The ORT Times📢 -Wellness Support Survey, career events, and more!

Find out what's going on at the ORT and around UHN!

COMMUNITY

Congratulations to 2021 ORT Conference Grant awardee, Dr. Wenxi Xu. Wenxi is a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. David Brook's research group at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre studying the anti-tuberculosis immunity in a novel coinfection model of chronic virus and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. He presented his research at the 33rd Annual Spring Meeting of the Canadian Society for Immunology.
Congratulations, Wenxi!

ORT

ORT Support and Wellness Survey
Deadline extended to December 6!

The ORT invites all UHN trainees and Research Staff, including graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, research technicians and research associates, to complete the ORT Support and Wellness Survey!

This anonymous survey will help identify and assess factors affecting your well-being and quality of support and will inform interventions and policy changes to improve the research experience at UHN.

The survey should take ~10-15 minutes to complete and to thank you for your participation, we are offering a $5 Starbucks electronic gift card (while supplies last).

Complete the survey here.

A graphic offering a giveaway over Twitter and Instagram with the instructions "Follow us, Like, and Tag 3 friends to enter" at the top. The promotion offers "win a $15 Starbucks Gift Card on each platform" and gives the Twitter account @UHNPostdocs for Twitter and @uhnpostdocs for Instagram.

UHN Postdoc Association (UHNPA) Giveaway

The UHN Postdocs Association is celebrating reaching over 100 followers on their social media accounts with an online giveaway contest. Participants will be entered to win one of two $15 Starbucks gift cards.

Follow the instructions on their Twitter and Instagram pages to participate.

EVENTS

A banner for the Life Sciences Career Development Society (LSCDS)'s event: Industry Team Case Study (ITCS).

LSCDS Industry Team Case Study Information Night
December 1 | 6:30 - 8:00 PM

The Life Sciences Career Development Society (LSCDS) Industry Team Case Study (ITCS) information session will introduce trainees to the ITCS program design, the value of participating and what the program involves. Participating industry advisors will also present their professional roles and responsibilities and share example project ideas related to their fields.

More information and registration here.

U of T Coders: Creating websites with RStudio and Blogdown
December 1 | 6:00 - 7:00 PM

The U of T Coders invites you to an intermediate-level workshop on creating websites. The workshop will be held on Discord.

More information here.

Princess Margaret Virtual Seminar Series: Susan K. Lutgendorf, PhD
December 2 | 2:00 - 3:00 PM

The Virtual Princess Margaret Seminar Series presents a talk by Susan K. Lutgendorf, Ph.D. Dr. Lutgendorf will discuss "From Social Connection to Cell Signaling: Biobehavioral Influences on Cancer Progression".

Access through MS Teams here.

A banner for the MBP Career Development Association's career webinar, "Careers After Academia: Consulting"

Careers After Academia: Consulting
December 2 | 6:00 - 7:00 PM

The Medical Biophysics (MBP) Career Development Association invites you to a career webinar featuring IMS alumnus Serina Cheung, Consultant at Deloitte. Everyone is welcome. RSVP by December 1 to receive the Zoom link.

More information and registration here.

A banner for the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI)'s Annual Public Meeting reading "invitation" on it.

Traditional Knowledge as a powerful driver in research
December 8 | 11:00 - 12:30 PM

The Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI) invites you to a discussion on how new generations of students and researchers are increasingly integrating Indigenous insight into their work to address critical issues like climate change. In this virtual session, the speakers will bring their interdisciplinary perspectives on issues such as balancing land and humankind, traditions and evolution; caring for the environment and restoring our health; and building a career from a young researcher’s standpoint.

A poster for BrainHack Global Toronto 2021's workshop series featuring a photo of a city and people emerging from the top of a brain silhouette. The event is advertised as running from December 8-10.

BrainHack Global Toronto
December 8 - 10

Participants at BrainHack Global Toronto 2021 will have opportunities to work with like-minded scientists through either submitting an organized project or engaging in one. They encourage new programmers and students/scientists to participate, as they will provide learning opportunities through the Day 1 Workshops to help kickstart your growth as a neurohacker!

More information and registration here.

OPPORTUNITIES AND FUNDING

LSCDS Mentorship Program
Apply by December 8

In the six-month LSCDS Mentorship program graduate student and postdoctoral fellow mentees are given the opportunity to become closely acquainted with a professional mentor in their field of interest. More specifically, they may learn about tasks involved in the day-to-day job, receive career guidance, and/or acquire valuable knowledge to enable a smooth transition from academia to industry post-graduation. Mentees and mentors are paired on the basis of career interest or professional development goals and interactions between the mentees and mentors are self-guided.

More information and apply here.

Mitacs Elevate Postdoctoral Fellowships
Apply by December 15 | 5:00 PM PT

Mitacs Elevate is a postdoctoral fellowship with an exclusive professional development curriculum component. Fellows will address complex challenges through a two-year research project with a partner organization in need of high-level expertise and a professional development curriculum that prepares Elevate fellows for success as leaders in research and industry.

New this year: Elevate thematic projects. Fellows are eligible for a $70,000 minimum annual stipend/salary for projects addressing at least one of the key priority sectors of artificial intelligence, biomanufacturing, cleantech, or quantum science

Eligibility and application details here.

A poster reading "Volunteers Needed for Research Study on Exercise in Cardiac Prevention Program Using Smartwatches."

Volunteers Needed: KITE Research Study

KITE Research Institute scientists are recruiting volunteers for a study on exercise in cardiac prevention using Smartwatches. This 6-month study involves wearing the Smartwatch every day and attending 8 on-site visits at Toronto Rehab Rumsey Cardiac. They are looking for females and males between the ages of 20 and 79 with low fitness levels with and without heart disease to participate in their study.

More information here.

Job Opportunity: Contract Scientist, Discovery Biology at Endogena

Endogena Therapeutics is seeking a contract scientist to join their team at JLABs and Krembil. Endogena is preclinical-stage biotech company that discovers and develops first-in-class endogenous regenerative medicines to repair and regenerate tissues and organs.

Full opportunity details here.

A graphic reading "From the Office of Research Trainees at UHN (ORT) Team!" with photos of the ORT Team Members (left to right) Dr. Linda Penn, Director, Dr. Amanda Veri, Lead, Research Training Programs, and Dr. Clare Wall, Operations Planning Coordinator.