Thriving as an international postdoc
In the greater Boston area, there are many postdocs who come from outside of the US. For this population, it is a challenge to get accustomed to a new environment, and settling into a new country creates multiple hurdles to overcome, including language and cultural differences as well as the new system factors, work circumstances, etc. The goal of this panel is to give a broad introduction to the international researchers who are having trouble settling in, in order to help postdocs progress towards meaningfully settling in the US. In this session with 6 experts about this topic, we aim to share some ideas and tips to adapt to new circumstances, and provide helpful resources to thrive as an international postdoc. Also, panelists will share their success stories to use as encouraging case studies.
Lu-Ann Pozzi
Administrative Program Manager II in the Office of Fellowship Training at Boston Children’s Hospital
Lu-Ann Pozzi, PhD is an Administrative Program Manager II in the Office of Fellowship Training at Boston Children’s Hospital. Dr. Pozzi is responsible for building a curriculum that develops research skills, career advancement skills and networking skills while also providing training in the many soft skills needed for a career in science inside and outside of academia. Before joining BCH, Dr. Pozzi completed two postdoctoral fellowships at the New England Primate Center/ Harvard Medical School focusing on non-human primate models for HIV induced encephalitis and the development of HIV vaccines. While a postdoc at HMS, Dr. Pozzi served as Co-chair of the HMS postdoc Association twice and served on the HMS postdoc governing board for 5 years. She is also active on the National Postdoc Association Advocacy committee. Dr. Pozzi received her BA in Biology and her MA in cellular and molecular biology from Boston University and her Ph.D. from UMASS Medical School.
Lucie Rochard
Liaison for Scientific & entrepreneurial initiatives at the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council (MassBio)
Lucie Rochard is Liaison for Scientific & entrepreneurial initiatives at the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council (MassBio).
Lucie joined MassBio in 2017 to develop and lead the Academic outreach & Engagement initiatives. To drive this initiative, she created several programs and events that connect academic scientists and pharma industry professionals to foster company creation and industry-academia collaborations.
Lucie started her career as a researcher. Prior to her current role, Lucie was a Postdoctoral Researcher at MGH where she was pursuing research in Developmental Biology and Regenerative Medicine. She has a Ph.D. from the University of Rennes, France where she grew up.
Niya Sa
Assistant professor at University of Massachusetts
Niya is currently an Assistant professor at University of Massachusetts Boston. Her Ph.D training focuses on electrochemistry and surface chemistry. Main research area in her team is to develop new concepts of understanding interfacial material properties for next generation energy storage devices, including designing new materials and interfaces for beyond lithium ion batteries. She received her Ph.D in Analytical Chemistry from Indiana University Bloomington, and finished her postdoc training in the area of energy storage research at Argonne National Lab in Chicago. After 3 years of postdoc research, she moved to Boston and started a tenure track faculty position at University of Massachusetts Boston. Connect with Niya’s and her research lab at https://saniyabnu.wixsite.com/niyasa
José Manuel Baizabal Carballo
Postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School
Manuel is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School. His main research is focused on understanding how the mammalian genome encodes the information to generate the brain and what are the epigenetic mechanisms involved in this process.
He was born and raised in Mexico. He received his PhD from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), where he studied the capacity of stem cells to generate the dopaminergic neurons that normally die in Parkinson's disease. After completing his PhD in 2010, he moved to Harvard University to begin his first postdoctoral training at the Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology. Two years later, he joined the laboratory of Corey Harwell at Harvard Medical School for his second postdoc.
Recently, he got an offer to become Assistant Professor in functional genomics in the Department of Biology at Indiana University-Bloomington.