Career Development Awards
Applications for Fall Career Development Awards are now open
These awards can be used to support attendance to events or programs that support the postdoc’s professional development, such as conferences, workshops, and seminars. Each recipient will receive up to $1,000 to be used to supplement costs of travel and/or registration of such events.
The awards are dispersed through reimbursement for events/programs between September 3 and December 20, 2024. Please apply via Google Form on or before Friday, November 1, 2024. Additional information, including deadlines for receipt submission, is included on the form. Applicants will be notified by the end of November.
Please note that only Postdoctoral Fellows (9560) and Postdoctoral Associates (9546) are eligible for the awards.
Please email pda@umn.edu with any questions!
Congratulations to the winners of our Fall 2024 Career Development Awards!
Fall 2024 Career Awards
Sachin Dhanda, PhD
Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics
Attending: 79th Annual North Central Weed Science Society Meeting
Jeremiah Morrow, PhD
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Attending: Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting 2024
Cathy Chen, PhD
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Attending: Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting 2024
Kyle Fulghum, PhD
Division of Molecular Medicine
Attending: Isotope Tracers in Metabolic Research: Principles and Practice of Kinetic Analysis
Anuradha Garg, PhD
Department of Soil Water and Climate
Attending: American Geophysical Union Annual Meeting 2024
Harsimardeep Gill, PhD
Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics
Attending: National FHB Forum Annual Meeting 2024
Kirsten McKone, PhD
Institute of Child Development
Attending: Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies Annual Meeting 2024
Bhavin Pradhan, PhD
Center for Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy
Attending: Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management Annual Meeting 2024
Parag Bawaskar, PhD
Department of Medicine - Cardiology Division
Attending: American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2024
Fenghui Yuan, PhD
Department of Soil Water and Climate
Attending: American Geophysical Union Annual Meeting 2024
Spring 2024 Career Awards
Mikayla Barry, PhD
Division of Epidemiology & Community Health
Attending: Causal Mediation Analysis Training: Methods and Applications Using Health Data
Suraj Bhattarai, PhD
The Hormel Institute
Attending: American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2024
Upendra Chalise, PhD
Department of Medicine - Cardiology Division
Attending: American Physiological Society (APS) Summit 2024
Megan Freiler, PhD
Department of Ecology Evolution and Behavior
Attending: International Congress of Neuroethology (ICN)
Jinsu Hong, PhD
Department of Animal Science
Attending: Poultry Science Association Annual Meeting
Ruth Isenberg, PhD
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Attending: Microbial Specialized Metabolites: From Genomes to Biological Functions
Raahil Madhok, PhD
Department of Applied Economics
Attending: Pacific Development (PacDev) Conference
Ursula Oggenfuss, PhD
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Attending: Fungal Genetics Conference
Fall 2023 Career Awards
Cole Callen, PhD
Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences
Attending: Boston University Conference on Language Development
Karen Castillioni, PhD
Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior
Attending: British Ecological Society Annual Meeting
Pooja Choksi, PhD
Department of Forest Resources
Attending: Sustainable Forest Transitions Meeting at the University of Manchester
Poppy Hesketh Beth, PhD
Department of Veterinary Population Medicine
Attending: American Bee Research Conference
Rachel Schambow, PhD
Center for Animal Health and Food Safety
Attending: Global African Swine Fever Research Alliance Gap Analysis Workshop
Spring 2023 Career Awards
Daniela Herrera Moro Chao, PhD
Department of Neuroscience
Attending: European Meeting on Glial Cells in Health and Disease
Kelsey Johnson, PhD
Department of Genetics, Cell Biology & Development
Attending: Pediatrics Academic Society 2023 Meeting
Kyusic Park, PhD
Department of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics
Attending: 41th International Modal Analysis Conference
Shubhechchha Sharma, PhD
Department of Knowledge Initiatives (Institute on the Environment)
Attending: International Association for Society and Natural Resources Conference
Joshua Shutter, PhD
Department of Soil, Water, and Climate
Attending: American Chemical Society Spring 2023 Meeting
Jessica Stone, PhD
Department of Anthropology
Attending: American Association of Biological Anthropologists Annual Meeting
Fall 2022 Career Awards
Eric Rawls, PhD
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Lei Zhang, PhD
Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics
Neetu Yadav, PhD
Department of Chemistry
Harry Tran, PhD
Department of Biomedical Engineering
Valeriia Yustyniuk, PhD
Department of Veterinary Population Medicine
Xinyuan Yan, PhD
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Spring 2022 Career Awards
Beatriz Baselga, PhD
Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior
Attending: Evolution 2022 Conference
Hector Chapoy Vilanueva, PhD
Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology
Attending: International Society for Heart Research Conference
Dennis Cladis, PhD
Department of Food Science and Nutrition
Attending: Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Annual Meeting
Sarick Matzen, PhD
Department of Soil, Water, and Climate
Attending: American Chemical Society Spring Meeting
Serap Vatansever, PhD
Department of Food Science and Nutrition
Attending: 2022 American Oil Chemists' Society Annual Meeting & Expo
Xinru Wang, PhD
Department of Entomology
Attending: American Society for Rickettsiology 31th meeting
Spring 2020 Career Awards
Gabriela Bustamante, PhD
Program in Health Disparities Research
Attending: Society for Epidemiologic Research Meeting
Adrian Moore, PhD
Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior
Attending: Freshwater Mussel Conservation Society Workshop
Aleta Steevens, PhD
Department of Neurosurgery, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Neurosciences
Attending: The American Society for Neural Therapy and Repair
Postdoc Career Awards: Sustaining Professional Development During a Pandemic 2020
Lisa Harn Elliott
College of Food, Agricultural, and Natural Resource Sciences
Attending: Ecological Society of America (ESA) 2020
Beth Adamowicz
College of Biological Sciences
Attending: 2020 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Microbiome Virtual Meeting
Tolutola Oyetunde
College of Food, Agricultural, and Natural Resource Sciences
Attending: Three online coursera specializations
Ke Shi
College of Biological Sciences
Attending: Schrödinger's online course: Introduction to Molecular Modeling in Drug Discover
Manish Shetty
College of Science and Engineering
Attending: 2020 ACS Fall Meeting
Diego Morales-Briones
College of Biological Sciences
Attending: Botany 2020
Marie Maneka Malalgoda
College of Food, Agricultural, and Natural Resource Sciences
Attending: The Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) meeting. Secured the founding by other grant*
Manbir Rakkar
College of Food, Agricultural, and Natural Resource Sciences
Attending: 2020 ASA-CSSA-SSSA
Zhiyue Wang
College of Biological Sciences
Attending: IWA Leading Edge Conference on Water and Wastewater Technologies
Carolina Soto Palma
Medical School
Attending: 25th Summer Institute in Statistical Genetics (SISG)
Zhikai Liang
College of Biological Sciences
Attending: Plant Biology Worldwide Summit 2020
Ariel Alperstei
College of Science and Engineering
Attending: ICONS workshop
Lisa Anderson
Medical School
Attending: Crash Course training
Nick Lambrecht
College of Biological Sciences
Attending: ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition
Spring 2019 Career Development Awards
Rayma Kumar, PhD
Department of Chemistry
Attending: Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering Future Faculty Symposium
Sushan Ru, PhD
Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics
Attending: 2019 National Association of Plant Breeders Annual Meeting
Elaine Norton, DVM, MS
Department of Veterinary Population Medicine
Attending: American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine Annual Forum
Fall 2019 Career Development Awards
Srinidhi Balasubramanian, PhD
Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering
Attending: 2019 Women in the Sciences Leadership Workshop
Irene Bueno Padilla, PhD
Department of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
Attending: Annual Meeting of the Raptor Research Foundation
Elizabeth Martinez, PhD
Department of Family Medicine and Community Health
Attending: National Latinx Psychological Association Conference