7th Annual MacDiarmid Institute Students and Post-Doc Symposium

The 7th Annual MacDiarmid Institute Students and Post-Doc Symposium themed “What’s Next?’ took place on Thursday and Friday, Nov. 17th and 18th, 2011. We had about 160 people here in Wellington, including 110 students and post-docs. It was the highest attendance ever for the symposium, so thank you all for joining us.

We were privileged to be joined by 9 Institute Alumni who talked about their personal career paths and their personal highlights from the journey. They were very proud to be able to contribute to the symposium and witness the growth of the Institute, and they enthusiastically facilitated the lively group discussions and participated in the panel discussions. We really appreciated their contribution.

We were very fortunate to have with us Cathy Foley whose keynote address to the entire group set the scene for a successful symposium and Julie Teetsov who provided a 2 hours workshop to learn how to create a vision for your career

This year’s symposium format of mixing the students/post-docs and PI/AI members for some sessions was well received by students and post-docs, with the breakout discussion tables being one of the highlights of the symposium. Providing an interaction between the Institute members in a different context has been beneficial for all of us and has given a stronger understanding of the range of professional pathways possible beyond the MacDiarmid Institute. We hope you enjoyed your time at the symposium and we would like to thank again everyone who contributed to the symposium.