MRC National Institute for Medical Research, London
Science for Health
The Crick postdoc retreat
29 May 2012
A retreat for postdocs from institutes that will form part of The Francis Crick Institute was held on the 20th of April 2012.
The retreat, held in the Franklin-Wilkins building, at Kings College London was organised by postdocs from Cancer Research UK’s London Research Institute (LRI) and from NIMR. Funding for the event was provided by LRI, NIMR and The Francis Crick Institute. The retreat aimed to increase the interaction among postdocs from the five organisations that are involved in the creation of the Francis Crick institute: LRI, NIMR, Kings College London, Imperial College London and UCL. Almost 180 postdocs from these organisations attended the retreat.
In the first half of the day Peter Lawrence (pictured), the developmental biologist from the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology at Cambridge, gave the plenary lecture. His inspiring talk summarised his scientific career and included advice to young scientists on how to overcome their career challenges. The talk was well received and was a highlight of the day. One delegate commented:
It was very useful to have a discussion with a scientist who is successful but who also appreciates the general hurdles that young scientists face before becoming successful PIs.
Plenary lecture
The lecture was followed by two rounds of interactive speed networking. In each round delegates were divided into groups of six and each person in the group had three minutes to introduce themselves and their work, and to answer questions from others in the group. This session generated much positive feedback from delegates.
The format of the day did well to enable interaction between postdocs, and led for my part to a number of interesting scientific discussions.
Speed networking session
The second half of the day included career workshop sessions, run by the UCL Careers Group. Workshops included:
- Career planning beyond academia
- Job interviews
- CVs and applications
- Academic career planning
The retreat concluded with a conference dinner at which Jim Smith, NIMR Director, gave a short talk about the future of The Francis Crick Institute. Several other members of The Crick executive board also attended the dinner.
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