Dr. Chris Corkery

CAPS-ACSP Chair (chair@caps-acsp.ca)

Background: Dr. Chris Corkery is a materials scientist, using polymer chemistry and some knowledge of optics to make materials that give us better ways to manipulate light. He was born and raised in Winnipeg, MB, earning a BSc and MSc (in polymer chemistry) from the University of Manitoba. He then travelled to Australia, where he completed a PhD in a combination of chemistry and optical physics at the Australian National University in Canberra (the capitol city of Australia). Returning to Canada, he moved to Western Ontario for postdoctoral studies and has spent his time here making optically cured polymeric films and coatings. Chris has been a member of the CAPS-ACSP Executive Committee over the 2011-2012 year as well as the vice-president of the Postdoctoral Association at Western.

Goals for CAPS-ACSP (2012-2013): There are several organizations in Canada who are all interested in ensuring that the Canadian postdoctoral experience is individually rewarding as well as internationally competitive and respected. Through the excellent work of the previous CAPS-ACSP council members, these organizations are now looking to CAPS-ACSP as one of their ‘go-to’ sources for the opinions and needs of Canadian postdoctoral scholars. I intend to ensure that this remains the case, by keeping postdocs as informed as possible and making sure that our collective voice is heard in the organizations who are looking to improve our status and standing.

Dr. Chinyere (Chi chi) Nwafor-Okoli

CAPS-ACSP Vice-Chair Operations (operations@caps-acsp.ca)

Background: Dr. Nwafor-Okoli E Chinyere is an epidemiologist with special interest in the epidemiology of infectious diseases from the Global Health perspective. Chinyere (Chi chi) completed her DVM at the University of Nigeria and her PhD at Hokkaido University, Japan. Her doctorate addressed the clinical and laboratory investigation of leptospira infection in Sri Lanka and was fully funded by the Japanese government MEXT scholarship.  She is currently a postdoc at University of Calgary and is investigating associations between human and animal salmonella infections in Alberta. Her fellowship is funded by the NSERC. While undergoing her doctorate training, Chi chi became a member of the executive council of the Hokkaido University International Students Association (HUISA), in 2007 and after her tenure, she remained in the advisory board of HUISA until 2011 when she defended her doctoral thesis.

 Goals for CAPS-ACSP (2012-2013): In the past one year, I have been following issues and challenges surrounding postdocs in Canada through resources available online. The status of a postdoc and postdoctoral funding in Canada has a very confusing and inconsistent definition. As Vice-Chair Operations, I want to join forces with people who are already working towards paving the way to improve the overall status of postdocs in Canada, through the improvement of remuneration and through increased recognition of postdocs as assets in the national and international research communities

 Dr. Maya Boudiffa

Background: Dr. Maya Boudiffa is a postdoctoral fellow at the Clinical Research Institute of Montreal (IRCM) and is affiliated with the University of Montreal. She obtained a M.Sc. in Integrative Physiology in Extreme Conditions (University of Lyon, France) and a PhD in Animal Biology and Physiology (University of St Etienne, France). Maya is a fundamental research fellow, who is interested in how bone cells behave in response to different stimuli, how this is translated in terms of bone mass variability, and ultimately how other physiological systems are affected by this variability.

During her PhD, Maya was involved in numerous PhD-student associations, and was part of the executive committee of the French National BIOTechno Group (which organizes conferences and workshops, in a friendly environment, for industry representatives and PhD students to interact). As a postdoc, she co-organized the first Biovision.Nxt Challenges and Solutions Symposium, held during the International Biovision forum, in Lyon, France. She is currently the Features Editor of the Journal “Hypothesis”.

Goals for CAPS-ACSP (2012-2013): Economy nowadays is changing very fast. Stakeholders and policy makers are trying to adapt, also at a fast pace. This might result in us, future scientists, being unprepared, playing a game which rules we not know of. To prevent this, and as Vice-Chair External, I will work on two levels:

•  Maintain the connections between CAPS-ACSP and outside stakeholders, and improve our involvement in policy-making activities.
•  Collaborate with institutional representatives throughout Canada to discuss and implement tools that will help postdocs embrace their professional careers with confidence and peace of mind.

Dr. Abdi Gharffari

CAPS-ACSP Vice-Chair Finance (finance@caps-acsp.ca)

Background: Abdi majored in Biochemistry at University of British Columbia and started his graduate studies at University of Alberta in interactions between epithelial and stromal cells in post-burn hypertrophic scar and wound healing in general. He followed by completing his PhD degree in the same field but at University of British Columbia. He moved to Kingston to take up a postdoctoral fellowship at Queen’s University Cancer Research Institute and is currently working on role of Src/Ezrin signaling pathway in tumour-induced angio- and lymphangiogenesis in breast cancer. Abdi brings financing and fundraising experience from his involvement as a treasurer in non-for-profit societies (University and City of Edmonton) and a project manager in biotechnology industry.

Goals for CAPS-ACSP (2012-2013):

• Find a host university to administer CAPS-ACSP accounts.
• Identify, approach, and secure funding sources (Universities, Tricouncil agencies, MITACS, …) for a startup budget. Try to address the issues of short vs long-term funding.

CAPS-ACSP Vice-Chair International (international@caps-acsp.ca)

Background: David was born in St. John’s, Newfoundland and completed his undergraduate degree in Genetics and English Literature at the University of Western Ontario in London. He then undertook his doctoral studies at the Terry Fox Lab at the University of British Columbia where he was involved with Let’s Talk Science and GrasPods – two groups which helped shape his passions for science outreach and science advocacy. David currently works as a postdoctoral fellow researching adult blood stem cells and their role in blood stem cell diseases in Cambridge, UK and also runs the Black Hole blog for early career researchers in Canada (http://www.universityaffairs.ca/the-black-hole/).

Goals for CAPS (2012-2013): Over the past 15 years, there has been an enormous shift in the human resources performing scientific research. Specifically for postdoctoral fellows this training period has lengthened significantly and adjustments must be made to address the growing concerns of young scientists. Many individuals, who do not have permanent positions, share a unique set of experiences and challenges that need to be better addressed in order to avoid wasting the substantial resources invested in their education and training. CAPS-ACSP is uniquely situated to address these concerns and can act as a unified, permanent voice for the concerns of postdoctoral fellows. International postdocs are particularly under-supported and often lack a formal mechanism for sharing their concerns. It is my hope that CAPS-ACSP can help international postdocs find that voice and become even more involved in the Canadian research community.

CAPS-ACSP Vice-Chair Communications (communications@caps-acsp.ca)

Goals for CAPS-ACSP (2012-2013): As postdoctoral scholars, one of our challenges is understanding where we fit in the system, whether it is during tax season, or simply in our own institution. Indeed, many institutions do not even know how many postdoctoral scholars they have working for them. Postdoctoral scholars may also not be aware of who to contact about getting more information on the services available to them. A critical mission for CAPS-ACSP is to reach out and let postdocs know that we are here for them and providing a venue for postdocs in Canada to discuss their concerns or experiences. For these reasons, last year we have made a concerted effort to getting CAPS-ACSP institutional representatives from Canadian institutions as well as letting postdocs know that they can use our General Member Google site and Facebook Fanpage to share relevant information between themselves. Furthermore, we have taken the initiative in starting the translation of key sections of our website into French so that we can provide important information in both of Canada’s official languages.

I have had the opportunity to be part of CAPS-ACSP since 2009 first as webmaster than as the Vice-Chair communications.  My goals are to updatepostdocs on what CAPS-ACSP is doing on their behalf as well as reaching out and making sure all Canadian institutions that hire postdocs have a CAPS-ACSP institutional representative.