
{"id":2527,"date":"2019-05-07T10:04:08","date_gmt":"2019-05-07T10:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/how-i-spent-summer-2018-as-a-postdoc\/"},"modified":"2025-01-15T06:35:21","modified_gmt":"2025-01-15T06:35:21","slug":"how-i-spent-summer-2018-as-a-postdoc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/how-i-spent-summer-2018-as-a-postdoc","title":{"rendered":"How I spent summer 2018 as a postdoc"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4 style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\"><b>Overview<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h4>\n<p style=\"margin:0cm 0cm 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">I am writing this piece for my colleagues that are in their PhD and wondering what it is like to be a postdoc bridging two disciplines (plant and human microbiomes). This post gives a synthesis of what I did this summer and why I chose to invest my time in these activities.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<h4 style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\"><b>Writing a Banting postdoctoral application<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h4>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">This year I have been invited by my university to apply to the Banting postdoctoral fellowship. This process is long and tedious, but the support to prepare my application at the University of Calgary has been outstanding. I was assigned a team of internal reviewers that commented on my document to make sure it was as well prepared as possible. I must say that this year I have spent a lot of time applying for a variety of awards and grants, of which I got very little. But even if I get only one, that can make a huge difference on a CV.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<h4 style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\"><b>Mentoring a PhD student on microbiome analyses<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h4>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">This summer I am collaborating with a PhD student to help her in the analyses of her DNA sequencing data. I could have decided to do the analyses myself but I chose to teach her and help her through the process. This, for sure, takes more time than if I were to do the work myself, but as a future PI, you need to be able to mentor students and pass along your knowledge. So this was a great exercise of mentoring and positive leadership.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<h4 style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\"><b>2-week metagenomic workshop in Calgary<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h4>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">As a postdoc, you need to continue to learn and improve your skillset. This is why I decided to take 2 weeks of my time to invest in learning metagenomics. I was very lucky because there was a metagenomic workshop in my hometown and it was great. I bet they will repeat it in the future so here\u2019s a link to the description:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/ebg.ucalgary.ca\/metagenomics-workshop\/index.html\" style=\"color:blue; text-decoration:underline\">Workshop<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<h4 style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\"><b>Poster at a conference on protists in Vancouver<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h4>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Default Alt text\" class=\"responsive\" data-file_info=\"%7B%22fid%22:%228119%22,%22view_mode%22:%22default%22,%22fields%22:%7B%22format%22:%22default%22,%22field_file_image_alt_text%5Bund%5D%5B0%5D%5Bvalue%5D%22:%22Default%20Alt%20text%22,%22field_file_image_title_text%5Bund%5D%5B0%5D%5Bvalue%5D%22:%22Default%20Title%20Text%22,%22field_image_tags%5Bund%5D%5Btextfield%5D%22:%22%22,%22field_image_tags%5Bund%5D%5Bvalue_field%5D%22:%22%5C%22%5C%22%5C%22%5C%22%22%7D,%22type%22:%22media%22%7D\" src=\"http:\/\/insights.cactusglobal.com\/sites\/default\/files\/1_34.jpg\" style=\"\" title=\"Default Title Text\" \/><\/p>\n<h4 style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\"><b>Organization of a symposium at ESA 2018 in New Orlean<\/b>s<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h4>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">This is one of the best things I decided to do this year. I reached out to a colleague in the US (Briana Whitaker) and together we proposed a session at the Ecological Society of America\u2019s annual conference of 2018. These proposals have to be put in, in September and we had to recruit 10 speakers for our session. We reached out to a variety of researchers working on plant leaf bacterial and fungal communities. The session was amazing; we got to spend the afternoon hearing about great projects that were of high interest to us. Big conferences like ESA can feel a little scattered in terms of research quality and topic. So by organizing our own conference we got to hear only about the research we were interested in. Building a network as a postdoc is also essential, and this was a great exercise that extended the reach of my network.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<h4 style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\"><b>2-week crazy experiment end<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h4>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">Our lab completed at the end of August an experiment on germ-free and gnotobiotic mice. We worked hard and hopefully we will get great results out of this effort. When carrying out such a big experiment, everyone participates in the lab.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Default Alt text\" class=\"responsive\" data-file_info=\"%7B%22fid%22:%228120%22,%22view_mode%22:%22default%22,%22fields%22:%7B%22format%22:%22default%22,%22field_file_image_alt_text%5Bund%5D%5B0%5D%5Bvalue%5D%22:%22Default%20Alt%20text%22,%22field_file_image_title_text%5Bund%5D%5B0%5D%5Bvalue%5D%22:%22Default%20Title%20Text%22,%22field_image_tags%5Bund%5D%5Btextfield%5D%22:%22%22,%22field_image_tags%5Bund%5D%5Bvalue_field%5D%22:%22%5C%22%5C%22%5C%22%5C%22%22%7D,%22type%22:%22media%22%7D\" src=\"http:\/\/insights.cactusglobal.com\/sites\/default\/files\/2.jpeg\" style=\"\" title=\"Default Title Text\" \/><\/p>\n<h4 style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\"><b>Invitation to give a seminar at Universit\u00e9 Laval<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h4>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">My best moment of the summer was to give a seminar at the university where I did my undergraduate studies: Universit\u00e9 Laval. By interacting on Twitter with Dr. Christian Landry, I got an invitation to present my work at IBIS (Institut de Biologie Int\u00e9grative et des Syst\u00e8mes). It was an amazing feeling to come back after all these years and be in front of a very full room to present my research to some of my former professors.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Default Alt text\" class=\"responsive\" data-file_info=\"%7B%22fid%22:%228121%22,%22view_mode%22:%22default%22,%22fields%22:%7B%22format%22:%22default%22,%22field_file_image_alt_text%5Bund%5D%5B0%5D%5Bvalue%5D%22:%22Default%20Alt%20text%22,%22field_file_image_title_text%5Bund%5D%5B0%5D%5Bvalue%5D%22:%22Default%20Title%20Text%22,%22field_image_tags%5Bund%5D%5Btextfield%5D%22:%22%22,%22field_image_tags%5Bund%5D%5Bvalue_field%5D%22:%22%5C%22%5C%22%5C%22%5C%22%22%7D,%22type%22:%22media%22%7D\" src=\"http:\/\/insights.cactusglobal.com\/sites\/default\/files\/3.jpeg\" style=\"\" title=\"Default Title Text\" \/><\/p>\n<h4 style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\"><b>Invitation to participate at a symposium on Microbial Ecology and Evolution in the Phyllosphere in Santa Barbara, California<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h4>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">Finally, I got an invitation to participate at a one-day symposium in Santa Barbara organized by two colleagues from UC Berkeley (Dr. Britt Koskella and Dr. Steven Lindow) and one colleague from U of Arizona (Dr. David Baltrus). Initially only the hotel was paid for, but one participant agreed to pay for their own accommodations so I could have a $500 budget to pay for my travel. The symposium was amazing and I got to exchange ideas with many researchers I keep on citing in my papers\u2026 very humbling!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Default Alt text\" class=\"media-element file-default\" style=\"height: 188px; width: 260px;\" title=\"Default Title Text\" src=\"http:\/\/insights.cactusglobal.com\/sites\/default\/files\/4_48.jpg\" \/>\u00a0<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Default Alt text\" class=\"media-element file-default\" style=\"height: 195px; width: 260px;\" title=\"Default Title Text\" src=\"http:\/\/insights.cactusglobal.com\/sites\/default\/files\/5_9.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0cm 0cm 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\"><b>Left picture:<\/b>\u00a0Maria Brandl, me (four months pregnant), Carolyn Frank, and Johan Levau enjoying the sun during the break at the Santa Barbara Symposium.\u00a0<b>Right picture:<\/b>\u00a0The Santa Barbara beach and me (can I move there away from Quebec\u2019s winter?).<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><i>Isabelle Laforest-Lapointe (<u><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Isabel_Laforest\" style=\"color:blue; text-decoration:underline\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@Isabel_Laforest<\/a><\/u><\/i><i>) is a Postdoctoral fellow on maternity leave, post which she will start a position as Assistant Professor in January 2020 at the Universit\u00e9 de Sherbrooke. This story was published on September 22, 2018 on Dr. <\/i><i>Laforest-Lapointe\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/isabellelaforestlapointe.wordpress.com\/\" style=\"color:blue; text-decoration:underline\">blog<\/a> (available <a href=\"https:\/\/isabellelaforestlapointe.wordpress.com\/2018\/09\/22\/summer-2018-as-a-postdoc\/\" style=\"color:blue; text-decoration:underline\">here<\/a>), and has been republished here with her permission.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Overview I am writing this piece for my colleagues that are in their PhD and wondering what it is like to be a postdoc bridging two disciplines (plant and human microbiomes). This post gives a synthesis of what I did this summer and why I chose to invest my time in these activities. Writing a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1428,"featured_media":33313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2414],"tags":[2454,2671],"new_categories":[],"new_tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-2527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiring-researcher-stories","tag-researcher-stories","tag-stories-of-success"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How I spent summer 2018 as a postdoc<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Isabelle Laforest-Lapointe is a Postdoctoral fellow on maternity leave, post which she will start a position as Assistant Professor in January 2020 at the Universit\u00e9 de Sherbrooke. 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