International Men’s Day Coffee Morning

In recognition of International Men’s Day 2024 and this year’s theme, “Men’s Health Champions and Positive Role Models,” the College of Science EDI Committee and the Culturally Responsive Mentoring initiative will be holding a coffee morning to mark the occasion.

The event is taking place on Tuesday 19 November from 11.30am-12.30pm in Second Floor Atrium, Science East, UCD O’Brien Centre for Science. 

UCD EDI are kindly supporting the event by providing a delicious cake, with tea, coffee and other treats also being provided by UCD College of Science. It is hoped that the coffee morning will bring together a diverse range of staff and students to celebrate the positive influence male role models have in advancing science and gender equality in STEM and higher education. We hope to see you there.

The event will follow on from the ‘STEM For All: Let’s Talk About Gender’ event being hosted by UCD School of Chemistry, from 9.30am until 11.30am in E2.18, Science East. The workshop aims to inspire meaningful conversations around gender equality in STEM, be exploring the challenges and opportunities to foster a more inclusive and equitable environment for everyone.

Additionally, the “Engaging Men in EDI” working group, co-chaired by Ernesto, VP for EDI in the College of Social Science and Law, will be hosting an event the day after International men‘s day on the 20th, to share the findings of their engaging men in EDI report. This event is open to all employees, and the organizers kindly ask you to sign-up and share the details with your colleagues. Details and booking information can be found here here.

SBBS Host’s Our November Postdoc Coffee Morning

UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science was last week pleased to host the first 2024-25 coffee morning for postdocs, kicking off what is hoped to be another year of fantastic networking opportunities for postdocs and research scientists. Taking place in their school kitchen in Science East, the morning brought together postdocs from across the College to reconnect after a productive first half of the autumn trimester, over much needed coffee and treats. A yummy array of different kinds of cookies and muffins were kindly provided by the School of Biology and Environmental Science.
The event follows on from last year’s successful run of postdoc coffee mornings hosted by various schools throughout the college. Other schools in the College are already making plans to host their own events over the rest of the academic year, and we will shortly be announcing further details for the next postdoc coffee mornings – so stay tuned.

The Professor Was In: Empowerment Workshop

Last week, a group of assistant professors in the College of Science took part in an ‘Empowerment Workshop’ run by the excellent Dr Karen Kelsky from The Professor Is In, and organised by Culturally Responsive Mentoring in collaboration with the School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science.

During the 2-hour workshop, Karen spoke candidly and thoughtfully about her work and experiences in academia to build into a critical discussion of how to manage power dynamics and address toxic environments and cultures in academia. Karen shared with the group new insights from her next book project, based on a expansive database of complaints documenting sexual harassment and violence in academia. Those in attendance engaged in frank discussions, reflecting on their own experiences, responsibilities, and values, to help them build confidence to identify, name, and address difficult relations they may witness at work. The workshop followed a delicious sandwich lunch, which provided a great opportunity to get to know Karen, and we we were thrilled to welcome her into our College. The feedback we received has been excellent, and we thank Karen for being generous with her time and her thoughts in the workshop.

Postdoc Coffee Mornings are back for 2024-25!

We have good news for all postdocs in the College who are looking to reconnect with others and make new connections: postdoc coffee mornings are coming back! As the winter months begin, the College of Science EDI committee and Culturally Responsive Mentoring initiative are facilitating a mid-trimester coffee morning for postdocs and research staff in the college. This will be the first in the 2024-25 academic year coffee morning cycle, with more planned for the coming months.

The School of Biology and Environmental Science will host this coffee morning, to take place  on Thursday 7 November from 10.00am-11.00am in the third floor kitchen, Science East. The SBES coffee morning last year was a roaring success, and this year promises again to be a great opportunity for postdocs to network and recharge the batteries in the middle of the term.
Please come along and bring along other postdocs from your school. Looking forward to seeing many of you there.

Empower Your Academic Career: A Workshop for Assistant Professors

We are delighted to announce that the ‘Empowerment Workshop’ with Karen Kelsky from The Professor Is In, has been rescheduled and will now take place on Friday 25th October 2024.

Karen will be delivering her 2-hour workshop on empowerment exclusively for UCD College of Science Assistant Professors from 1:30 to 3:30pm. The workshop will cover areas including managing power dynamics and building confidence to address difficult topics – i.e. identifying sexual harassment (and its structural embeddedness within academia) and dealing with it both at individual and institutional scales, but also wider issues of women’s challenges in academia, and role playing of methods of setting firm boundaries, recognising the wide range of disempowering situations, and learning to trust one’s own instincts.

Everyone is welcome to register and attend, although registration will be limited. We encourage those who identify as under-represented or minoritised in the College of Science to attend, and will allocate places to those who identify as underrepresented or minoritised first.

A sandwich lunch will also be offered from 12:30 – 1:15pm before the workshop starts for those who register.

 

Pint of Postdoc: September 2024

We would like to invite all new research staff at UCD to our upcoming UCD Pint of Postdoc event, while giving a friendly reminder to everyone else to sign-up to attend if you haven’t done so already!

The event is being organised to recognise all the hard and important work that postdocs, research fellows, research scientists and research staff do at UCD, and give us all a well earned break as the trimester kicks into gear. The event will be the perfect opportunity to get to know new colleagues from across all colleges at UCD, as everyone is invited to give a short informal talk on their postdoctoral research (or any aspect of postdoc research you want!). Even if you do not wish to present you can come along and share a drink (one will be free!), eat some food (free as well!) and have lovely chats with friends, old and new. If you want to attend and present, or just attend, you can sign up here or copy and paste the link at the bottom into your browser!

Please find the important information below:

When is it? Thursday 26th of September, 4 pm
Where is it? Clubhouse Bar, O’Neill Lounge (student union)
What will it involve? Organised socialising with fellow researchers, talks, food, drinks and a good time!
Do I need to present? No, but you’ll miss out on winning amazing prizes and a certificate acknowledging your participation.
I want to present, what should I do? Choose a topic you are passionate about, think of a way to present it (a PowerPoint, interpretive dance, a song, a film, a poem…), create a (strictly) 5 minute presentation, and you’re ready to go. We can provide examples of presentations from last year, help with props, sound checks etc. on request.
Who wins the prizes? The audience will vote for their favourite talks by ballot.
How much does it cost? It’s free!
How do I attend? Please complete this google form. Or scan the QR code on the attached poster.

We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible and feel free to email marianne.haarr@ucd.ie with any questions.

Link to Sign-up form: https://forms.gle/69w7gutK326J5Fry6

 

Summer Postdoc Coffee Morning

UCD School of Physics was recently pleased to host a one-off summer coffee morning for postdocs at the end of August. Taking place in their school common space in Beech Hill the morning brought together postdocs from across the College to reconnect after a busy summer, over much needed coffee and treats. Refreshments for the event were kindly provided by the School of Physics.
The event follows on from last year’s successful run of postdoc coffee mornings hosted by various schools throughout the college. As the autumn trimester gets in full swing, we will shortly be announcing our dates for more postdoc coffee mornings for the new academic year.
In the meantime, postdocs in the College are teaming up with other postdocs throughout the University to organise another ‘Pint of Postdoc’ event on Thursday 26th September, which you can sign-up to attend at the following link: https://forms.gle/69w7gutK326J5Fry6 
If you are a postdoc or research staff member in UCD College of Science we look forward to welcoming you to future events, as well as all of your postdoc colleagues and friends in UCD College of Science

Postdoc Coffee Mornings: Returning in August

After a successful run of rotating postdoc coffee mornings hosted by 4 schools in UCD College of Science, the School of Physics are pleased to host a one-off summer coffee morning for postdocs in August.

The event promises to be an excellent opportunity for postdocs throughout UCD College of Science to reconnect at the end of the summer, and share plans for the upcoming academic year. Refreshments will be kindly provided by the School of Physics.

We look forward to welcoming you to the event, and please share widely with all of your postdoc colleagues and friends in UCD College of Science.

UCD College of Science Pride Event

On Friday 14 June, just over 100 members of the UCD College of Science community got together to celebrate LGBTQ+ Pride month with a celebration event in UCD O’Brien Centre for Science. Organised by the College of Science Equality Diversity and Inclusion committee, the event highlighted the College’s continued support of its LGBTQ+ staff and students, continuing its commitment to ensuring that our campus and academic communities are safe, welcoming and LGBT+ inclusive.

The event included a trio of rousing speeches from speakers reflecting on how far we have come in valuing and supporting the contributions of LGBT+ people within the College, and how much we can still do to advance LGBT+ equalities in the university, in Ireland, and in our academic communities. College principle Professor Jeremy Simpson opened the event with a few words reiterating his own personal support and commitment to upholding the values of dignity and respect in the College.

Jed Dowling, festival director of Dublin LGBTQ Pride and Postgraduate student in the College, spoke about the history of Pride events in Dublin, the importance of being visible and proud as LGBT+ people, and the power of showing up and publicly providing allyship to the LGBT+ community. Dr Saule Akhmetkaliyeva, Postdoctoral Research Staff Representative on the College of Science EDI committee, closed the speeches by speaking about the value of inclusion in science and increasing visibility within STEM subjects, reflecting on her involvement in pride events within the polar research community.

The EDI committee went all out with the decorations. The space was filled with flags and bunting including the progress pride flag (which includes stripes for intersex people and queer people of colour) as well as flags for lesbian, bisexual, transgender, asexual and pansexual identities. A colourful balloon arch also provided an excellent opportunity for attendees to take a selfie with their handheld rainbow flags! Those in attendance were treated to catering by Pi, and enjoyed delicious rainbow cupcakes and a giant ‘Pride’ cake. UCD’s Purl Jam society ran a craft table where people could knit their own rainbow friendship bracelets. For those who couldn’t knit, everyone also had the opportunity to pick up some pride goodies for themselves, including pride wristbands and UCD pride lanyards.

This is the third year that a celebration event has taken place to mark Pride month in the College. The event also follows a LGBT+ coffee morning held for rainbow week back in February. LGBT+ students and staff, and allies, are invited to march alongside the UCD staff and student LGBTQIA+ societies in the Dublin Pride parade later in the month, on Saturday 29 June. The UCD College of Science EDI committee will be organising more LGBTQIA+ initiatives in the next academic year.

A thank you to Dr Gary Brennan (School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science EDI representative), Bairbre Fox (School of Physics EDI representative), and Dr Andrew McCartan (EDI representative) for organising the event. Acknowledgements also go to Associate Professor Catherine Mooney (Vice Principal for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, UCD College of Science), Maeve O’Connell (College of Science Administration Office), Dr Niamh Nestor, (co-Chair of UCD’s LGBTQIA+ Staff Network and EDI LGBTQIA+ Subgroup), and Professor Jeremy Simpson (College Principal & Dean, UCD College of Science). Special thanks to Dr. Joe Branson (School of Physics) and Ross Murray (School of Physics).

Pride Celebration Event 2024

UCD College of Science will be celebrating LGBT+ Pride month with a Pride celebration event on Friday 14 June at 11am in the 4th floor atrium of UCD O’Brien Centre for Science.

The event promises to be an enjoyable morning where you can pick up rainbow flags and other goodies to celebrate LGBT+ visibility and inclusion in the college. We will have lots of treats to share with you, including a Pride cake, cupcakes, teas and coffees, and there will be a Purl Jam craft table to make your own rainbow creations.

The event is being organised by the College of Science EDI committee and will be opened by College Principal Professor Jeremy Simpson. The morning will include short speeches from staff and students in the college reflecting on the importance of Pride and LGBT+ inclusion in science.

Please put the event in your diary if you can join us, and invite your colleagues. We look forward to seeing you there to celebrate our LGBT+ peers!