Professional Development Webinar Series

This series was superseded by our C-DEBI Virtual Meeting Series.  These virtual events were held monthly during the first week of each month, with a regular rotation of science workshops and professional development workshops.

In addition to providing training in state-of-the-art technologies and instrumentation for graduate students and beyond, we emphasized professional development training targeting skills needed both in and out of academia. These live interactive webinars provided transferable skills for all early career scientists and are archived here for those unable to “attend” the live events.

Do you have questions like:

  • How do I put together (or understand) a budget?
  • How do I improve my work-life balance?
  • How can I use social media to help my science career?

If so, then this webinar series is for you!

Professional Development Webinar (SOLID-GEM):
Navigating Opportunities at the National Science Foundation

Presented to our SOLID-GEM summer course undergraduates, Dr. Karla Heidelberg describes her career path and speaks as an NSF Program Officer about opportunities for early career scientists at NSF.

  • Led by: Karla Heidelberg, NSF Program Officer, Professor, Biological Sciences and Environmental Studies, University of Southern California
  • Date: July 8, 2020 12:00pm PDT

Professional Development Webinar #13:
How to Use the Broader Impact Wizard: A Tool to Help Advance the Impact of Research in Society

Are you new to the world of Broader Impacts? Do you need to write a Broader Impacts statement and don’t know where to start? Check out this C-DEBI professional development webinar!

  • Led by: Janice McDonnell, Science Agent, Department of Youth Development, Rutgers University
  • Date: June 26, 2019 12:00pm PDT

Professional Development Webinar #12:
Broadening Your Thinking and Your Impact: Tips on How to Develop Effective Outreach Programs

  • Led by: Pete Girguis, Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University
  • Date: April 17, 2019 12:00pm PST

Professional Development Webinar #11:
Adventures in Online Teaching and Trying to Balance Research & Teaching

Let’s discuss some strategies for successful online lectures, time commitments necessary for online teaching, comparisons between online and in-person teaching, is it worth it?, and examples of how I failed at balancing teaching and research and how you can hopefully not fail in the same way.

  • Led by: Jason Sylvan, Assistant Professor, Texas A&M University
  • Date: February 27, 2019 12:00pm PST

Professional Development Webinar #10:
Scientific Editing as a Career

    • Led by: Delphine Defforey, Associate Editor, Nature Communications
    • Date: November 28, 2018 9:00am PST (5pm London time)

Professional Development Webinar #9:
Work-life Balance is Essential and also it Can’t Possibly Exist

  • Led by: Drew Steen, Assistant Professor, Environmental Geology, University of Tennessee Knoxville
  • Date: August 31, 2018 12:00pm PST

Professional Development Webinar #8:
What I Wish I Knew Before I Knew It: Surviving the Early Years of Tenure-Track Faculty

  • Led by: Brandi Kiel Reese, Assistant Professor, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi
  • Date: June 20, 2018 12:00pm PST

Professional Development Webinar #7:
The Joys of Open Science

  • Led by: Ben Tully, C-DEBI Bioinformatic Specialist, University of Southern California
  • Date: April 25, 2018 12:00pm PST

Professional Development Webinar #6:
Surviving (and Maybe Even Thriving!) in a Soft Money Position

  • Led by: Julie Huber, C-DEBI Associate Director, Associate Scientist, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
  • Date: February 28, 2018 12:00pm PST

Professional Development Webinar #5:
Speaking as a Scientist with Press, Politicians, and the Public

  • Led by: Andy Fisher, C-DEBI Co-PI, Professor, University of California Santa Cruz
  • Date: October 24, 2017 12:00pm PST

Professional Development Webinar #4:
How to Negotiate in Academia

Find out why negotiation is essential, tips for how to do so successfully, and what to expect from post-doc and assistant professorship job negotiations.

  • Led by: Karen G. Lloyd, Assistant Professor, Microbiology Department, University of Tennessee
  • Date: August 24, 2017 11:00am PST

Professional Development Webinar #3:
Proposal Writing, Management, and Budget Planning

C-DEBI teamed up with the Consortium for Ocean Leadership’s Marine Geoscience Leadership Symposium (MGLS) for this comprehensive webinar on proposal preparation. The webinar focused on topics related to preparing research proposals by providing advice on writing, constructing planning timelines, managing a team through the process, and preparing a budget.  In addition to the 1 hour 20 minute video (see below), PDFs are available of the presentation slides and a supplemental question answered from the extensive Questions and Discussion at the end of the webinar.

  • Led by: Donna Blackman (Scripps Institution of Oceanography) and Beth Orcutt (Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences)
  • Date: June 15, 2017 12:00pm PST

Professional Development Webinar #2:
Leveraging Social Media

Are you using social media to network and promote your science? Learn why you should and how to do it.

  • Led by: Jen Biddle, Assistant Professor, College of Earth, Ocean, & Environment, University of Delaware
  • Date: April 13, 2017 12:00pm PST

Professional Development Webinar #1:
Elevator Talk

  • Led by: Myrna Jacobson-Meyers (University of Southern California), David Bader, Emily Yam, and Jenny Lentz (Aquarium of the Pacific)
  • Date: April 24, 2o13 12:00pm PST

Call for Nominations (Closed)

Know someone who can share their knowledge of essential skills not learned in graduate school, like developing a syllabus, how to choose what professional service committees to serve on or how to transition to a career in industry? C-DEBI seeks nominations for its Professional Development Webinar series. In addition to providing training in state-of-the-art technologies and instrumentation for graduate students and beyond, we emphasize professional development training targeting skills needed both in and out of academia. These live interactive webinars provide transferable skills for all early career scientists and will be archived on the website for those unable to “attend” the live events. Potential speakers can be nominated by colleagues, mentors, or those mentored by C-DEBI participants; they can also self-nominate. Selected C-DEBI Professional Development Speakers will make a presentation online, using video conferencing tools, with assistance from the C-DEBI main office at USC. Nominated C-DEBI Professional Development Speakers should be capable of combining compelling visual materials with the ability to communicate effectively to a broad audience.

Please send nominee name, contact info/description, and subject topic to Education & Diversity Director, Gwen Noda (gnoda@usc.edu)

 


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