About 75 UNC students" faculty and community members gathered at the Carolina Inn on Wednesday afternoon to reward a few of Carolina's best minds for their hard work.
The Office of Postdoctoral Affairs held its second awards ceremony to honor 10 researchers whose fields of study ranged from health disparities among different communities to X-ray imaging.
""The purpose of the award is to recognize research promise"" said Sibby Anderson-Thompkins, director of the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs. Post-docs are critical to research at UNC. Most labs cannot run without them.""
Postdoctoral researchers are scientists with a Ph.D. who are not full-time faculty.
Between 45 and 50 of Carolina's 1"000 postdoctoral researchers applied for the award worth $1000.
A faculty committee evaluates the applications and makes the decision based on the essays" faculty recommendations and researchers' intention for the award money.
Award-winner Paul Hoertz Jr. said he was not sure what gave him the edge over the other applicants.
""They might have felt bad because I applied last year and didn't get it"" he said.
Joseph DeSimone, a chemistry professor, spoke at the ceremony about his research and what postdoctoral researchers can do to improve their chances of getting academic grants and positions.
Research alone is not enough" he said.
DeSimone encouraged researchers to open themselves up to different and innovative areas of study to attract attention.
I think it's a nervous time for young people to be thinking about their careers" he said. How do they market themselves?""
Award-winner Javier Concepcion said he is applying for faculty positions at research universities. Concepcion" who does research for the chemistry department" focuses his work on solar energy conversion.
""I've been working with this since my Ph.D." he said. We have pretty far still to go" but we're moving ahead.""
Concepcion used his award money to attend an American Chemical Society conference in Philadelphia. He said he also plans on attending another conference in California.
The $1"000 awards have been doled out annually since 2004" but this is only the second year the office has held a ceremony.
""We want to make the campus aware of the type of research being conducted" so we decided to have the ceremony Anderson-Thompkins said. These are going to be our future professors entrepreneurs" Dr. Joseph DeSimones.""
DeSimone is working on a project to put antibodies"" or ""biomarkers"" on cancer-fighting agents that will attack only cancerous cells in the body.
Junior Jasmin Jones, an assistant in the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs, said she was impressed to learn the extent of research being performed at UNC.
When you think about lab work you think it's going to be on a basic level"" she said But I recognized we are a true research institution. It makes you really proud to be at Carolina.""
Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
Postdoctoral researchers rewarded for their work
Dr. Jill Weimer is given a plaque at the 2008 Postdoctoral Scholar Awards for Research Excellence ceremony at The Carolina Inn on Wednesday afternoon.
