Learn a bit about the VI4 Postdoctoral Association and doing a postdoc at Vanderbilt from Kara Eichelberger, PhD and Valeria Reyes Ruiz, PhD!
Video Transcript
Valeria (V): Well, don't use that I can make another blooper.
[laughter]
VI4 Scientists Doing Things
Kara (K): I am Kara Eichelberger. I am a postdoc in Jim Cassat's lab.
V: and my name is Valeria. I'm a postdoc with Eric Skaar.
[Why did you decide to do a postdoc?]
K: Just throughout grad school, really fell in love with doing research. And my ultimate career goal is to hopefully run my own research lab one day.
V: Same I can copy that answer.
[laughter]
V: And I felt like the postdoc was the next step to get those skills that we needed.
[What makes Vanderbilt a great place to do a postdoc?]
V: The core facilities, there's just so many. So I have been able to do a project that I never thought in my wildest dreams, thought that I could do for my research.
K: Also, in addition to having such great core facilities is just the research environment here at Vanderbilt is one of the best in the country for host pathogen interactions. Just great labs, great graduate programs, all contributes to just a really awesome intellectual environment for postdoc research.
[What does the VI4 Postdoc Association do?]
V: We are part of the VI4 Postdoctoral Association and we try to do events so that postdocs can get together and feel like part of our community and also provide training for specific skills that we need to go on the job market and get our own labs.
[What is your favorite PDA event?]
K: As part of the PDA, we get to help coordinate when we have faculty candidates coming to interview, they give a chalk talk, and we have the opportunity to send 2 to 3 postdocs each chalk talk. And I think that that event is always really popular, highly rewarding for getting to see an actual chalk talk from a faculty candidate interviewing.
V: And then the other thing is that we're always just looking for ideas of things to do. So, even if you don't want to be part of the leadership but want to tell us some activities that we could organize, that will help the postdoc community. We're always happy to hear them and try to find the right resources.
K: This is the most productive thing I've done today.
V: 100%.
[laughter]
