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 Spring 2025 Career Development Awards!

Spring 2025 Career Awards

Joel Dahne, PhD

Department of Mathematics

Attending: 2025 SIAM Conference on Applications of Dynamical Systems

Clara Busse, PhD

Division of Health Policy and Management

Attending: Society for Pediatric and Perinatal Epidemiologic Research Annual Meeting and the Society for Epidemiologic Research Annual Meeting

Lakshya Gangwar, PhD

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Attending: 2025 Annual Meeting of Society for Cryobiology

Kara Peak, PhD

Department of Biomedical Engineering

Attending: 72nd Society for Reproductive Investigation Annual Scientific Meeting

Akilavalli Narasimhan, PhD

Masonic Institute for the Biology of Aging and Metabolism

Attending: 14th Alliance for Healthy Aging Conference - Aging: From Mechanisms to Medicine

Jechun An, PhD

Department of Educational Psychology

Attending: 2025 American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting

Nicholas Jarjour, PhD

Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology

Attending: 2025 Annual meeting of the American Association of Immunologists

Yuan He, PhD

Department of Otolaryngology

Attending: The 10th Midwest Auditory Research Conference

Meagan Doll, PhD

Hubbard School of Journalism & Mass Communication

Attending: 2025 International Communication Association Annual Meeting

Deeplina Banerjee, PhD

Roy Wilkins Center

Attending: 2025 Social Equity Leadership Conference

Didem Sozeri Atik, PhD

Department of Food Science and Nutrition

Attending: 2025 Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) FIRST Event

Amanda L. Cordeiro, PhD

Department of Plant and Microbial Biology

Attending: Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC)

Beatriz Praena Garcia, PhD

Department of Microbiology and Immunology

Attending: The American Society of Virology’s 44th Annual Meeting

Elizabeth Bottorff, PhD

Department of Biomedical Engineering

Attending: 2025 SUFU (Society of Urodynamics, Female Pelvic Medicine, and Urogenital Reconstruction) Winter Meeting

Ashma Chakrawarti, PhD

Department of Surgery

Attending: SHARP Multi-omics Boot Camp

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

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