Postdoc Jamborees

The Postdoc Jamborees are events for all the Nikhef postdocs. They are organised by the Nikhef Postdoc Committee, created in November 2021 by Andrea García Alonso (ATLAS, aalonso@nikhef.nl) and Suzanne Klaver (LHCb, s.klaver@nikhef.nl).

The present page contains a summary of the editions that have taken place so far.

Mailing list to contact all the Nikhef postdocs: postdocs@nikhef.nl

Motivation

As a community, postdoctoral researchers form a notoriously inhomogenous group. Each of them comes with a different background, are frequently associated with different projects, their contract lengths vary, and also their start and end dates display large fluctuations. Each postdoc also finds themself in different stages of their career.

For these reasons, historically the Nikhef postdoc group has displayed less cohesion as compared to e.g. the PhD candidates, who are well organized and represented by the Nikhef PhD Council. Of course, this problem is not exclusive to Nikhef, and is ubiquitous to most research organizations, where postdocs often are at the risk of falling between the cracks.

A Nikhef Postdoc Committee was installed by the Nikhef management in 2021, chaired by Andrea García Alonso and Suzanne Klaver. This Nikhef Postdoc Committee has organized training events for postdocs, such as a workshop on student mentoring and supervision in February 2024, as well as career-orientation and social events.

1st Postdoc Jamboree - 20th April 2022

First time the Nikhef postdocs got together and met each other. Dinner and drinks in the city of Utrecht.

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2nd Postdoc Jamboree - 7th October 2022

Outdoors laser tag and dinner in Amsterdam, together with a discussion about teaching and supervision during the postdoc time.

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3rd Postdoc Jamboree - 24th February 2023

Q&A session in Amsterdam Science Park with a panel of staff members from Nikhef and UvA.

Answers were given to doubts related to our careers: teaching and supervising possibilities, advice and information; future career requirements and must-do choices; preparation for next positions, etc.

You can watch the Recording of the discussion, using the passcode: 6!!w4wH5.

Timeline:

•⁠  ⁠14:30 - 14:35 Presentation of the session by Suzanne and Andrea

•⁠  ⁠14:35 - 14:50 Presentation of the panelists

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  Slides presented by Marcel Merk

•⁠  ⁠14:50 - 15:05 CV building

•⁠  ⁠15:05 - 15:30 Student supervising and teaching

•⁠  ⁠15:30 - 15:50 Grant application

•⁠  ⁠15:50 - 16:10 Job opportunities

•⁠  ⁠16:10 - 16:30 Personal experiences

Afterwards there was a glow mini golf social activity.

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  Panel session

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  Social event

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4th Postdoc Jamboree - 16th May 2023

During the 2023 Nikhef Jamboree, the postdocs gathered for dinner and commented on a new idea of creating contact lists of senior researchers. These lists would be a tool for Nikhef postdocs to seek advice in various situations.

These advanced researchers would agree to be listed on the Nikhef webpage, and postdocs could reach out to them for help with a grant draft or invite them to a rehearsal before a job interview.

The lists would include their names, contacts, and job descriptions to provide insight into their areas of expertise. Even if they are UvA teachers we don't personally know, we could still contact them and benefit from their experience and knowledge.

Before moving forward, we would like to gauge the interest of the rest of the postdocs and to then reach out to Stan and begin an official process.

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5th Postdoc Jamboree - 14th February 2024

In February 2024, the Postdoc Jamboree took the format of a workshop on how to be a good supervisor, given by an external coach: Louise Mennen, at the electron room, at Nikhef.

This session lasted 4 hours dedicated to teach us how to improve our supervising skills, mainly oriented towards the supervision of bachelor and master students and PhDs, but also to any other kind of workmates we need to supervise or coordinate. The goal was not to learn how to organise and set a project and its responsibilities, but to learn social and psychological skills to lead in an efficient and effective way.

The outline of the session was the following:

•⁠  ⁠⁠Setting responsibilities and boundaries

•⁠  ⁠Giving feedback

•⁠  ⁠Coaching

•⁠  ⁠Setting expectations

•⁠  ⁠Discussing problems and dealing with complicated situations

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Afterwards there was a bowling social activity.

Formalisation of the Nikhef Postdoc Committee into the Nikhef Postdoc Council

In March 2024, despite many Nikhef wide announcements during the Spiegelmoments and the Nikhef Jamboree 2023, the existence of these postdoc initiatives did not percolate to the SEP research evaluation of Nikhef. This suggested the importance and timeliness of formalizing the representation of Nikhef postdocs within a Council, analogous to the PhD one, with well-defined mandate, organization, and leadership. With the help of Juan Rojo, Suzanne and Andrea (current chairs of the Nikhef Postdoc Committee) started the process of installing a new Nikhef Postdoc Council within Nikhef.

In analogy with the existing PhD Council, the Nikhef Postdoc Council should represent the postdoc community, provide educational, training, and career-orientation resources, organize social events, and in general streamline the embedding of the postdoc community within the Nikhef fabric. The starting point of the proposed Nikhef Postdoc Council is provided by the ongoing organization and activities of this existing Nikhef Postdoc Committee.

The goals and responsibilities of the Nikhef Postdoc Council are the following:

• - Represent the postdocs at Nikhef.
• - Coordinate training and career-development activities aimed at the Nikhef postdoc community, such as supervision workshops, career orientation, workshops on grant and faculty job application, and likewise.
• - Organize social activities aimed at the Nikhef postdoc community, perhaps aligned with some Nikhef-wide events like the Jamboree or the Christmas dinner, to increase the cohesion between the postdoc cohort.
• - Interact with the Nikhef Education Committee to set up, implement, and monitor the new postdoc mentoring scheme across Nikhef, and based on the received feedback suggest possible improvements.

Some possible activities that may fall within the remit of the Nikhef Postdoc Committee would include:

• - Career orientation activities e.g. a mini-workshop on grant writing or how to efficiently apply to faculty jobs, or a workshop with alumni about careers outside academia.
• - Personal development activities, such as training for the mentoring of PhD candidates and of BSc/MSc project students which in many cases are part of the expected activities of postdocs.
• - Social safety training e.g. active bystander, how to react in the case of inappropriate behavior etc.

The Nikhef management will allocate a budget to financially support these activities, as is the case with those from the PhD Council.