Scientist Mentoring and Diversity Program (SMDP) call for 2020 applicants.
2020-01-14 00:00 (America/New_York)
Scientist Mentoring and Diversity Program (SMDP) call for 2020 Applicants. SMDP Biotech in San Diego @June 6-10 or SMDP MedTech in Toronto @October 3-7. The application deadline is April 3. The programs are one-year career mentoring programs that pair ethnically diverse graduate students with industry mentors. Scholars attend a 5-day training session with their mentors to learn about career opportunities in biotech or medtech industry and receive career development coaching and attend a major industry conference. For application and more information.

Orientation
2020-01-17 09:00 - 12:30 | Biotechnology Building, Room G10, 526 Campus Road, Ithaca, NY, 14853, United States
Congratulations on your acceptance to Cornell…and welcome! We are excited that you will be joining us in beautiful Ithaca this January. You have a special invitation to the Graduate School’s Orientation for new students on Friday, January 17 from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm in the Biotechnology Building, Room G10.
Meet our Graduate School deans and network with your peers.

A Peek Behind the Employment Curtain
2020-01-23 09:00 - 11:30 | Biotechnology Building, G01, Ithaca, NY, 14853, United States
Insider Tips From a PhD Hiring Manager
You see a job on a company’s website that interests you. You gather your materials, apply with enthusiasm to their online portal, and get an email back acknowledging your information has been received. Now what? Usually, nothing. On a rare occasion you might receive an email saying you were not selected, and even less frequently, you might get selected for an interview. If you are one of the few that does get an interview, often times it might take weeks, or longer, to hear back from the employer. And if you do not move to next round you almost never receive feedback on why you were not selected to move forward in the interview process.
Job seekers experience a great deal of uncertainty and have limited control over this process. Thus, they often send out 100s of resumes and applications in the hopes of receiving a handful of interviews; just to play the odds.
This workshop will provide information on how to articulate your “value” to an employer through common communication tools (e.g. resume, LinkedIn, interviews). In addition, we will discuss the employer’s perspective about job postings, applicant screening, interviewing, and ultimately hiring the best candidate. Understanding the employer’s needs and how they view the hiring process gives you a better chance to stand out as the best candidate.
To Register
Learning outcomes include:

how to articulate your “value” to an employer
a better understanding of the employer’s needs
a broadened perspective on what PhD skills you bring to a position outside of academia

There will be plenty of time for questions from the participants. Don’t miss this workshop in the morning of January 23 led by Josh Henkin, Founder and Career Coach, STEM Career Services.
About the speaker, Josh Henkin, STEM Career Services
After years of successfully mentoring science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) job seekers, in 2014 Josh founded STEM Career Services, a career coaching company aimed at helping STEM graduates start and sustain careers outside of academia. Josh speaks and conducts workshops at conferences, universities, and institutes across the country and provides career coaching to STEM graduates at all career levels. These efforts have earned Josh a position on the National Postdoctoral Association (NPA) Board of Directors, where he sits on the executive committee and serves as the nonprofit’s treasurer. In addition, Josh is an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science Careers and Career Development Center (CDC) Subject Matter Expert. He has created several online courses for the CDC and delivers workshops and panel discussions to standing room only audiences at AAAS events.
Concurrent with his work at STEM Career Services, Josh is a Senior Consultant with management and hiring authority at Logistics Management Institute (LMI), a science and technology consulting company. At LMI, Josh builds and leads teams that provide a full range of technical and programmatic support to Department of Defense (DoD) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) vaccine and therapeutic development programs. He contributes a blend of management support, subject matter expertise, strategic planning, risk management, and knowledge of the FDA regulatory landscape.
Prior to these roles, Josh worked at Medtronic as a principle field scientist in its cardiac rhythm disease management division, where he managed a portfolio of investigator-initiated clinical trials to promote innovative research with implantable cardiac devices. As an AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow, Josh worked with the DoD as a scientific advisor for the Undersecretary of Defense for Laboratories and Basic Sciences, creating policies and managing basic science programs.
A lifelong athlete, Josh played rugby for 20 years at the collegiate, national, and international levels. He has authored research articles on muscle, exercise physiology, and fitness, is a certified strength and conditioning expert, and has started several companies in the exercise/fitness space. He holds a BS in business administration, a MS in nutritional sciences, and a PhD in cell and molecular biology, all from the University of Vermont.
www.STEMCareerServices.com josh@stemcareerservices.com
Accessibility Requests
We strive to make our events accessible to all community members. Individuals who would like to request accessibility accommodations should contact gradcareers@cornell.edu.We ask that requests be made at least one week in advance to help ensure they can be met.

Networking and Why Every PhD Should Do It - Free Webinar
2020-01-23 12:00 - 12:30
Beyond the Professoriate is an online resource that helps PhDs build impactful careers. They are offering a free 30 minute webinar to earn how to effectively network for job search and career success. To register.

Your Career, Your Community
2020-01-24 11:30 - 13:00 | 100 Mann Library, 237 Mann Drive, Ithaca, NY, 14853, United States
As a PhD student or postdoc would you like to use your expertise to work on local projects that you can then leverage for future career opportunities? A collaboration between Cornell’s Careers Beyond Academia and Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County is offering lunch and a chance to hear about current local opportunities as well as a chance to tell us what you are interested in working on. We can then take those interests back to the county and city administrators and work with you and them to develop projects.
Friday, January 24 @ 11:30 to 1 pm in 100 Mann Library
To Register
We will share existing project opportunities focused on the environment, but these are continually expanding. Furthermore, you can come to us with your interests and academic specializations to have a conversation about what you’d like to work on in the local community (health, incarceration, transportation, food systems, opioids, energy, strategic tourism, early childhood…).
Come and join us for lunch on 1/24 from 11:30 AM to 1 PM in 100 Mann Library. There will be a presentation from 11:30 to about 12 and the rest of the time for (more) eating, talking and sharing of ideas. If you can’t make it until after 12 no problem, we can catch you up.
Internship Opportunities to grow your public policy resume by working in local government
With an increase in harmful algal blooms (HABs) across New York, in 2018 Governor Cuomo allocated $65 million to address the issue. Action Plans were drafted for 12 priority waterbodies, including our local Cayuga Lake. The Harmful Algal Bloom Action Plan – Cayuga Lake (Action Plan) provides extensive detail on the lake background, designated uses, water quality conditions, and sources of pollutants and includes a priority projects list (Section 13.3).
Cornell PhD students or postdocs working on projects related to the action plan would be supporting Tompkins County and be working with the oversight of the county’s Department of Planning and Sustainability. FYI on HABs: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/04/lethal-algae-blooms-an-ecosystem-out-of-balance
Benefits to you:

Have ownership of a deliverable you can later leverage for employment and research funding.
Mentorship by county staff and also community stakeholders; real-world experience of local government operations and community work.
Flexibility over when to work remotely and when to work on-site or in the county office. Interns will typically have the freedom to work by themselves at their own pace but with support from supervisors and community stakeholders.
Discover local research opportunities that can have a real impact and take the lead on directing research and funding proposals towards those.
Depending on the project and discussions with supervisors, weekly hours and duration can be designed to fit with your schedule (while also being compliant with Cornell regulations). 5-8 hours per week work is a ballpark figure but a lot of flexibility on that. These projects do not work on a semester basis so duration can be adjusted to fit work volume, travel, etc.

More details on three possible projects…

Grant Writing:
Most action plans around the lake require additional funding. NYS has a consolidated funding application for all state grants, typically with the same annual application cycle (open in May, deadline in July). Local partners would benefit from delegating grant writing responsibilities to an intern who would develop skills on defining a project and developing a work plan, timeline, and budget. The intern could also research other funding options to cover cost share (local match) required for most grants. This project develops vital grant writing skills and will enable you to demonstrate your ability to work with diverse stakeholders. Depending on skill set and interest—and with the agreement of the grant team–the intern could possibly write themselves into the grant for future funded work. Timeline would be aiming for grant submission in the summer.

Researching and Recommending Best Management Practices:
HABs are on the increase nation- and world-wide. It is valuable to understand what best management practices (BMPs) are most effective at reducing the occurrence of HABs. The intern would research how other phosphorus-impaired watershed are prioritizing funding and lake and watershed management and would develop recommendations for local partners. This project, as with other projects focused on HABs, enables you to demonstrate your ability to work with diverse non-university stakeholders. Not only is this valuable for future applications to work with state-level bodies etc., but Intern work with community stakeholders can lead to paid consultancy work once value has been demonstrated. Timeline and deliverables in terms of report length and so on to be determined in conversation with county partners.

Evaluating Existing Best Management Practices for the Watershed:
The intern would use stream data and best management practices to assess effectiveness of BMPs to improve water quality and would develop recommendations for local partners (putting real numbers on what, how many, and where in the watershed BMPs would be needed to reduce phosphorus levels by what amount). This kind of BMP work on watershed management is critical to environmental management across the US. This is an opportunity to gain expertise and demonstrate value at both an academic and implementation level to seed future work. Timelines and the specifics of deliverables—beyond the indicated recommendations—are to be determined through discussion with county (but could start immediately).

For more information please contact our collaborator:
Chris Kai-Jones, PhD, MSW, Student and Community Coordinator
Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County
House Fellow and Visiting Lecturer, Cornell University
chj7@cornell.edu phone: 607 280-5846

Your Career, Your Community
2020-01-24 11:30 - 13:00 | 100 Mann Library, 237 Mann Drive, Ithaca, NY, 14853, United States
As a PhD student or postdoc would you like to use your expertise to work on local projects that you can then leverage for future career opportunities? A collaboration between Cornell’s Careers Beyond Academia and Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County is offering lunch and a chance to hear about current local opportunities as well as a chance to tell us what you are interested in working on. We can then take those interests back to the county and city administrators and work with you and them to develop projects.
Friday, January 24 @ 11:30 to 1 pm in 100 Mann Library
To Register
We will share existing project opportunities focused on the environment, but these are continually expanding. Furthermore, you can come to us with your interests and academic specializations to have a conversation about what you’d like to work on in the local community (health, incarceration, transportation, food systems, opioids, energy, strategic tourism, early childhood…).
Come and join us for lunch on 1/24 from 11:30 AM to 1 PM in 100 Mann Library. There will be a presentation from 11:30 to about 12 and the rest of the time for (more) eating, talking and sharing of ideas. If you can’t make it until after 12 no problem, we can catch you up.

Academic Job Search Discussion
2020-01-24 12:00 - 13:30 | 102 Mann Library, 237 Mann Drive, Ithaca, NY, 14853, United States
Are you a postdoc or graduate student applying for academic jobs now or in the near future? Come join a lunch discussion with others in the same stage, facilitated by the Office of Postdoctoral Studies and CIRTL at Cornell. We’re gathering a community of peers to help find advice, support, and feedback. Bring questions and we’ll provide lunch! Registration required.
Co-sponsored by the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL at Cornell) and the Office of Postdoctoral Studies, as part of the Academic Job Search Series.
Location: 102 Mann Library

Creating an Employer-Ready LinkedIn Profile Workshop
2020-01-29 14:00 - 15:00 | 100 Mann Library, 237 Mann Drive, Ithaca, NY, 14853, United States
We’ll start with a short overview presentation with tips on how to use LinkedIn, exercises to identify a good tagline, and an interactive session to work on profiles and receive feedback. Please bring your computer. We will email a worksheet prior to the event. Due to the interactive workshop space is limited to 15 people. To Register.
Accessibility Requests
We strive to make our events accessible to all community members. Individuals who would like to request accessibility accommodations should contact gradcareers@cornell.edu.We ask that requests be made at least one week in advance to help ensure they can be met.

How to Get Hired: Advice to PhDs from Hiring Managers - free Webinar
2020-01-31 12:00 - 12:30
Beyond the Professoriate is a free online resource for PhDs exploring options to build impactful careers. They are offering this free webinar that discusses what hiring managers look for in new employees and how PhDs can communicate their potential value. Josh Magsam, PhD (English, University of Oregon) and Melanie Nelson, PhD (Biochemistry, Scripps Research) demystify the hiring process. To register.

Careers In and Beyond Academia
2020-01-31 14:30 - 15:30 | 102 Mann Library, 237 Mann Drive, Ithaca, NY, 14853, United States
Information sessions for PhD students and Postdocs on resources and career pathway exploration opportunities. Presented by CIRTL, Careers Beyond Academia and the Office of Postdoctoral Studies.
To Register
Accessibility Requests
We strive to make our events accessible to all community members. Individuals who would like to request accessibility accommodations should contact gradcareers@cornell.edu. We ask that requests be made at least one week in advance to help ensure they can be met.

Careers In and Beyond Academia
2020-01-31 14:30 - 15:30 | 102 Mann Library, 237 Mann Drive, Ithaca, NY, 14853, United States
Information sessions for Ph.D. students and postdocs on resources and career pathway exploration opportunities. Presented by CIRTL at Cornell, Careers Beyond Academia, and the Office of Postdoctoral Studies.
Register
