Tompkins-McCaw Library for the Health Sciences invites postdoctoral scholars to participate in a new brown-bag lunch speaker program. How-to Talks by Postdocs will showcase postdoctoral researchers’ health-sciences knowledge and simultaneously meet the VCU community’s information needs. Sept. 2 is the deadline to propose topics. 

VCU has more than 200 postdoctoral scholars in biomedical or science-related fields. “We want to give postdocs an opportunity to share their health-sciences knowledge with others while gaining some of the teaching experience that potential employers seek," says Karen Gau, a research librarian and co-organizer. "We hope this speaker series will connect researchers across departments with similar interests as well."

How-to Talks by Postdocs are instructional presentations for the general VCU health-sciences community. Postdocs will share tactics, procedures or guidance related to health-sciences research. Similar talks at another university have included these topics:

• Histology image processing using Photoshop
• Ethics of scientific image manipulation
• Choosing matrices for 3D cell culture
• Using 3D printing for tissue engineering
• DNA/RNA immunoprecipitation & NGS
• Correlation of methylation profiles w/expression data
• CRISPR
• UNIX for biologists
• Protein expression analysis
• Identifying genes from exome sequencing

Each 45-minute talk will be followed by 15 minutes for networking and discussion. The talks are open to all in the academic community. Sessions are scheduled for Mondays in October and November, noon to 1 p.m. at Tompkins-McCaw Library, 509 N. 12th St.

Postdocs can apply for a teaching slot by Sept. 2.  

This series is sponsored by VCU Libraries, VCU Center for Clinical and Translational Research and the VCU Postdoctoral Association.