Dear Colleagues,
The Postdoctoral Assembly (PDA) is pleased to announce that guide sign-up is open until January 17 for the Annual Poster Tours for Trainees event at the SOT Annual Meeting. The PDA is currently requesting that Full and Associate SOT members sign up as guides to lead a poster tour this year.
In the previous years, the Poster Tours event has received an overwhelmingly positive response, as it continues to provide graduate students and postdocs with an opportunity to shadow an expert toxicologist and take part in critical evaluation of cutting-edge toxicology methods and research findings in a field of their choice. This event also provides an outstanding mentoring and networking opportunity for guides, postdoctoral scientists, and graduate students.
To coordinate the selection of times and topics, guides can go to the Annual Meeting website for an overview of the schedule of Poster Sessions. In the Online Planer, select the Poster filter under Session & Activity Type for the list of sessions. As a part of the sign-up, guides will select the times (Monday through Wednesday) and topics they wish to cover with a group of trainees. Graduate students and postdoctoral scientists will then sign up for a one-hour guided poster tour with an expert toxicologist in an area of interest.
The PDA is asking guides to:
- Visit a minimum of three posters with their tour group.
- Share why they wanted to visit each poster.
- Discuss the next steps in that body of research with the tour group and the presenter.
- Ask the presenter questions that help illustrate outstanding features of the work.
- Discuss the components that participants may value in the chosen poster.
- Introduce the participants to expert colleagues by networking with them along the way.
- Offer career and networking advice to participants.
Now is the time to participate in this event—sharing expertise, networking, and offering advice on research and careers. Please volunteer one hour of your time to show trainees the posters you would like to visit at the Annual Meeting in Anaheim. Guides may sign up now through January 17, 2020.
Sincerely,
Ahmed Abdelmoneim, PhD
Joseph L. Jilek, PhD
Melanie Abongwa, PhD
2020 PDA Poster Tours Planning Group
