I wrote a post on the UC DAVIS ADVANCE Blog recruiting people to participate in a Wikipedia Editathon regarding Women in Science: Wanted – participants and helpers for a “Women in Science” Wikipedia Editathon at #UCDavis March 4 – UC Davis ADVANCE
And Phoebe Ayers from the UC Davis Physical Sciences and Engineering Library has volunteered to host the event there.
See her post about this. Please consider signing up to participate if you are around UC Davis at that time …
Gave a talk here at UC Davis last week. Alas, not my best talk – too rushed. But, anyway, here is a video of the slideshow w/ audio. Title “Phylogeny driven approaches to genomics and metagenomics”
I’ll be running a social media workshop next Friday in the Genome Center – anyone on campus is welcome to attend! Details as follows:
Using Social Media
to Promote Your Research
Many view social media as either a fun distraction, a waste of time – or both! But social media tools can be a tremendous resource for academics seeking to share their research, find new collaborations, and ultimately advance their careers.
Attend this workshop to learn how to:
Please pre-register using this online form: http://bit.ly/1ajX6Pc (Pre-registration will help to guide the format of the workshop and the type of social media tools covered)
PacBio is hosting an evening symposium next week as part of another workshop I’m organizing on campus. All are encouraged to attend! Plenty of food available afterwards.
PacBio Sequence Assembly Workshop
Tuesday, December 17th 2013, 4 pm – 7 pm
The Auditorium, 1005 GBSF
4:00 pm Welcome & Introductions
4:00 – 4:30 pm Shane Brubaker, Solazymes
“Assembly, haplotyping, and annotation of a high GC algal genome.”
4:30 – 5:00 pm Jason Chin, PacBio
“String graph assembly for diploid genomes with long reads.”
5:00 – 5:30 pm Lex Nederbragt, University of Oslo
“Using PacBio reads to improve and validate the assembly of the complex Atlantic cod genome.”
5:30 – 6:00 pm Lawrence Hon, PacBio
“Larger genome hybrid assembly with PacBio.”
6 pm – 7:00 pm Reception & Discussions
Light Refreshments Will Be Served in GBSF Lobby
Just got this email
On behalf of Provost Hexter and Academic Chair Nachtergaele, please find the attached letter regarding the UC Open Access policy. For your convenience and reference, the text of the letter is pasted below.
ACADEMIC SENATE AND ACADEMIC FEDERATION FACULTY
COUNCIL OF DEANS AND VICE CHANCELLORS
DEPARTMENT CHAIRS AND DIRECTORS
Dear Colleagues:
We are pleased to inform you that on July 24, 2013, the Academic Council voted to adopt an Open Access Policy for scholarly articles published by Senate faculty across the University of California system. An article deposit system to support the policy was released, on a pilot basis, at UCLA, UC Irvine and UC San Francisco on November 1, 2013, and will be officially rolled out at the other campuses on November 1, 2014, pending the outcome of the pilot.
The Open Access Policy allows faculty members to maintain legal control over their research articles while making their work much more widely available to the public. The policy does not require faculty to publish in open access journals, or to pay fees or charges to publish; instead it commits faculty to making a version of each article available publicly in an open access repository.
Faculty can take advantage of this right by using UC’s eScholarship digital repository via http://www.escholarship.org/ (or any other open access repository) to make a version of any article publicly and freely available worldwide. While it is expected that faculty at UCLA, UC Irvine and UCSF will make their articles freely available (via eScholarship or another OA Repository) effective immediately, faculty at the other 7 UC campuses are also free to begin depositing their articles now if they wish. Faculty authors may opt out of the policy for any given article, may delay the date of appearance of the article (“embargo” it), and may choose the terms of use that will be applied to each article (for example, whether it is for commercial or non-commercial reuse).
This policy has been under review by the Senate divisions and committees for two years and its implementation is a move of major significance. Policies like this one have been adopted by more than 175 universities but none as large, influential or productive as the University of California. The move signals to publishers that UC faculty want to see open access implemented on their own terms.
The California Digital Library and the campus libraries have developed a streamlined eScholarship deposit system and tools for obtaining waivers and embargoes to assist faculty in complying with the policy. The CDL has also contacted over 600 publishers to alert them to the policy and encourage their cooperation with its terms. Faculty on all campuses may receive questions about compliance from publishers and can consult the resources listed below (including an FAQ) for assistance.
Learn more about your rights and responsibilities under this policy at the UC Open Access Policy website.
Watch a 90-second video about the policy – and pass it on!
http://osc.universityofcalifornia.edu
Discover how easy it is to deposit your articles in eScholarship.
http://osc.universityofcalifornia.edu/open-access-policy/deposit/
Find out who to contact at your campus library for assistance.
http://osc.universityofcalifornia.edu/open-access-policy/oa-contacts/
Sincerely,
Ralph J. Hexter
Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor
Bruno Nachtergaele
Chair, Davis Division of the Academic Senate
>
>A Fall 2013 Hello to our Library Faculty Representatives to the Shields
>Library Biological & Agricultural Sciences Reference Department.
>
>Would you please distribute the following email notice to your
>respective departmental email lists, especially those for your graduate
>students.
>
>Thank you!
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>The UC Davis Library is pleased to announce:
>
>2013 NCBI Discovery Workshops @ UC Davis Library [Webinar Edition]
>
>The workshops will focus on the following areas:
>
>1. Sequences, Genomes, and Maps: December 17, 2013 from 12:30-2:30pm PT
>
>http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/education/workshops/sequences-genomes-and-m
>aps/
>
>2. Proteins, Domains, and Structures: December 18, 2013 from
>12:30-2:30pm PT
>
>http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/education/workshops/proteins-domains-and-st
>ructures/
>
>3. NCBI BLAST Services: December 19, 2013 from 12:30-2:30pm PT
>
>http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/education/workshops/ncbi-blast-services/
>
>4. Human Variation and Disease Genes: December 20, 2013 from
>12:30-2:30pm PT
>
>http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/education/workshops/human-variation-and-dis
>ease-genes/
>
>To register: http://tinyurl.com/NCBI-Workshops-UCD
>
>You are welcome to register for one or more workshops, each emphasizing
>different sets of NCBI resources. Specific examples will be used to
>highlight important features of the resources and tools under study and
>to demonstrate how to accomplish common tasks.
>Electronic copies of detailed handouts for each session will provide
>step-by-step instructions and additional information about each example.
>
>All workshops are taught by NCBI staff and will consist of 1.5 hours of
>instruction followed by a Q & A period.
>
>Due to the US Government sequester, the workshop instructors will not
>be able to present in person at UC Davis, as in previous years.
>Instead, you are invited to attend all sessions via webinar, using your
>own computer or perhaps collaborating with your department or research
>group to view together.
>
>NCBI Discovery Workshops Website:
>http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/education/workshops/
>
>Questions? Contact bioagquestions or
>hslref
The following message is being sent to the faculty at UC Davis on behalf of Davis Faculty Association chair Richard Scalettar:
Dear UCD Faculty,
On September 16th, the chairs of 33 departments at UC Berkeley signed a letter to their Dean of the Graduate Division, Andrew Szeri, to express their concern about the uncompetitively low graduate student stipends UC offers. On October 3rd, departmental chairs at UCSD sent a similar letter to their Graduate Studies Dean, Kim Barett.
The Board of the Davis Faculty Association (DFA) agrees that academic student employee wages are inadequate. According to UCOP’s own survey, these stipends lag at least $2,697 behind comparator institutions. Academic student employees are currently negotiating with UC for a pay increase, but UC’s latest offer of a 2% raise still leaves a wage-deficit in excess of $2,000 (and considerably more when compared to the programs of elite private institutions with which UC competes.)
The DFA’s sister chapter, BFA, has launched a petition to be sent to UCOP labor relations in support of the graduate student contract negotiations. (The current contract expired at the end of September). The DFA board endorses this petition and asks you to please sign it and spread the word amongst your colleagues.
http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/uc-faculty-in-support
Additionally, the academic student employee union’s next bargaining session for a new contract will be taking place at UC Davis this Monday and Tuesday, November 18th and 19th. Faculty are welcome to attend and give testimony in favor of increasing support for graduate student workers. The sign-up sheet is at:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1MkWmFrr4A_ExMdRqpTPWSzM3IHw6ejARZk7HE9uX1gI/viewform
Forwarding this:.
Dear Colleagues,
We are pleased that beginning this Fall, the childcare reimbursement available to Academic Student Employees (ASEs: TA, Reader, AI, Tutor) will be available to all graduate students. However, there are changes to the process. To minimize confusion and simplify the process for student parents, administration of programs providing financial assistance for childcare expenses have been consolidated to one access point under the campus WorkLife program.
The new program, Graduate Student Child Care Grant (GSCCG), is available to all graduate and professional students, (excluding those students in self-supporting degree programs). Every graduate student parent with a child up to 12 years of age will be eligible to receive up to $600 per quarter, to offset child care expenses; funding of child care for additional children may be available under other need-based programs also administered by WorkLife.
The GSCCG replaces the ASE Childcare Reimbursement Program and starting Fall quarter, students now apply for the funding directly through WorkLife. However, if an ASE has child care expenses incurred during Summer quarter 2013, they should be reimbursed through their hiring unit, as it was done previously.
Attached here is a flyer about the program and how students should apply. Please forward to students in your program. All questions should be directed to WorkLife. http://www.hr.ucdavis.edu/worklife-wellness/uc-davis-child-care-subsidy
Interesting article in The Guardian the other day that is worth taking a look at: How not to run a women in science campaign | Science | theguardian.com. It is by Alice Bell and discusses, among many things, the European Commission video from last year on “Science: It’s a Girl Thing” (shown below) that sparked a lot of controversy. The article also discusses many issues of relevance of improving the representation of women and minorities in the sciences including: the leaky pipe, the whiteness of science, and social mobility. It is definitely worth a read for anyone interested in issues relating to women in science and minorities in science.
New Biology Postdoctoral Fellowships
College of Biological Sciences
UC Davis
The College of Biological Science at UC Davis announces the New Biology Postdoctoral Fellowship program that will bring outstanding young researchers to campus to conduct highly integrative research addressing major societal challenges. Fellows will have a home in a sponsoring CBS laboratory and will conduct research that leverages the tools and approaches represented by at least one additional laboratory at UC Davis.
A 2011 report by the National Research Council champions the power of deep integration of traditionally distinct research approaches and methods. The essence of the New Biology, as defined by this report, is integration – re-integration of the many sub-disciplines of biology, and the integration into biology of physicists, chemists, computer scientists, engineers, and mathematicians to create a research community with the capacity to tackle a broad range of scientific and societal problems.
Application: Interested early career individuals should establish communications with at least one host laboratory in the UC Davis College of Biological Sciences
(http://biosci.ucdavis.edu/the_college/index.html) and a second bridge laboratory from throughout the UC Davis community that can be from CBS or any other campus department. Applicants should submit a cover letter that includes names and addresses of three letter writers, with their CV, statement of research accomplishments (1-2 pages) and a project summary of not more than 4 pages describing the research goals, the proposed integration of approaches, and explains how the work will lead to progress on a major societal challenge in nutrition, energy, health or the environment. Applications must be made electronically at: https://recruit.ucdavis.edu/apply/JPF00168.
Duration: Fellows are awarded a two year appointment.
Duties of the Fellow: In addition to conducting new research, the fellow would engage the community at UCD on three levels throughout the term of the fellowship:
The fellow would give a research seminar near the inception of their tenure as an introduction of themselves and their research to the life sciences community at UCD.
During the course of their tenure the fellow would offer a workshop or discussion series aimed at graduate students and others involving the transferal of new methods, tools, techniques or concepts to the UCD community. This might take the form of a focused workshop to demonstrate the utility of new analytical techniques or a more distributed discussion group that stretched over the course of fellow’s tenure. This activity will be defined in collaboration with the primary host PI and normally will take place during the second year of the postdoc.
The fellow would engage the non-academic community in some form of public outreach activity. This could be a lecture aimed at the general public, an outreach event at local schools, picnic day, etc.
Together with the development of a fellow’s research program these three activities will help prepare the fellow for the multiple demands of academic life: research, teaching, and outreach.
Salary and Research Support: Awardees will be paid a salary of $50,000 per year ($34K from CBS, $8K from the hosting department, and $4K from each of the two sponsoring faculty members plus 15.6039% for benefits and GAEL). While some research infrastructure will be supported by the host labs, to allow the scholar to pursue his or her research independent of grant funding from the host labs, a $10,000 per year research and travel budget will be provided by the college.
Selection Criteria:
Ph.D. in biological sciences or related field at the time of appointment (but not necessarily at the time of nomination, as we would want to consider very recent PhDs.)
Publication and prior research record that shows strong evidence of independent thinking and “superstar” potential
Proposed research agenda / project that capitalizes on different research strengths of the two sponsoring faculty at UC Davis.
EFFECTIVE: October 14, 2013
APPLICATION DEADLINE: January 6, 2014
NEW BIOLOGY POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP Ad Final.docx
Jonathan Eisen's Lab 