Celebrating Our Postdoctoral Researchers

By: Margaret Savoie

The University of Mississippi is home to a community of about fifty postdoctoral researchers. Over the past few years, the Graduate School has undertaken efforts to provide outreach to these individuals–with a long-term vision to create a more centralized office to support the advancement of this unique group. A postdoctoral researcher or associate, more commonly known as a “postdoc,” is someone with a Ph.D. who is employed for a limited time, typically between one and three years. The position involves working closely with a senior researcher on a project of mutual interest. Such a position helps the postdoc firm up their experience and qualifications, augmenting their resume before applying for more permanent and senior positions.

This past fall the Graduate School celebrated Postdoctoral Appreciation Week, a national annual celebration of postdocs. “The postdoctoral community is a demographic that is crucial to an institution’s Carnegie Research 1 status; the research they conduct and the activities they direct often lie on the cutting edge of advancing knowledge and progress for society,” said Dr. Sandra Spiroff, Assistant Dean of Professional Development & Communication for the Graduate School. The University of Mississippi became a Carnegie Research 1 institution in 2016, a status that requires meeting various research productivity benchmarks, Ph.D. graduates, and more. The Graduate School was excited to augment its involvement in the national postdoctoral appreciation events, continuing the University’s forward momentum and dedication to research endeavors and its practitioners.

Kritika Gupta

Kritika Gupta, 2022 Doctoral Class Marshal and recent postdoc at the Center for Research Evaluation from May to December of 2022, said her transition to postdoc at UM was smoother than some since she had been on campus as a graduate student. Gupta said, “A full-time research position may not always be the easiest, but having the opportunity to teach was a great [addition] for me because I was able to spread the word about what I do and how my career choices helped me get here.”

The University of Mississippi’s postdoc appreciation week started on Monday, September 19, with a zoom session for “Mindful Monday,” a morning gathering designed to provide focus and balance to the work week, and continued with the opportunity for free professional headshots by UM Communications photographers. On Tuesday, we encouraged postdocs to attend an afternoon meeting focusing on the 7 habits of highly effective employees and the evening presentation of the Oxford Science Café at Heartbreak Coffee. Wednesday’s schedule offered two seminars, namely “Inclusive Teaching Includes You Too” and “Meaningful Meetings,” as well as a Mississippi Postdoctoral Association (MSPDA) lunch and discussion. Akin to the Graduate Student Council, the MSPDA is an organization of postdocs, for postdocs. Thursday’s event was a Pastries-on-the-Porch event, a sweeter installment of the popular Pizza-on-the-Porch, which offered a morning coffee klatch with the grad school deans. On Friday, a limited number of football tickets to the Tulsa game were made available to postdocs, a generous donation obtained from the Athletics Department, and each postdoc received a certificate of appreciation from the Graduate School signed by Dean Kluck and Provost Noel Wilkin. Finally, the week culminated in the game day tailgate hosted by the Graduate School in the Circle, and the football team showed its appreciation by delivering a victory.

Gagandeep Singh

“National Postdoc Appreciation Week was a great way of interacting with the diverse community of postdocs here at the University of Mississippi,” said Gagandeep Singh, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the current president of MSPDA. He continued, “such events help foster a sense of community and camaraderie among postdocs who otherwise would rarely have the chance to interact with each other.”

Jessica Pruett

Jessica Pruett, a postdoc for the National Center for Natural Product Research, spoke about her experience at the University. “I decided to join UM as a postdoc because I was very excited about the project I would get to work on, in which I get to apply my previous research in oyster reef ecology to help understand the effects of environmental stressors on early oyster life in order to better inform oyster reef restoration efforts in the Gulf of Mexico,” she said.

The Graduate School looks forward to future postdoctoral appreciation weeks and finding ways to continue to bolster support for this community on our campus.

Celebrating Our Postdoctoral Researchers

2022 Winter Newsletter