted Prof. Sandra Schmid from The Scripps Institute to give a talk regarding time management for postdocs. Dr. Schmid gave a similar talk at the UCSF Postdoc Society and came highly recommended. SN will contact Christine Wilson at the Grad Student Resource Center to see if the GSRC will be interested in co-sponsoring this event. MW will coordinate the date/location of the event with Christine Wilson and Dr. Schmid. In addition, MW will contact Kyle Cunningham to request parking permit, gas reimbursements, and lunch costs for Dr. Schmid.


MK suggested a writing seminar in the last meeting, but currently could not find any compatible speaker for this event. This event might be organized in the future, but will currently stay in the backburner.


SN received an email from Anne Simon indicating that she is interested in organizing an event related to immigration issues for postdocs. This event will be organized along with Ajay Gopal from the Communications Committee. Since neither could attend this meeting, SN will meet with both on August 2nd to discuss the detail of this proposal. SN will inform Committee members regarding the event at the next Committee meeting


For the Fall quarter, the Career Committee thus have 4 events planned, three of which are firm. In the coming months, we will further discuss other events that might be of interest to the postdoc community.

 

Career Committee Minutes Tuesday June 20, 2006

Career Development Meeting

Boyer Hall 6th Floor Conference Room

Tuesday 20th June, 2006

Chair: Sehat Nauli (SN)

Attending: Marcus Kaufmann (MK), Catherine Millar (CM), Graham Davies (GD) & Yungok Ihm (YI)


Election of new Vice Presidents


The election time and date will be discussed at the next SoPS Executive Committee Board Meeting to occur on Wednesday, June 21st, 2006. SN has agreed to serve as VP of the Career Committee until December 2006


GD mentioned a couple of things related to the SoPS in general. There are varying amount of resources available for Postdoc Society at the various UCs. UCLA is probably right in the middle. GD would like SoPS to have more resources/budget to plan events but also to have a backbone staff that would take care of the logistics of events such as providing food etc. In order to achieve this, the SoPS will have to write a letter convincing UCLA administration that a separate budget hast to be set aside for SoPS. All members of the Career Committee will work on writing a draft to give to GD as soon as possible.


 

Brown Bag Lunches


Two BB Lunches are planned for August and September.


In August, SN will coordinate with Earl Weinstein from the UCLA Technology Transfer Group for a lunch between 12-2p. Dr. Weinstein got his Ph.D at MIT working on micro RNA and is currently working with UCLA scientists interested in starting companies or licensing their technologies to other companies.


In September, MK will plan a lunch with Eric Scerri, a Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Dr. Scerri studies how chemical concepts could be explained through Physics as well as how certain aspects of Chemistry is being taught.

 


Events


Two events are planned for Fall 2006.


A seminar discussing various aspects of time management for postdocs and faculty. This event will be organized by Maggie Wang with the help of SN. GD suggested a potential speaker, Prof. Sandra Schmid from The Scripps Research Institute. Maggie/SN will contact her before our committee next meeting.


A seminar on writing will be organized by MK. MK contacted Michael Alley at the Univ of Virginia, who wrote a book on scientific writing. As it happened, Prof Alley usually gives daylong workshops on writing. Given the cost associated with flying him to UCLA and hosting a 1-day event, this is probably not going to happen anytime soon. He did suggest a few names of potential speakers to MK and MK will investigate which ones would be available to come before our committee next meeting.


There were some discussions about what future events will be interesting. YI mentioned that she's mostly interested in events exploring academic careers. Based on our Committee's experience in the past, the most well-attended events were those about academic careers for example: the Hiring Committe, Surviving as an Asssistant Professor etc. Less attended events were those exploring optional careers such as the Careers in the Liberal Arts. Despite the decreasing number of postdocs getting jobs in academia (from ~60% in 1960s to ~20% now), that still seems to be the type of jobs that everyone prepares for. The committee will discuss in the future possible ways to inform postdocs about some statistics regarding employment in academia, as opposed to industry and government as well as some other places.

 

Suggestions through email
Julie Akana sent an email to suggest future events that the Committee should consider:
1. Non-traditional career paths such as science writing, editing, project management
2. Perfecting your resume
3. Networking
4. Working a career fair

Career Development committee meeting Report October 19th 2005

Minutes of SoPS meeting held on 10/19/2005 (Minutes by GI/CM)
Attending: Catherine Millar (CM), Izabela Giriat, (IG) Yohannes Shiferaw (YS), Ann Simon (AS), Marcus Kaufman (MK), Gopal Iyer(GI) and Sehat Nauli (SN)

Panel Dicussion with Professors from Liberal Arts Colleges

SN brought us up to date on the progress he has made finding Professors from Liberal Arts colleges to participate in a panel discussion. SN has confirmed 5 panelists and will look after logistics (room reservation/lunch and parking reimbursements). The tentative date for the panel discussion is Wednesday January 18th 2006.

Panel Discussion with Professors from UCLA: Maximizing the impact of your research.

YS has has written a proposal for a panel discussion dealing with the process of getting research published. YS suggested that this may be too focused for a 1hour event and suggested a broader discussion. All attendants agreed that we should seek panelists who are experienced researchers and at least one member who has editorial experience at a major journal. Suggestions for panelists were made by the committee members, and YS agreed to contact them. The proposed date is sometime in the 1st week of December.

Career Development Committee Website/SoPS website

CM asked members of the committee for feedback on the SoPS website. AS said that the website was intimidating for many postdocs, and all other members agreed. It was decided collectively that several members would meet to add content to the site and to work on educating the postdoc community on how to effectively use the site. GI volunteered to find a venue for this meeting.

Vice President Nomination.

A brief discussion was held to choose a suitable candidate for the Vice-President for Career Development, beginning November 2005. IG has volunteered for the position.

Career Development committee meeting Report September 14th 2005

Chair: Catherine Millar (CM)
Attending: Yohannes Shiferaw (YS), Marcus Kaufmann (MK), Sehat Nauli (SN) & Leanne McKay (LM)

Minutes taken by LM.1) Feedback from faculty panel discussion

General feedback – those who attended the faculty panel discussion found it informative and useful.

Committee discussed ways to improve future discussions:
- Be more focused on what should be discussed.
- Have each panel member summarize at end.
- Have a clearer outline of what should be discussed as it was clear from this panel discussion that the topics were many and varied.
- Have someone mediate the discussion and questions.

2) Teaching event(s)

SN proposed inviting a faculty member from a Liberal Arts College to discuss what is involved in this type of institution.

It was decided upon that this event should be a panel format. This panel is tentatively scheduled for January.

SN will look into who to contact to take part in this panel discussion.

If this is a success and there is interest in hearing from faculty at different types of institutions e.g. community colleges or research institutions like UCLA, then this will be organized in future.

CM to add a link on SoPS website to the UCLA graduate teaching program

3) Ad hoc Lunchtime events

CM waiting to hear back on a potential guest speaker.

4) Manuscript-writing seminars

YS suggested organizing a seminar on manuscript writing – will put together a synopsis of the type of discussion that would be helpful.

Committee members will refer all comments/suggestions to YS.
Tentative date: November 2005
CM – UCLA website has information on courses offered to help with writing – UCLA SKILLNET.

6) Career Committee Organization

CM’s term of office as VP of Career Development (6 months, as per SoPS Constitution) ends in October. This position will therefore be open and the Career committee would like to hear from anyone interested in this post.

7) Additional items

CM – career centre has many seminars/discussions organized over the next few months for graduate students and postdocs. Information will be posted on the SoPS website.

LM – to meet with Jayshree this month to organize HR seminar in Jan.

Minutes of Career Development Committee Meeting, April 18th 2006

Career Development Meeting
Tuesday 18th April, 2006

Chair: Izabela Giriat
Attending: Marcus Kaufmann (MK), Catherine Millar (CM), Yohannes Shiferaw (YS), Anne Simon (AS) & Maggie Wang (MW)

1) Brown Bag Lunches
IG updated the panel on the planned Brown Bag lunch with a consultant from RAND this event has been postponed from April 7th due to a scheduling conflict with SoPS pub night. MW will follow up with the speaker and this event will be rescheduled – hopefully for the end of April.
IG mentioned another possible lunch speaker that she and Gopal Iyer are planning to invite. MK suggested a colleague in the field of philosophical chemistry and AS suggested inviting people from the biotechnology industry (she has a contact at Amgen). We discussed the possibility of a series of invitees from different types of biotech companies, and IG will contact the SoPS Business Development Committee to see if they have some contacts.

2) Jean Luc Dumont "The Three Laws of Presentation" May 4th 2-3:30pm
YS will organize refreshments. All panelists will post flyers closer to the event. IG will email the postdoc list closer to the date.

3) Women in Science Panel
A significant portion of the meeting was devoted to planning the upcoming "Women in Science" panel that will be co-hosted by SoPS and the UCLA Career Center. AS has discussed the format with Jayshree Radhakrishnan (Career Counselor) and she presented their plans to the committee. The format for the panel includes an introduction, prepared questions posed by AS, and questions from the floor. AS will draft questions and send them to the committee for approval.

AS also reported that Jayshree has proposed a bi-monthly meeting for women in science, where they could discuss issues that are relevant to them in their careers.

4) Time Management Event
MW proposed an event dealing with time management for postdocs – she and YS will look into finding a speaker(s) and are aiming to stage this event in late July/early August 2006.

5) Foreign postdocs
The committee discussed the possibility of organizing an event dealing with issues faced by foreign postdocs working in the US (suggested last month by Sehat Nauli). The diverse nature of the postdoc population makes a panel event hard to organize, so it was suggested that perhaps interested foreign postdocs could meet at a casual event (possibly lunch).

6) Future Events
IG had information from past Career Committee Member Shilpa Gandre on an interesting speaker who deals with alternative career pathways for postdocs. IG will make enquiries in order to find out how much this speaker would charge and to get feedback from other postdoc organizations.

Minutes of SoPS carrer meeting held on 1/13/2006

Minutes of SoPS meeting held on 01/13/2006 (Minutes by IG)

Attending: Catherine Millar (CM), Leanne McKay (LM), Ann Simon (AS), Marcus Kaufman (MK), Gopal Iyer (GI) and Izabela Giriat (IG).

Finalized the details of the Liberal Arts College event - the event was to be video tapped, and the recording would later on be put up on the web-site.

Started discussion of future events:
Publishing in science – Yohannes had brought up a while ago the idea of having a panel of professors speak about the process of publishing papers. The committee was interested and thought it would be a good idea to put up such an event. Some questions that came to mind were:
How important is the cover letter when submitting a paper?
How do you decide when and where to send your manuscript?
How do you deal with rejection? How do you appeal the decision?
IG will e-mail Yohannes and ask him if he’s still interested in pursuing the event. MK and GI said that they would be willing to help him.

Human resources – LM had previously contacted two companies with the idea of having their HR department come and talk about the job application procedures in their respective companies. The idea has morphed into possibly including people from start-ups and small companies too. LM was going to re-connect and see what she could make out of this idea, in collaboration with Jayshree of the career center.

Women in science panel – Last year’s "Women in Academia" panel discussion organized by the career center was very well received. A follow up event sounded like a good idea, maybe with focus on sciences in particular (versus academia in general). IG will call Jayshree from the career center to ask her what kind of feed-back they got from the "Women in Academia" panel discussion and see if they are thinking of doing a follow-up event where we could collaborate. Ideas that came to mind in regards to the event:
Have a psychologist on the panel to help give back-ground and relevant information on the issue.
Address the myths versus realities (e.g. Is it easier to be a mom in academia?)
Should general family concerns be included too?

Brown bag lunches or after hour drinks series – discussion has been going on of installing a casual series where a small group of post-docs can get together with a person that has pursued interested outside research. Possibilities include people in:
Government (e.g. policy makers)
Think-tank organizations
School administration (e.g. chancellor or dean)
Science writer or reporter
LM was going to approach a science writer she has seen on campus, and AS was going to ask Arlene Russell (a senior lecturer in the chemistry department). An attempt will be made to get this series up and running by February.

A comprehensive university panel – depending on the success of the liberal arts college panel the idea was put forward by GI that a similar event could be organized focused on comprehensive universities.

Commented on up-coming events by the career center:
Networking Skills for PhDs. Thurs. Feb. 9, 2006. 5:30-7:30 pm at the Career Center, 3rd Floor
Creating the Doctoral Level Resume. Thurs. Feb. 16, 2006. 5:30-7:30 pm at the Career Center, 3rd Floor

Other issues – how to recruit new people to the career committee? A few suggestions came up:
Advertise the meetings on the SoPS web-site. IG will be doing this from now on.
Use fliers to inform people of the meeting. AS will try and design a flier that we can use next time.

Minutes of SoPS meeting held on 02/09/2006

Minutes of SoPS meeting held on 02/09/2006 (Minutes by SN)

Attending: Catherine Millar (CM), Leanne McKay (LM), Ann Simon (AS), Markus Kaufmann (MK), Sehat Nauli (SN), Izabela Giriat (IG), Yohannes Shiferaw (YS) and Margaret Wang (MW).

*Publishing in science*
YS contacted several UCLA professors to gauge their interest and availability. Two professors have agreed to come: Robert Modlin and Steve Smale. One declined: Joan Valentine. Two others have not responded: Owen Witte and Charles Stewart. YS asked the other members to e-mail him more names that he could contact and asked MK to personally ask his boss if he would be interested. It was agreed that the panel should consist of at least 4 professors. The event is scheduled for March. YS will wait another week to see if additional professors are interested in attending, before deciding on a date/time and room. MK will take care of the refreshments for this event. SN suggested using the IPAM room if Boyer Hall is not available (SN will forward the e-mail of IPAM to YS).

*Human resources event*
LM is leaving in a month and has not been able to contact Jayshree at the Career Center to discuss the possibility of inviting HR representatives for a possible postdoc event. LM will not be able to finish organizing the event. No other member expressed interest in taking over the task. LM will pass information to the committee regarding what she has done and the event will be on hold until somebody expresses interested in it.

*Women in Science*
IG contacted Jayshree but won’t be able to meet with her until March. CM brought to IG attention the website for the Association of Women in Science (AWIS). The organization is based in Washington DC and has had various seminars dealing subjects such as career and family and mentorship. IG will e-mail the association to get more information on the events they have held.

*Brown Bag Lunch*
The first brown bad lunch event has been organized by LM and will feature Karen Heyman, a freelance journalist whose work has been featured in "The Scientist" magazine. AS suggested fliers be posted around the lunch table or meeting area, so participants can find the event. Future ideas for brown bag lunches are: guests from the Rand Corporation (to discuss possible careers in think tanks - MW), Arlene Russell (director of the "Preparing Future Faculty" program - AS) and teachers (PhDs that have transitioned into K-12 - IG).

*Other events*
The Liberal Arts College panel went very well, and it seems to have reached a population of post-doc (and graduate students) that we haven’t seen in other events. This led us to speculate that similar panels focusing on teaching-only and comprehensive colleges may be a good idea. AS will look into setting up the teaching only college panel (she already had people approach her telling her they would be interested in such an event). IG will e-mail GI to ask him if he would be interested in setting up a comprehensive college panel (he had mentioned it in the previous meeting). Such panels could be done in collaboration with the Graduate Center – IG will e-mail Christine to discuss the possibility.

MW suggested an event to address time management in academia. In particular, how do professors manage their schedules and what strategies allow them to equilibrate research, teaching, mentoring and service to the university. LM suggested asking a professional organizer to introduce basic ideas and concepts of time management (LM will contact her to see if she would be interested). This could serve as an introduction, followed by the real-life experiences of a professor that’s a good time manager. This event could also be done in collaboration with the Graduate Center – IG will e-mail Christine to discuss the possibility.

Jean Luc Doumont contacted IG to inform her that he will be touring Southern California in May, and was interested to know if UCLA would like him to give a talk again (last year he did a talk on successful presentations that was well received). IG would e-mail the rest of the committee the subjects he lectures on and depending on the preferences would then contact Christine (from the Graduate Center) to see if they would be interested in collaborating on the project – and costs (about $1500). IG would also have to clear the larger expenditure with the executive committee.

*Other issues*
A flier was made to invite by AS to publicize the career committee meetings, but we will also send out invitation e-mails, similar to the one sent out by the communications committee, which already generated 3 positive responses. AS will redact the e-mail.

*Career Center events*
The Career Center will be hosting "How to Create a Doctoral Level Resume" Thursday February 16th from 5:30 to 7:30pm in the career center.

Minutes of SoPS meeting held on 03/17/2006

Minutes of SoPS Career Committee meeting held on 3/17/2006, in little room in Ackerman (rain prevented from using our usual meeting point: Kerkhoff patio). Minutes taken by AS.

Attending: Catherine Millar (CM), Sehat Nauli (SN), Gopal Iyer (GI), Anne Simon (AS) and Izabela Giriat (IG), as well as two new members, recruited through the invitation email: Helen Su (HS) and Simone Benassi (SB).
Sent email comments: Margaret Wang (MW).

Past events:

Invitation email
Successful: we recruited 2 new persons!
We will need however to recruit a new Chair in June, as our actual chair, Izabela (IG), is going on Maternity leave!

Discussion/Feed-backs on the Publishing in Science Panel
Good attendence.
There were a lot of graduate students.
If we do this again, it might be useful to have a basic introduction about publishing for people who did not publish before.
IG suggested having a technical presentation about how to write and present a paper as a possible follow-up event.

Discussion about the kind of question asked, and the role of the moderator:
The questions were very specific, it might be better if there is an opportunity for the panelist to say what they think is relevant without being biased by our questions.
Suggestions for next panel: give 5 min. for each panelist to let us know what they think is important. Give them the questions few days before the event, but only after they have time to think about the subject on their own.

Events planned

No major event planned for April (a possible Brown Bag Lunch April 7th), and several in May (May 4th, Jean-Luc Doumont workshop, May 11th Women in Science discussion Panel).

Jean-Luc Doumont’s workshop "Three Laws of Communications"
May 4th
In collaboration with the Graduate Center who will pay half of the expenses of this visiting speaker.

Women in Science Panel
Purpose: follow-up on the Women in Academia discussion Panel organized last fall by the career center.
Suggested date: May 11th, 2-4 pm.
This will be a collaborative organization with Christine Wilson from Graduate Students Affairs and Jayshree Radhakrishnan from the Career Center.
We want the panel to be about women in academic sciences, rather then science in general - although people liked the idea of hearing about women in science in general, they thought that could be a follow up panel.
Although Christine and Jayshree volunteered to moderate this event, we decided it would be best if a post-doc would act as a moderator, because they may be better in tone with what we want to get out of the panel. One of the members (AS) volunteered to be the moderator.
We need panelist who will not be afraid of being honest and direct to discuss about gender issues. We also discuss the idea of adding a psychologist, who might offer advice on how to deal with difficult situations, without counseling specific panelist but giving general suggestions instead. The psychologist could give some background information regarding the general problems encountered by women in academic sciences, and some key statistics. We should also mention the reduction in the salary gap, at UCLA.
Panelists suggested: Judith Smith – Life Sciences, Robin Houk – Chemistry and Carrie Miceli – Immunology.
Judith Smith was proposed by Jayshree Radhakrishnan (in a meeting she had with IG), Carrie Miceli and Robin Houk by GI. HS proposed to approach Carrie Miceli who she knows.
We thought it would be best to initially just describe the panel to the participants (e.g. not give them the questions we want to ask them) as to give them a few days were to think about the subject and come up with things they believe are important. But because we don't want to catch them off guard either, we would send them the list of questions we are interested in a day or two before the panel, so that they can look it over, and can let us know if there are specific questions they would prefer not to answer.

Brown Bag Lunches
We had a successful 1st Brown Bag Lunch last month with a Science Writer.

On March 23rd there will be another one with Pr. Fred Eiserling, Associate Dean of Life Science and previous Dean of Life Science, to discuss about what goes on behind the scene of academic research universities. The place should be the patio of Kerkoff, but we need to come up with another place if it rains. IG will email Christine to reserve a room. Setting: sign-up for a maximum of 15 people.

We will probably have another one for April, with someone from the think tank Rand, from Santa Monica. MW told us that one of colleagues (an economist) at RAND is willing to talk his experience at a think tank. He's available on the 1st Friday of April (April 7th). He's suggested Gotham Hall on Third Street (to be near Blue Bus stops)—but we could propose other places.

Additional suggestion for Brown bag lunches: GI suggested Jared Diamond, and IG a person from the Natural History museum.

Panel Discussion projects

We need to try to have events planned for June and afterwards…

Teaching only Colleges discussion Panel
AS is interested in organizing it, but not in the near future. AS has contact with Santa Monica City College Faculty.
GI has contact with people in Cal State LA and other institutions; he could provide further contact information.

Comprehensive University discussion Panel
GI has contact information too and can help facilitate, but cannot be in charge of organizing the event.

Time Management Panel
Suggested by MW.
Christine Wilson knows someone who could do a practical talk, with tips on time management.
A second part would involve professors who feel they have good time management skills and would share that with us.

Panel for non-resident
Suggested by SN.
Purpose: discuss different issues, such as cultural differences, immigration issues etc…
CM believes the Chinese Association has organized something similar in the past. She will ask them for more details.

HR discussion panel
Idea started by Leanne McKay, who left for a post-doc in France.
Purpose: to understand how do companies hire Ph.Ds, what are small and big companies expecting from Ph.Ds, and how would a Ph.D fit in their company.
There are two sides to this: the point of view of smaller companies (start-ups, small biotechs), and bigger one (such as pharmaceutical companies).
SN suggested attending classes in the UCLA School of Business to learn about different companies, but GI mentioned that even though post-doc are allowed by the university to audit classes, they couldn’t do so in the Business School of Business.

Thursday 18th May, 2006 - Career Development Meeting

Career Development Meeting
Thursday 18th May, 2006

Chair: Izabela Giriat (IG)
Attending: Anne Simon (AS), Sehat Nauli (SN) Markus Kaufmann (MK)

1) Search for a new chair
IG is stepping down as chair of the Career Development Committee meeting. SN will take over her tasks until July. By then, a new chair of the Career Development Committee needs to be found. AS is no longer able to attend the meetings of the committee. Thanks to both of them of for their commitment to the postdoctoral society and their contributions to the success of past event.

2) Brown Bag Lunches
The next Brown Bag lunch will be with Eric Scerri (www.chem.ucla.edu/dept/Faculty/scerri/). He is a philosopher of chemistry and lecturer at the UCLA chemistry department. Date and time will be announced, it will be hopefully end of May or in June otherwise in September. Eric Scerri’s new book will be published this summer: The Periodic Table: Its Story and Its Significance. MK is organizing this event.
Future potential guest: Jerry Diamond, will be contacted by Gopal. SN will contact Eric from the business development committee about representatives of biotech or a patent attorney. AS suggested Christine Miller, psychologist from the women in science panel, for a brown bag lunch.

Review of past events:

3) Jean Luc Dumont "The Three Laws of Communication"
IG, AS, SN and MK stated that he gave a clear and inspiring presentation. Noise, as a term to describe all disturbing factors in oral or written communication was found to be an often underestimated problem in communication. One take home message was: never blame the others, do the best with the circumstances you have (room, light, audience, number of words in an abstract or paper).

4) Women in Science Panel
A video of the event will be available at the postdoc web site. IG and AS were involved in organizing the panel with the career center. They mentioned that the audience thought that it was informative. The downside was that one panelist couldn’t make it and one was coming late. It would have been livelier with more panelists. Both panelist faculties were very determined and did not observe major gender differences in research. Psychologist Christine Miller gave a very good overview on gender issues at work place.

Future Events
5) Time Management Event
There is still an event planed on this subject. See minutes from the last meeting. SN mentioned that there is an event on campus this week on time management; he will post it on the web site.
6) Seminar in successful writing

After having a PI panel on academic publishing organized in March, AS, IG, SN and MK propose to have another workshop on effective writing. MK will find out if Michael Alley (http://www.me.vt.edu/people/faculty/alley.html), author of “the craft of scientific writing” is giving workshops at the west coast or if he knows an excellent teacher on writing in the Los Angeles area, preferentially a person that not only published scientific literature and a person who is able to teach writing in a lecture format to scientists.

Video Webcasts of Previous SoPS Career Events

Please Check out the Videos of previous Career Panel Discussion and Presentations with UCLA Faculty and External Speakers.

Video Webcasts of Previous Career Events

http://www.postdoc.ucla.edu/videos

The Events were hosted by the Career and Business Development Committees of SoPS

Panel Discussions:
From Postdoc to Faculty, Surviving as an Assistant Professor, Academic Publishing, Women in Science, Career Opportunities Liberal Art Colleges

Business: Intellectual Property, University Based Start-Up Companies

Alternative Careers Paths: Doctors without Borders


Committee for Communications

We are a new committee at SoPS as of Dec 1, 2005. Shortcut to this page is here.

Overview

As a postdoc at UCLA, one relies heavily on having **the right information** and, importantly, **at the right time**. Whether it be immigration issues, finding a local doctor for your child, getting an annual progress check with your PI or knowing what the National Postdoctoral Association is up to. This committee aims to enhance the UCLA postdoctoral experience through better communications at all levels. We have identified the following areas and are currently developing strategies for acquiring and delivering reports:

Medium and Publications

Our primary medium is electronic due to both budget and viability concerns. As of 12/05, we are responsible for the following productions:

Informal or Evolving

- 1) Online UCLA Postdoc Survival Guide (published right here)
- 2) News Reports and Forum Response
- 3) SoPS Website guide

Formal

- 1) New Postdoc Orientation Sheet (to be delivered with offer letter)
- 2) Monthly SoPS Newsletter (delivered electronically to UCLAPostdoc-List)
- 3) Annual Print Version of Online Survival Guide (to be made available at OISS and Grad Division each fall)

Current Officers and Reporters

- 1) Serapio M. Baca (VP, Committee Chair)
- 2) Anna Matynia

Previous Officers and Committee Members

- 1) Sarah Warburton (currently SoPS President)
- 2) Tracy Daniels
- 3) Serapio Baca
- 4) Ajaykumar Gopal

How You Can Help

- 1) Join our committee
- 2) Do you like to write? We are seeking Reporters and Scouts for both on-campus and out-campus happenings. Your reports will feature on the main page of this site and the monthly newsletter if relevant to the general postdoc community.
- 3) We are postdocs and realize that life is hectic, so instead of being on a regular committee, if you would like to make a one-time contribution in the form of articles or written guides useful to other/future postdocs, please contact us.

Recent Events Organized

1. Transitioning to a Green Card, Nov 29th 2006. (event analysis)
2. Retirement Planning Basics for Postdocs, April 11th 2007 (event analysis)

Meeting Summaries

Use links below for individual meeting minutes.

SoPS-Comm Meeting 1 - Feb22, 2006

Attendees: QL, DV, TD, GPD, BK, KP, AG

The meeting started with an introduction to the general organization of SoPS and the vision of the communications committee. Three items were discussed in detail.

  1. 1) Orientation and Survival Guide: the graduate student orientation guide (link at bottom) was passed around and the general idea is to abstract from that as necessary and add more post-doc relevant material to the onine Survival Guide, using the Survival Guide Forum (link at bottom) as a sounding board.
  2. 2) The New PostDoc Orientation Sheet for the upcoming Annual Postdoctoral Awards ceremony: This document will be a 1-page condensed cheatsheat of useful information for postdocs which also serves as a flyer for SoPS on the reverse.
  3. 3) SoPS NewsLetter: An e-mail newsletter to be sent out monthly to the postdoc community updating them about latest news and upcoming SoPS and Campus Events.


Discussion

  1. All agreed that the best times for regular meetings would be noon on wednesdays.
  2. Most will have time to attend monthly meetings (BK is in transition to faculty position, may not be regular)
  3. KP offered to write for the newsletter when time permits
  4. QL has been on campus for several years and offered to contribute when relevant to the orientation and survival guides.
  5. BK offered to share her experiences of transitioning from postdoc to faculty on the survival guide.
  6. DV mentioned a postdoc starter package received by new medical employees - we need to look into


Actionables

  • To populate names, phone numbers and e-mails in the New PostDoc Orientation Sheet. (All)
  • Collect news items for monthly newsletter (KP) and solicit monthly update from other committees (AG, GPD).
  • AG, GPD to check with Kyle for copy restrictions for abstracting from Grad Orientation book and also double-sided printing for March 22 flyer.


Resources

SoPS-Comm Meeting 2 - Apr26, 2006

Attendees: Graham Davies (GPD), Katherine Peebles (KP), Tracy Daniels (TD), Serapio Baca (SMB) and Ajay Gopal (AG).

The meeting focused on populating the Survival Guide with information that is relevant to its most common viewership - new postdocs. Based on an idea from SMB, the top-level organization of information was decided to be topic-based rather than time-based. This was followed by a brainstorming session where everyone contributed from their knowledge of local experiences. The transcript of this session is below and will be integrated into the Survival Guide.

malls
santa monica 3rd st
sherman oaks
beverly center
the grove
dsw
westside pavillion
century city
fox hills

other shopping
REI
adventure 16
sports authority (Sepulveda)

Electronics
Fry's

household goods
Target
Best buy
Sears
Bed bath & beyond
Linins & things

furniture etc.
ikea
target
korea town
goodwill/salvation army
craig's list

groceries
whole foods
bristol farms
wild oats
gelson's market

ralphs
von's
albertsons

99 c store
food for less

trader joes

bulk foods
smart and final (like costco, no membership required)
big lots

Drug stores
cvs
long's
rite aid
UCLA pharmacy (westwood medical plaza)

Hardware
home depot

ethnic food

King's head
Tudor house

India sweets and spices

Soliel (Qeubec)

Cost plus (also furniture)

Mitsuwa (Japanese)

Artesia Blvd. (little india)
Sawtelle (Japanese)
European Sausage Co (South African) on Pico somehwere...

Cars:
????

repair: find a mechanic on klick & klack website: cars.com
insurance

Comparison shopping:
consumer reports
consumer reviews

Car Rentals
Rent a Wreck
UCLA travel Center
FlexCar

Car Repair
Pep Boys
Firestone
Kragen
Autozone
76 Gas stations / Shell
Costco Fuel / Tires

Shoes
DSW
Shoe Pavillion
Aldo
Footlocker
Footnotes

Bikes
Helen's Cycles
Wheeles (sepulveda)
Craig's List
University Impound lot
Sports Authority
Costco

Museums
Hammer
Moca
Getty Center
Getty Villa
Huntington Gardens
Rodeo Drive Art Galleries
Science Museum Park (near USC)
UCLA Live
Aquarium of the Pacific
Museum of Jurasic Technology

Mainstream Vistors
Universal Studios
Rodeo Drive
Disneyland

Visitors
Zuma Beach
Santa Monica Mountains
Will Rogers Park & Hike
Venice Canals
Bike Venice Beach
La Brea Tar Pits
Hollywood Blvd
Cantalina Island
Channel Islands
Mullholand Drive
Disney Concert Hall

Snowboarding
Big Bear
Mountain High
Mammoth
Mount Baldy

Discount Airlines
Southwest
Frontier
Jet Blue
Alaska

Travel Agencies
STA Travel
Travelocity
Expedia
Travel worm
Orbitz
hotels.com
sidestep.com
priceline.com

Hiking
A foot and a field in LA County
Another book
Amalfi
Wesrtidge
Pallisades
Temescel
Topanga
Trippet Ranch
Malibu Creek

Personal Finance
http://atyourservice.ucop.edu/contact/retire_save.html

SoPS-Comm Meeting 3 - May31, 2006

Attendees TD, KP, GPD, AG.

The discussion revolved around two topics:

1) SoPS Newsletter --- KP updated the group on the latest form of the Newsletter. GPD suggested that it be an automated text output from the webpage. AG suggested that KP get the weekly web update and add extra notes to it if required and post it as a more personal communication towards other postdocs.

2) Survival Guide --- We went over the different headings under which the current version imported from the old website is. It was decided to abandon the "before you arrive" section since most people will be able to make their deductions from the remaining content which would have diverse time-based information. The "Shopping Guide" section needs to be reorganized using more general themes. Sports and Recreation need to be clubbed with "things to do". It was decided to focus on "Accomodations" for the rest of the meeting since it was one of the first things new postdocs seek. The following points were decided as essential for the page:

  1. Picking where to stay - include links to zip code based Safety and Census information
  2. For postdocs moving from elsewhere, provide a cost-of-living calculator.
  3. Remind international postdocs that most rentals are *unfurnished*.
  4. Provide links to rental agencies
  5. Provide information on Rent Control
  6. Mention that a good way to rent is to drive around and look for signs.
  7. Provide links to UCLA buses and discounted bus routes.
  8. Check on upcoming ruling for mandatory renter's insurance.

The above themes will be added to the page by AG and the link sent out to the rest. The team will populate material as they find.

3) AG also mentioned an article he was writing titled "Postdoconomics" that estimates the spending power of a UCLA postdoc at the base salary level.

SMB and DV informed AG by email that they were not able to make the meeting due to unavoidable circumstances.


SoPS-Comm Meeting 4 - June28, 2006

Attendees: Sehat Nauli (SN), KP and AG.

This was a short meeting which primarily discussed the details and possibilities of joint events between the career (and other) committee(s) and communications. The aim was to identify facets of other committee events that dealt with periodic information delivery to postdoc community.

SN suggested a workshop that presents statistics about job availability in contrast to the number of postdocs to reveal the reality of the supply&demand equation. A possible format is to have a speaker present statistics followed by a discussion panel that would evaluate strategies for personal decision making from multiple perspectives.

SN would try to set up sample polls to gather information from postdoc community about the direction to tailor future events.

KP and AG discussed releasing another newsletter in july if not superceeded by the townhall meeting.

SoPS-Comm Meeting 5 - August 2, 2006

Venue: Kerckhoff Patio, Noon -1:10pm.
Attendees: QL, SMB, KP, Anne Simon (AFS), KP, SN, GPD, AG, Akila Shanmugam (AS).

--- Topics Revisited from Previous Meetings and Events:
* SoPS-Comm members revisited the neutral position of SoPS on the issue of unionization and it was decided that direct communications would be made through this committee on this matter.
* SN would test out a new web-form module to be utilized as a survey tool (as per June 28 meeting)
* Career Info session on statistics to be on back burner until more important events are completed between now and November.

--- Main Discussion
* AFS suggested the possibility of making a version of the postdoc cheat-sheet on magnets on a small budget.
* The possibility of having an optional mentorship program for new postdocs was also discussed as a possibility for the future.
* It was decided that a two-part series on immigration information for international postdocs will be held between now and november. The first part of the two would be a joint panel from UCLA (OISS) and their recommended law firm - addressing issues on switching visas for current postdocs. (Webcast for future postdocs?) The second part of the series will consist of an info-session on the green-card process by the firm that spoke on the issue through SoPS over a year ago. AFS would be the main contact for the second part. SN reminded that these events should not clash with the planned career event in mid Sept. Tentative date for first session set as late Sept to mid Oct. And second one a week after the first.
* AG suggested that an info-session on healthcare options be held. QL and SMB pointed out that there are many differences in available options between departments. SMB has followed up with information on events organzied by the office of UC health plans. This info to be communicated to postdoc committee. If further need is felt, SoPS will organize additional event targeted towards postdocs.

--- Actionable Items
* AG would contact OISS (susequently Wolfsdorff) regarding setting up an info-session about Immigration for Postdocs
* After the date for UCLA seminar is decided, AFS would set a date with the immigration law firm for a special green-card related information session.
* Once dates are decided, venue and time will be decided.

Entrepreneurship and Business Development Committee

SoPS ENTREPRENEURSHIP & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE

Mission Statement

The purpose of our committee is to familiarize scientists & engineers with the business aspect of research. Since most scientists and engineers do not have business experience, our goal is to bring academic inventors and business people closer through various educational seminars and social events. In other words, bridge the gap between science and business. We expect to reach our goal through the following:

Facilitate science and business collaboration - We host events to help create dialogue between academia and business. An emerging technologies conference is being planned.

Share Intellectual Expertise - We work with various groups and organizations to help them address problems and evaluate ideas that require expert scientific insight. Our technical and conceptual knowledgebase spans a variety of scientific disciplines.

Train Emerging Entrepreneurs - We host seminars that introduce scientists and entrepreneurs to various aspects of the business of science & technology. Topics include intellectual property, technology transfer, start-ups, venture capital and more.

If you are interested in working with the Enterpreneurship & Business Development Committee in any capacity, please contact Carissa (cfonseca [at] mednet [dot] ucla [dot] edu)

CURRENT EVENTS

TECH COAST ANGELS MENTORSHIP PROGRAM
Tech Coast Angels, the largest angel network in the U.S., offers to mentor selected UCLA scientists willing to turn their inventions into successful start-up companies. SoPS's Business Development and Entrepreneurship Committee co-hosts this event with the Engineering Grad Student Association and the Entrepreneur Association at Anderson.

Applications are now being accepted for the Spring 2009 Mentorship round (Deadline May 4, 2009).

Stay tuned to this committee's website www.postdoc.ucla.edu/BizDev and the Program's website http://www.egsatec.com for further details.

TECH COAST ANGELS SCREENING SESSIONS
The Tech Coast Angels (TCA) holds screening sessions to evaluate potential start-up company investements. A limited number of seats are available for SoPS members to attend these sessions, with the hope that attendees will gain a better understanding of what is takes to start a company.
Attendees will also have the opportunity to observe TCA as they evaluate the companies looking for start-up capital.
There is also breakfast with TCA members before the screening session. This is a great opportunity to network and ask questions that you may have.
The screening session is approx. 8am-noon on Fridays. If you are interested, please contact Carissa at cfonseca [at] mednet [dot] ucla [dot] edu.

Links

OIPA

Evelexa - A good resource for learning about start-ups.

UCLA Technology Innovators' Forum Learn how to start a hi-tech business with little or no capital.

Tech Coast Angels, the largest angel investor group in the U.S

Tech Coast Angels mentorship program at UCLA

Free Entrepreneurial Events and Seminars

A calendar has been created to display deadlines and events related to this program. Please use the following link to view the google calendar:
http://www.google.com/calendar/render?cid=uclatec%40gmail.com">http://www.google.com/calendar/images/ext/gc_button1_en.gif " border=0>

PAST EVENTS

Wednesdays Spring 07, 4 pm - 5:50 pm, Boelter Penthouse (8500 BH) Bioengineering Seminar Series:From Bench to Bedside –"How to Develop and Commercialize New Products", no registration needed, you do not need to attend all sessions.

Friday April 13, 11 am - 1 pm, Career Week Event, "On Track to Being Your Own Boss as an Entrepreneurial PhD", register for this event at http://career.ucla.edu/cw7/Register.asp

Friday April 20, 2007, UCLA Anderson School, Tech Coast Angels screening session. Please contact your student group representative to attend.
Tuesday May 8, 4 - 6 pm, TCA Seminar Series. TCA members will discuss the first steps to take towards turning your idea into a successful company. Potential topics for discussion: market analysis, competition, marketing, and growth.

TECH COAST ANGELS MENTORSHIP PROGRAM
Tech Coast Angels, the largest angel network in the U.S., offers to mentor selected UCLA scientists willing to turn their inventions into successful start-up companies.
Deadline May 4, 2009
Apply at http://www.egsatec.com
Just answer 9 simple questions about your technology by May 4, 2009 and you will receive feedback from TCA shortly after. If you are accepted into the next phase of the application process, and you complete Phase 2 of the application (University non-assert and Informed Participation Forms) on time, you are guaranteed mentorship with a TCA member.
Please email UCLA [dot] TCA [dot] mentorship [at] gmail [dot] com if you have any questions or need assistance with the application.

TECHNOLOGY COMMERCIALIZATION AT UCLA: THE OFFICE OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY and THE ESSENCE OF THE PRESENTATION, PART II
159 Boyer Hall, 4-6pm
November 8, 2006
Last seminar of the year. Learn about the mentorship program!
Join us Wednesday, November 8th from 4-6pm in Boyer 159 for the third
seminar in the series "How to Turn a Technology into a Valuable Company."
Join us as Ken Polasko, Ph.D., Director of Business Development in UCLA’s Office of Intellectual Property discusses the process of technology commercialization at UCLA. From filing a patent to helping create start-ups, Dr. Polasko will cover it.
The Tech Coast Angels, the largest angel network in the U.S., will also discuss the final six points that entrepreneurs should address when presenting their start-up.
- Interested in Mentorship? Come and find out about how to get mentorship
from a Tech Coast Angel member.
There will also be networking opportunities.
For more information and bios,
http://rocky.ee.ucla.edu/seminar06/doku.php
*You DO NOT need a commercializable technology to attend this event, just
a desire to learn.*
Hope to see you there.

SoPS Business Development Committee

Social Committee

The Social Committee is looking for members! Please Contact Us if you can spare a few hours a month to help.

We try and focus on events that don’t take much organization as we are all busy postdocs.

Some things that would help us out:

1) Someone to book a table for pub night, be there at the right time to grab the table.

2) People to hold tables for Meandering Meals and be on time with a small sign.

3) Volunteers to post flyers for social events.

4) Beach Volleyball organizer.

5) People with ideas as to how to get postdocs to interact!

Constitution

ARTICLE I: Name and Purpose

Section A: NAME

The name of the organization shall be: "The Society of Postdoctoral Scholars at UCLA".

Section B: ABBREVIATED NAME

The society will use the acronym SoPS.

Section B: STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

Our mission is to enhance the postdoctoral experience at UCLA by providing resources to aid postdoctoral scholars with their professional and personal development. We aim to provide information and support on a range of topics including career advancement, financial support, and childcare/family issues. We focus on representing postdoctoral concerns to the university administration. In addition, we facilitate social interaction between postdoctoral scholars at UCLA, with the goal of building a community that benefits from a collective pool of knowledge and experience.

ARTICLE II: MEMBERSHIP

Section A: REQUIREMENTS

Part 1: Anyone affiliated with UCLA and who possesses a valid email address issued by UCLA is eligible for membership. Non-UCLA members are allowed provided they have a numeric ID with the University.

Part 2: All members are eligible to vote.

Part 3. Members of the society are encouraged to create a user account on the society webpage. Members are encouraged to fill in extra information in their user profile (e.g., full name, department, field of research, etc.), but this is not a requirement of membership.

Section B: Statement of Non-Discrimination in Membership Selection, Operations, Activities, Policies and Practices

The Society for Postdoctoral Scholars at UCLA, in accordance with applicable Federal and State Law and University Policy, and as a condition of registration with the University of California, Los Angeles as an Academic Advisory Group (AAG), does not discriminate, on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, pregnancy, disability, age, medical condition (e.g., cancer related, ancestry, marital status, citizenship, sexual orientation or status as a Vietnam Veteran or special disabled Veteran).

The Society for Postdoctoral Scholars at UCLA prohibits sexual harassment. This non-discrimination policy covers organization membership, access to organization programs and activities, and the general treatment of members in the organization.

Section B: RIGHTS

Part 1: All members are eligible to attend all meetings and events of this organization.

Part 2: If a fee is charged to attend a particular event, the membership will establish a fee scale for members and non-members.

Section C: WITHDRAWAL OF MEMBERSHIP

Part 1. Membership may also be withdrawn for violations of the non-discrimination act and/or failing to remain in good academic standing at UCLA. Membership may also be withdrawn if it is established that the minimal requirements for membership were not met.

Part 2. A simple majority vote of the quorum of membership at a regular or special meeting shall be sufficient to withdraw membership.

Part 3. Members to be voted upon in this regard will be notified of the intention to do so in writing at least one week prior to the meeting.

ARTICLE III. OPERATING PROCEDURES

Section A: OFFICERS

  • President * Chief Technical Officer * Vice President Career Development * Vice President Advocacy * Vice President Social Activities * Vice President Entrepreneurial and Business Development * Vice President Communications * Secretary/Treasurer * External Affairs/Representative to the UC - Council for Postdoctoral Scholars (UCCPS)

Section B. DUTIES

Part 1. The President or Vice Presidents will chair all meetings of the society and will call special meetings as needed.

Part 2. The President will serve as the liaison to the University and will represent the SoPS to University Administration. The President will attend all Postdoctoral Advisory Council meetings arranged by the Graduate Division as the official voice of UCLA Postdoctoral Scholars.

Part 3. There will be 5 Vice Presidents, each chairing one of the following committees: Social Committee, Career Development Committee, Entrepreneurial and Business Development Committee, Communications Committee, and an Advocacy Committee. The Vice President of each committee will chair committee meetings and will oversee the development and implementation of activities relevant to the committee.

Part 4. The Secretary/Treasurer will take, record, and post meetingsf minutes to the Societyfs website; produce all official correspondence for the organization, and maintain records and report on the financial transactions of the society. If SoPS is unable to secure a Secretary and/or a Treasurer, the annual report and postings made to the SoPS website shall be collectively considered the official record of SoPS activities.

Part 5. The Chief Technical Officer will oversee the management and operations of the Society and its website, and will work closely with the University and its Information Technology division to ensure that the website is maintained, backed-up, and secure.

Part 6. One or two External Affairs Officer/s will oversee the interaction of the Society with other organizations outside of UCLA. The External Affairs Officer/s will serve as the Representative to the University of California Council of Postdoctoral Scholars (UCCPS) for SoPS, and will serve as the official liaison of the SoPS to postdoctoral organizations at other campuses within and outside of the University of California. The Representative/s will attend all UCCPS meetings, and if unable to attend will appoint a replacement. The Representative is responsible for coordinating reimbursement for participation in the UCCPS meetings with the Graduate Division. The Representative will post a summary of the UCCPS meeting on the Society website no later than four weeks after the meeting.

Section C. REQUIREMENTS FOR RUNNING FOR AND HOLDING OFFICE

Part 1. All officers must be members of SoPS and be actively employed at UCLA with a postdoctoral title. Officers must remain in good standing with the University at all times. Failure to do so will result in removal from the position.

Part 2. In addition to the requirements outlined in Part 1, a SoPS member must have been an Officer within the Executive Committee for at least 6 months to be eligible to chair a Committee or run for the SoPS presidency.

Section D. VOTING PROCEDURES

Part 1. Nominations for all offices will be taken as required.

Part 2. Any members may nominate any other member, including himself or herself for a position on the Executive Committee.

Part 3. Elections will be held at a meeting called by the President or Vice Presidents or online via the website.

Part 4. A simple majority vote of the quorum present at that meeting will be sufficient to elect an officer. If there are more than two candidates and no candidate receives a majority, there will be a run-off vote between the top two vote recipients in the general meeting.

Section E. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE VOTING PROCEDURES

Part 1. For matters requiring votes during Executive Committee meetings that do not require general members to vote, the following rules will apply:

  1. Elected Executive Officers that are present are always eligible to vote.

  2. Members who have served at least 6 months on a SoPS Committee are eligible to vote.

  3. A consensus decision of all Elected Officers present at a meeting may be used to open up the vote to include non-voting SoPS Committee members present.

Section E. REMOVAL FROM OFFICE

Part 1. Officers may be removed from office for failure to perform duties or for membership violations.

Part 2. Officers to be voted upon in this regard will be notified of the intention to do so in writing at least one week prior to the meeting at which the vote will be taken.

Part 3. A two-thirds majority of quorum present at a regularly scheduled meeting shall be sufficient for removal from office.

Section F. TERMS OF OFFICE AND VACANCIES

Part 1. The term of office shall be 1 year for the president and other officers.

Part 2. A nomination procedure and election process will proceed after any office vacancy.

Part 3. While the office is vacant, the Vice Presidents will select from among themselves to assume the responsibilities of the vacant office.

ARTICLE IV. MEETINGS

Part 1. Meetings will be held as required.

Part 2. Special meetings may be called by any combination of three of the officers.

ARTICLE V. COMMITTEES

Section A. SOCIAL COMMITTEE

Part 1. The Social Committee will plan social events and programs for the organization.

Section B. CAREER DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE

Part 1. The Career Development Committee will plan career events and programs for the organization. These will include programming for both academic and non-academic career development.

Section C. ADVOCACY COMMITTEE

Part 1. The Advocacy Committee will work to increase visibility of postdoctoral scholars on campus. They will identify issues of relevance to the postdoctoral community and will work to improve conditions for postdoctoral scholars. The issues covered by this committee can include, but are not limited to, housing, pay, family-related (e.g. childcare), issues.

Section D. ENTREPRENEURIAL AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE

Part 1. The Entrepreneurial and Business Development Committee will provide information and resources for postdoctoral scholars interested in working with non-academic sectors.

Section E. COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE

Part 1. The Communications Committee will work to provide information to both new and current postdoctoral scholars via a monthly newsletter and by maintaining a database of online resources and forums.

Section F. FUND ALLOCATION

All decisions of each Committee involving committing organization funds in amounts greater than $200.00 will require the approval of the majority of those members present at the regular or special meeting of the society. Similar decisions, but for $200.00 or less may be approved by a Vice President with consent from all other officers.

Section B. OTHER COMMITTEES

Part 1. Other committees may be appointed by any of the elected officers or by the Committees.

Part 2. In appointing such committees, society members must specify the purpose and chair or co-chair of that committee, and establish its duration.

ARTICLE VI. AFFILIATIONS

Section A. UCLA

Part 1. This organization is a recognized Academic Advisory Group at the University of California Los Angeles, but is not part of the University itself.

Part 2. In all correspondence and business transactions, it may refer to itself as an organization at UCLA, but not as part of UCLA itself.

Part 3. The society accepts full financial and production responsibility for all activities it sponsors.

Part 4. The society agrees to abide by all pertinent UCLA policies and regulations. Where UCLA policies and regulations and those of the society differ, the policies and regulations of UCLA will take precedence.

Part 5. This organization recognizes and understands that the University assumes no legal liability for the actions of the organization, and that the University is not providing blanket indemnification insurance coverage for any activities of the organization, unless those activities expressly benefit and further the goals of the University, and have received prior review, approval, and consent of Campus Activities, Risk Management, and/or General Counsel.

Part 6. The society agrees to make financial records available to authorized University officials upon request.

ARTICLE VII. FACULTY/STAFF ADVISOR

Section A. ADVISOR REQUIREMENTS

Part 1. As a recognized Academic Advisory Group at the University of California Los Angeles, the society is required to have an official advisor from the UCLA faculty and/or staff. Presently, the Associate Dean M. Belinda Tucker and Kyle Cunningham serve, respectively, as faculty and staff advisor for SoPS.

Part 2. Other persons may serve as special advisors as needed.

Section B. DUTIES

Part 1. The advisor must sign the recognition application each year, or whenever officer information changes or amendments are made to the constitution.

Part 2. Officers should meet with the advisor twice per calendar year.

Part 3. An advisor may not vote in society matters, hold office or unduly influence decisions of the organization.

ARTICLE VIII. BY-LAWS AND AMENDMENTS

Section A. BY-LAWS

Part 1. By-laws can be added to this constitution by a simple majority vote of the entire membership at a regular meeting of the society.

Part 2. This constitution takes precedence over any and all by-laws.

Section B. AMENDMENTS

Part 1. This constitution can be amended by a two-thirds vote of the attending membership at a regular meeting of the society.

Part 2. Notification of such a motion must be made to members at least one meeting in advance of the one in which the actual vote is taken.

This constitution was ratified at the Nov 28th, 2007 SoPS Executive Meeting unanimously.  

The SoPS Team

Committees

President

Advocacy Committee

For details see: Advocacy Committee Webpage

  • Aditi Joshi (Vice President, Advocacy Committee Chair)

Career Development Committee

For details see: Career Development Committee Webpage

Communications Committee

Entrepreneurship and Business Development Committee

  • Alice Ho

Social Committee

For details see: Social Committee Webpage

  • Abtine Tavassoli (Vice President, Social Committee Chair)
  • Ying Bryant
  • Sabine Gorynia
  • Anne-Meint Henstra
  • Przemysław Pawełczak
  • Andreas Schmidhauser

External Officers

  • Sabine Gorynia
  • Bill Sherman

Secretary

  • Andrew Sage

Treasurer

  • Lagishetty Venu

Chief Technical Officer

  • Serapio M. Baca (2009)

PAST OFFICERS

Presidents

VP Business / Entrepreneurial Development

VP Career Development

VP Social Activities

VP Communications Committee

VP Advocacy Committee