Activities
Postdoctoral Hiring Recommended Guidelines
In keeping with LRP recommendations #83, #84, #85, and #86, the CASCA Postdoctoral Committee has developed a set of recommended guidelines for the hiring of postdoctoral scientists in Canada, in collaboration with the Equity and Inclusivity Committee as well as CASCA Board and the LCRIC. These guidelines can be found at the following link:
Postdoctoral Hiring Guidelines
CANadian Virtual Astronomy Seminar
The CASCA Postdoctoral Committee invites you to join us for the monthly CANVAS seminar series, where we highlight the fantastic research being carried out by postdoctoral fellows across Canada and Canadian scientists abroad. Postdoctoral scholars working in Canadian astronomy produce a large fraction of our published, high-impact papers, while they are precariously employed in temporary positions. In this talk series, we recognize some of this impressive work.
| 2023/05/25 @1PM Pacific/4PM Eastern | Marta Reina-Campos | McMaster University | Tracing the structure of dark matter haloes using globular clusters: insights from the E-MOSAICS simulations |
| 2023/04/20 @1PM Pacific/4PM Eastern | Madeline Marshall | National Research Council of Canada | Observing the Host Galaxies of High-Redshift Quasars with JWST |
| 2023/03/30 @1PM Pacific/4PM Eastern | Ryan Chown | University of Western Ontario | An embarrassment of riches: the Aromatic Infrared Bands in the Orion Bar using JWST |
CANVAS 2022 (click to expand)
CANVAS 2021 (click to expand)
| 2021/11/25 @Noon Pacific/3PM Eastern | Keir Rogers | UofT/Dunlap | Cosmic probes of dark matter physics |
| 2021/10/28 @Noon Pacific/3PM Eastern | Nicole Drakos | UCSC | Dark Matter Halos from Small to Large |
| 2021/09/23 @Noon Pacific/3PM Eastern | Alex Cridland | Leiden | Connecting planet formation and astrochemistry: A C/O main sequence in warm and hot giant planets. |
| 2021/07/22 @Noon Pacific/3PM Eastern | Jane Kaczmarek | DRAO | CHIME/FRB Outriggers |
| 2021/06/22 @Noon Pacific/3PM Eastern | Alexa Villaume | Waterloo | Probing the extremes of galaxy evolution with new stellar population synthesis models |
| 2021/05/27 @Noon Pacific/3PM Eastern | Mike Chen | Queens | Understanding Mass Assembly in Star Formation via Filament Kinematics |
| 2021/04/22 @Noon Pacific/3PM Eastern | Nina Gusinskaia | U. of T. | Interstellar scintillation of the pulsar triple system PSR J0337+1715 |
| 2021/03/25 @Noon Pacific/3PM Eastern | Kartheik Iyer | Dunlap | Constraining galaxy evolution using timescales from simulations and observations |
| 2021/02/25 @Noon Pacific/3PM Eastern | Thomas Navarro | McGill | Dynamical surface-atmosphere coupling of Venus: consequences for length of day variations and transport of atmospheric angular momentum. |
COVID Statement
The CASCA Postdoctoral Committee has issued a statement on the long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the lives and careers of precariously-employed scientists in Canada. In particular, there is an urgent need for additional, direct financial support to postdoctoral scientists in order to weather the fallout from this extraordinary crisis, and to safeguard the continued impact and productivity of Canadian science.
Statement on the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Postdoctoral Scientists
Mandate and Terms of Reference
The mandate of the CASCA Postdoc Committee (hereafter PDC) is to reflect the views of, and address issues important to, the postdoctoral community in Canada. While postdoctoral members are Ordinary members within CASCA, it is understood that their views and needs may differ from those of tenure track faculty or career researchers within institutes. For instance, postdoc members provide expert-level scientific labour along with their faculty and career researcher colleagues, but postdoc employment is often defined by short-term contracts which can substantially impact their professional and personal life.
The PDC will:
- Represent the views of CASCA’s postdoctoral members, gathering and presenting information to support an inclusive and thriving postdoc community;
- Provide strategic guidance relevant to the postdoc community to the CASCA Board and wider astronomical community;
- Conduct ongoing monitoring of the working conditions for postdocs such as salaries, benefits, contract lengths, and experience inside and outside of Canada;
- Communicate all relevant information regarding the views and concerns of postdoctoral members to the Board of Directors and where possible recommend strategies to the Board;
- Be ready to respond to special requests from the CASCA Board;
- Report formally via the normal biannual process, with the Board reviewing these reports in their December and May Board meetings.
- Advise the Long Range Plan Community Recommendations Implementation Committee regarding implementation of Long Range Plan 2020 recommendations
Membership of the Committee
The Postdoctoral Committee shall consist of
- The Chair – officer (voting)
- The Vice-Chair – officer (voting)
- Up to five additional voting members
Length of term: All positions on the committee are 3-year terms.
Role of the Chair:
- The Chair will be the primary spokesperson for the Postdoctoral committee.
- Act as the primary liaison with the CASCA Board
- Call meetings and set agendas, and chair said meetings
- Also follow directives for non-officers
Role of the Vice-Chair:
- Deputize for the Chair when needed
- Record information as determined necessary by the committee
- Also follow directives for non-officers
Role of non-officers:
- To make the best effort to attend all meetings
- Represent broad viewpoints
Archived Reports:
