Postdoctoral Training
Career Development Series | Media Training Series | NCEAS Outreach Opportunities
Community Events | Technical Training Workshops
NCEAS offers a planned program of professional development activities in addition to many opportunities for informal learning and participation in Working Groups. Presentations and classes include a Career Development Series, a Media Training Series, community events, and technical training.
Career Development Series
Guest lectures support Postdoctoral Associates in their professional development:
- Preparing academic job application packets
- Interviewing
- Negotiating
- Grants/proposals
- Publishing
- NGO Careers
- Dual Career Couples
Media Training Series/Public Understanding of Science
NCEAS presents a series to assist scientists in communicating with the media. Journalists from National Public Radio, the Aldo Leopold Institute, Wired Magazine, and local media present talks on how the media works, how to conduct interviews and how to prepare clear, accessible, media-ready messages. Sessions include:
- Radio Reporting in Science/David Malakoff, National Public Radio
- Media, Part I: Working with Journalists from Popular Media/Nancy Baron, Aldo Leopold Leadership Program, and SeaWeb/COMPASS; and Anna Davidson, local science journalist.
- Media, Part II: Scientific Publications/ Nancy Baron, Aldo Leopold Leadership Program, and SeaWeb/COMPASS
- Communicating Science Visually/Bill Dennison, Integration & Application Network
- Nature, Journalism and the Web/Brad Stenger, Wired Magazine
- Science and Journalism/Nancy Baron, Aldo Leopold Leadership Program, and SeaWeb/COMPASS; Anna Davidson, local science journalist; and Michael Todd, Online Editor, Miller-McCune.com
- Communicating Science/Radio Journalism/Lance Orozco, News Director, KCLU Public Radio
To support media training, NCEAS has compiled a list of resources for communicating and promoting the public understanding of science.
Outreach Opportunities
NCEAS also provides a variety of outreach opportunities to resident Postdoctoral Associates.
Community Events
- EcoLunch is an informal presentation of current research pursuits by an NCEAS, UCSB, or visiting scientist. EcoLunch is held on Thursdays at 12:15 during fall, winter, and spring quarters, and is open to the public.
- Open House is held most Fridays at 4:00 in the NCEAS Lounge. Open House is an opportunity to discuss issues of general interest to scientists in an informal atmosphere. Students, Postdoctoral Associates, and faculty from the UCSB campus are particularly invited to meet NCEAS researchers in residence.
Technical Training Workshops and Scientific Computing Short Courses
Each year, NCEAS sponsors at least two training workshops for Postdoctoral Associates and other interested professionals and students:
- NCEAS trains Postdoctoral Associates in the use of ecoinformatics tools that have been developed through NCEAS collaborative projects, such as Morpho and Kepler.
- NCEAS Postdoctoral Associates choose a workshop that will provide training in tools of general interest to the group, such as analysis of multivariate time series.
The Center's Scientific Computing Staff offers multi-session short courses that provide instruction in analytic methods and computer software tools.
NCEAS also offers "Crunch Lunch", an informal lunchtime gathering of NCEAS scientists who wish to share their practical experience in computational ecology methods. In each session a current NCEAS scientist describes a specific computational methods issue in his or her research, and the group explores alternative solutions.
