News and Upcoming Events
BLPA Picnic
Time/Venue: Saturday, June 3rd @12 PM/Live Oak Park
BLPA is planning another picnic in Live Oak Park, North Berkeley on June 3rd starting at noon. We’ll be providing some free soft drinks, water, and a cooler as well as games and a soccer ball. There’s also a volleyball and basketball area that we can use and on-street parking is available nearby. Feel free to bring additional food, drinks, games and music and also remember to bring a blanket to sit on and layers depending on weather conditions. If you’d like to come, please sign up here (you don’t have to make a firm commitment, it’s just so we can estimate roughly how much food to prepare). Hope to see you there!

Dinner & Pub night
When/Where: Friday, June 9th @6.30 PM/Cornerstone’s
This month’s BLPA dinner & pub night will be taking place this Friday at 6.30 PM at Cornerstone’s (2367 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, CA 94704). Come for food and fun with your fellow postdocs and make awesome new friends (older than 21). Hope to see you there!

Volunteering: Postdoc Career Fair 2023
When & Where: Every Wednesday, 5 pm via Zoom
The Postdoc Career Fair organizing committee is seeking volunteers for the 2023 Postdoc Career Fair! Volunteers are needed to help correspond with companies, create communication materials, and organize the virutal/in-person components of the Career Fair.
If you are interested in joining the team, the BLPA is hosting a weekly standing meeting for career fair organizers on every Wednesday @5 pm (Click here to add event to your calendar)

Slack Fun Space
We have launched a new Slack “fun space” for all LBNL and affiliated postdocs.
We have dedicated spaces to chat about housing, healthcare, taxes, COVID-19 & vaccination, hobbies & events, food, movies & tv, childcare, sell or buy stuff and even to post photos of your pets! Sign up here and join the conversation.
Past events
Hiking: Muir Woods
Bouldering
Hiking: Inspiration Point
Hiking: Tennessee valley and Muir beach
Bouldering
Hiking: Coyote Hills Regional Park
Hiking: Christmas Holidays Lights
Hot Chocolate Event
Resources
BLPA Board
BLPA is made up of volunteers – and we are always looking to grow! Are you interested? Do you want to know about the inner workings of BLPA and contribute to the postdoc community, building a larger network? Please contact us (postdoc (at) lbl.gov) or sign up to check out one of our many committees!

Alexander Pattison
Co-chair


Kshitiz Gupta, Committee Coordinator
Social


Raul Flores, Committee Coordinator
Lab-Industry Networking Connection (LINC)
David Halat
Secretary


Fatima H. Garcia
Treasurer
Emil Rofors
Board Member


Christian Messe
Board Member
Moniruzzaman Shaikh
Board Member


Jonelle Basso
Board Member
Jibran Zuberi
Board Member


Trisha Kishore Bhagde
Board Member
Soumyadeep Ghosh, Webmaster
Board Member

BLPA Committees
We are always on the lookout for new events that could be fun and that we can bring to the postdoc community together as well as enthusiastic individuals interested in serving the postdoc community. If you have any ideas for events, please let us know by email to postdoc@lbl.gov or by dropping a line to a board member you know. If you’d like to volunteer with BLPA, please fill out this form.
Social Committee
Social Committee puts together a wide variety of events to enrich the postdocs’ personal lives and support networking among postdocs in a social context. We organize social events and outdoor activities including movie nights, game nights, hikes, pub nights, meet & greet events as well as a labmate program for new postdocs and we are happy to include new ideas. Join us to support social interactions among postdocs at Berkeley Lab.
Outreach Committee
Outreach Committee focuses on self development and diversity & inclusion activities including brown bag seminars (postdoc-to-postdoc, science café, cultural lunch) as well as coffee with postdocs blogs, outreach events and workshops. We also enhance communication between the BLPA Board and nation-wide postdoc community and foster networking and collaborative communication across divisions. Join us in preparing seminars, workshops, blog posts, newsletters while improving your science communication and public speaking skills.
Lab-Industry Networking Connection (LINC) Committee
LINC committee organizes tech talks, company site visits, networking events and career fairs to educate postdocs about careers beyond academia and facilitate effective networking between postdocs and industry partners. Join us if you are interested in expanding your professional network and exploring opportunities beyond academia while improving your communication, networking, leadership, time and project management skills.