2004 Trainee Advisory Committee Report
This is the Trainee Advisory Committee’s (TAC) first
annual report to the APS Council. In its first year, the Committee has
sought to generate ideas for projects, prioritize those ideas, and assign
Committee members to begin work on each. The Committee’s discussions were
focused by the charge from the APS Council. The Committee met twice during
its first year, once via conference call and subsequently at the 2004
Experimental Biology meeting.
Duties of the Trainee Advisory Committee are to: elect
a chairperson, who is a member of the committee or has served on the
committee within the past three years; meet annually at the spring meeting
of the Society and as needed during the year; investigate the needs of
trainees, both pre-doctoral and postdoctoral, to determine how the Society
can provide necessary support and assistance; organize an annual symposium
or workshop at EB designed to assist trainees in their development of
independent careers; publish an email newsletter for trainees and establish
a web site for trainees on the APS Home Page; bring relevant matters to the
attention of Council and act on Council recommendations; encourage the
active membership of trainees in the Society; coordinate activities with
other such APS committees to enhance the status of trainees and to respond
to the needs of trainees.
Each of the Committee activities listed below is
related to one of the Committee’s charges.
TAC Trainee Survey
The TAC is currently finalizing a Trainee Survey with
the help of APS staff. The survey includes ranking the importance of several
issues (e.g., balancing work and family, mentoring, granting, teaching) and
a few short answer questions. The Committee agreed that the survey should be
general in nature and include issues/questions relevant to both graduate
student and postdoctoral experiences, including those of trainees from
abroad studying in the US. Responses from both trainees and non-trainees
will be requested (along with status identification) to allow assessment of
needs from both perspectives.
The survey will be done online and will be brief,
keeping in mind the APS full membership needs survey planned for later this
year. Each member of the TAC will send the survey out to his/her own section
listserv, asking members to respond and pass the survey along to trainees in
their labs or departments. This should help increase the response rate.
Trainee Advisory Committee Symposium, Experimental
Biology 2006
The TAC discussed the upcoming symposium slot and the
subject and type of symposium that would be best. It was agreed that the TAC
will work with the Women in Physiology and Career Opportunities in
Physiology Committees to make sure the three sessions do not overlap in
content. Ex officio committee liaisons have been established (see Committee
Liaisons below) who will oversee that process. Members of the TAC
recommended that their symposium be an interactive session or a round table
discussion of specific issues. Additionally, it was agreed that it would be
important to include issues facing non-US citizens working in the US. Ortiz
and Bavis will serve as session organizers.
Trainee Email Newsletter and Web Page
Email Newsletter: The TAC deferred a full discussion of
establishing a separate listserv for trainees until the Committee’s fall
meeting. The Committee requested staff to investigate having the Trainee
listserv be added to the Members-only web page, which would allow those
postdoctoral fellows and others who are regular members to sign up for the
listserv. In the meantime, the Committee will use the previously established
trainee listserv, which was initially populated with all student members.
Messages are sent out on a monthly basis by APS Education Office staff and
include relevant APS and other news, notice of award opportunities, and
postdoctoral position openings.
Web Page: The Committee reviewed the home pages of the
current APS Career Web for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows and
agreed that there was no need to establish a new separate web site. Instead,
the Committee will work with APS staff and funnel any material that would be
relevant to a specific section on the careers web to them for posting.
Announcement of the new material can be sent out via the listserv.
Committee Liaisons
The members of the TAC discussed which APS Committees
should have a liaison with the TAC. Currently, two APS Committees, other
than Section Steering Committee, have Trainee Representatives: the Women in
Physiology and the Animal Care and Use Committee. Those two representatives
were invited to be ex-officio members of the TAC and attended the
Committee’s meeting at EB 2004. In addition, the Career Opportunities in
Physiology Committee requested a member from the TAC to sit as ex-officio on
that Committee.
Sectional Responsibilities
Most of the TAC members have been asked by their
sections to write short articles on the Committee’s activities for their
section newsletter. All members were encouraged to do so to increase the
visibility of the Committee and of trainees. As each member writes
something, they will post it to the Committee listserv and share with others
on the Committee. Then the others can include that article and either expand
on it or focus on another aspect of the Committee’s activities, allowing for
more material to be in each section’s newsletter.
Because all of the TAC members are appointed by their
respective section, each section needs to have in place a method by which to
identify their TAC member’s replacement. Even though every member might not
be replaced at the same time, Committee members will begin working within
their sections to start discussing the best way to appoint replacement
members to the Committee.
Postdoctoral Issues
Sussman attended the National Academy of Sciences
Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy (COSEPUP) Convocation
on Enhancing the Postdoctoral Experience for Scientists and Engineers and
National Postdoctoral Association (NPA) meetings held just prior to EB in
Washington, DC, on behalf of the Committee.
The COSEPUP Convocation grew out of a report by the
Committee in 2000 addressing concerns about the current state of
Postdoctoral Training in this country and its impact on young scientists and
the advancement of science. Some effects of the report include raises in NIH
Postdoctoral stipends, the comprehensive Sigma XI Postdoctoral survey, and
the creation of the NPA. The purpose of the meeting was to promote
communication among COSEPUP members, postdoctoral scientists, and other
interested parties (e.g., Sigma XI, NIH, other funding agencies, Medical
School Administrators). Salient issues that were addressed include reduction
of time to complete both graduate and postdoctoral training, encouraging
trainees to pursue non-academic and non tenure-track careers,
standardization of compensation and benefits, and increasing opportunities
for postdocs to achieve greater financial, and therefore research
independence, i.e., obtain grants covering supplies as well as compensation.
The annual meeting of the NPA included further
discussion of many of the same issues as the COSEPUP Convocation. The NPA is
working to advance interests of postdocs through both national and local
activities by promoting the formation of local Postdoctoral Associations and
Postdoctoral Offices and courting their membership in the NPA. Additional
concerns for the NPA are to give postdocs a national voice for communicating
with COSEPUP, NIH, and other funding agencies, provide support and
information services to postdocs, and grow to a sustainable size and achieve
financial solvency before their charter grant from the Alfred P. Sloan
Foundation runs out. The NPA has offices housed in the AAAS building in
Washington, DC, two staff members, a web page, an executive board composed
of NPA members (primarily founding members), and several committees made up
of executive board members and other NPA members.
The relationship of the NPA to professional societies
is evolving. They are actively collaborating in at least one project with
the AAMC postdoc committee (to generate a “toolkit” for institutions focused
on professional development issues) and are offering membership in the NPA
to professional societies. There is much work to be done regarding the
development of this relationship to ensure complementarity without
redundancy. For example, the NPA could provide societies with guidelines for
promoting trainee involvement, and societies could advertise their trainee
activities on NPA publications. To facilitate development of these issues,
Sussman has been communicating with two relevant NPA Committees, Diversity
and Outreach.
The Sigma XI survey is a comprehensive survey of
postdoctoral research activities, career goals, and perceptions. Sigma XI
has involved psychologists, lawyers, the National Academy of Sciences, and
the NPA in the development of the survey. It is extremely comprehensive in
nature. For a fee, institutions have the opportunity to contribute
additional questions and receive results from their postdocs to these and
the standard survey questions. Sigma XI will consider requests to provide
the same service to professional societies
Fall Meeting
The TAC was previously given approval by Council for a 1.5-day fall
meeting. This will be held in September 2004. This meeting will allow the
Committee to have a significant amount of time to plan their future
activities and directions and discuss what issues should be dealt with in a
more substantial manner.
Caroline R. Sussman, Chair
Committee Action Items
-
Council accepted the report of the Trainee Advisory
Committee.
-
Council approved a Trainee Advisory Committee
sponsored symposium/workshop at EB 2006.
-
Council approved the allocation of $500 for a society
membership in National Postdoctoral Association.
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