The Berkeley Postdoctoral Association (BPA) is a volunteer organization of postdocs working to advocate for the postdoc and visiting scholar community at UC Berkeley. Alongside the VSPA-affiliated organizations, we strive to provide a network of support and professional development for postdocs and visiting scholars through workshops, social events, seminars, and ensure we are doing our part to actively promote diversity, equity, and inclusion through our programming.
To this end, we currently have three programming committees:
Committee for Social Events
Committee for Career Development
Committee for Diversity and Inclusion
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We write to you to share our deep sadness over continued acts of racist violence towards the Asian American & Pacific Islander (AAPI) community. As advocates for the postdoctoral and visiting scholars community, the Berkeley Postdoctoral Association is concerned for the welfare and safety of AAPI scholars and is committed to providing networks of support and advocating for the well-being of AAPI postdocs and visiting scholars. We encourage you to participate with us to provide support for AAPI scholars and educate ourselves on the history of Anti-AAPI hate. Read more...
Earlier this year, the BPA's Diversity Committee hosted an open discussion with our postdoc peers here at Berkeley to identify concerns and issues related to diversity & inclusion in our postdoc community. Diversity Committee Chair Caroine Figueroa presents our results in her blog post "Why Academia's Diversity Efforts Need to Include Postdocs" published at the beginning of this month. Great work Caroline! And thanks for all of those who participated in our discussion.
We are happy to announce an adapted version of the BPA Professional Development Award to temporarily fund online professional development courses during the shelter in place! In case you’re having trouble finding ways to be productive outside the lab or office, it could be a good time to take advantage of the large amount of online training available out there. Examples include taking online classes ranging from learning coding in python, communication skills, management techniques, entrepreneurship insights, writing, teaching, etc.