OPA Professional Development Award 

The OSU Postdoctoral Association (OPA) is pleased to invite applications for Professional Development awards of up to $500 each!

Applications for Spring 2025 professional development awards are due by 5 pm, April 11th, 2025
Email Claudio Guevara at [email protected]
Background

The Oregon State University Postdoctoral Association (OPA) was established to financially support the professional development of fellow Postdoctoral Scholars and Fellows. Understanding professional development as a wide array of activities that help build core competencies and transferable skills, the OPA strives to help remove the access barriers to opportunities that exist both within and beyond the university. The OPA invites Postdoctoral Scholars and Fellows to apply for funding through the Postdoctoral Professional Development Award to help offset some expenses for qualifying training activities that directly contribute to professional skills development.

The OPA will grant three awards per term. Each award is limited to $500 maximum with one award per fiscal year (July 1– June 30) per person. Applicants must prepare a description of a proposed professional development experience and explanation of need, a description of the other sources of funding requested, and a line-item budget. Funds will be disbursed as a reimbursement after the activity takes place, which may take up to one academic term. Advance payments are not available. Awardees must provide documentation showing that they directly provided payment. Payments made with an OSU Purchasing/Department card are not acceptable.

 

Eligibility

Applications are restricted to postdoctoral researchers as defined by OSU (see http://gradschool.oregonstate.edu/postdocs/definition).

  • Applicants must be currently enrolled as a Postdoctoral Scholar or Fellow at OSU in the term the application is submitted and the term the funding is reimbursed.
  •  The professional development activity supports their professional and career objectives as stated in their Individual Development Plan (IDP) or equivalent.
  •  Eligible professional development activities are listed in order of priority:
    •  Conference attendance where the postdoc is presenting a paper/poster
    •  Other conference, symposium, or presentation-based workshop attendance
    •  Field-specific or certification training
    •  Tutoring or academic support that is not available through OSU
    •  Online webinar/conferences/trainings

 

Fund Restrictions

Examples of costs not eligible for reimbursement include living expenses, editing services, and any research activities, trainings, or certifications that are part of or required by the program that Scholar/Fellow is enrolled in.

 

Procedures and deadlines
  • Applicants should complete the application form and submit it by:
    •  October 4th (Fall 2024); January 17th (Winter 2025); April 11th (Spring 2025); June 27th (Summer 2025); October 3rd (Fall 2025); January 16th (Winter 2026).
  •  Prepare an itemized budget including all the costs associated with your participation in the professional development activity, even when they exceed $500.
  •  Applications will be reviewed blinded by a faculty selection committee once per term and awards will be allocated and notified within 3-4 weeks following the application deadline.

 

Application Materials and Selection Process

 

  1. Fill the  OPA Professional Development Award Form and and save as a PDF. This document should be maximum three pages long, including the instructions. 
  2. Remove the first page of your IDP and highlight the goals that would be supported by your engagement in the selected professional development activity. Removing the first page ensures the process is blinded. Save as a PDF. 
  3. Merge both files into a single PDF (form first, IDP second). Name the file with your OSU ID using the following format: XXX-XXX-XXX.

Please send this single file to Claudio Guevara at [email protected] with “Postdoc professional development award” in the subject line. No CV is necessary.

Application materials will be evaluated by a Professional Development Award Committee comprised of faculty selected/invited by the Graduate School. The Committee provides recommendations for awardees to the Associate Dean of the Graduate School. Applications will be evaluated based on merit and need of the proposed activity as per  Evaluation Criteria.

 

 

Postdocs and their mentors can find potential funding opportunities on the OSU Research Office website.

 

 

Previous Awardees

 

Winter 2025 Professional Development Award:

  • Oluwafemi Omilani - Crop and Soil Science 
  • Mareike Koerner - Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences
  • Mahyar Abedi - Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing Engineering
  • Franziska Loetzner - Exercise, Sport, and Health Sciences
  • Abhishek Chanda - Pharmaceutical Sciences

 

Fall 2024 Professional Development Award:

  • Aravinth Ekamparam - Biological and Ecological Engineering
  • Lindsey Perry - Animal and Rangeland Sciences
  • Marta Basso - Forest Ecosystems and Society
  • Aimee Massey - Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences

 

Summer 2024 Professional Development Award:

  • Arafat Rahman - Botany and Plant Pathology
  • Kelsey Quaisley - Mathematics
  • Claudio Guevara - Forest Ecosystems and Society
  • Taylor Hersh - Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences

 

Spring 2024 Professional Development Award:

  • Kiana Kia - Occupational Ergonomics and Biomechanics 
  • Dawn Barlow - Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences
  • Jiyeon Lee - Early Learning System Initiative
  • Marie Tosa - Botany and Plant Pathology
 
Winter 2023 Professional Development Award:
  • Bella Tobin - Mathematics
  • David Fifty - Mathematics
  • Lindsey St Mary - Environmental & Molecular Toxicology
  • Lluvia Vargas - Botany and Plant Pathology
  • Qinghua Chen - Public Health and Human Sciences
  • Sai Sandeep Chitta - School of Civil and Construction Engineering

 

 

Fall 2019

 

Postdoctoral Excellent Award (PEA)

Priyadarshini Chakrabarti Basu and Susanna Kerio receive the Postdoctoral Excellent Award (PEA) from President Ed Ray at the award ceremony, University day, September 9th, 2019

The OPA granted two professional development awards to:

Dr. Armando Alcazar, OSU Mass Spectrometry Center

Dr. Jenny Urbina, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife

And three travel awards to:

Dr. Sarah A. Gravem, Department of Integrative Biology 

Dr. Sara Galbraith, College of Forestry

Dr. Alexandra Nancarrow, College of Public Health and Human Sciences

Spring 2019

Dr. Leanne Giordono, School of Social and Behavioral Sciences

FALL 2018

Dr. Susanna Keriö, Deprtment of Botany and Plant Pathology

Dr. Rachele Nieri, Department of Horticulture

Spring 2018

Dr. Fadi El-Rami, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Dr. Rakesh Awale, Columbia Basin Agricultural Research Center

Fall 2016

Dr. Puerta will use her award to attend the prestigious ICES-PICES conference on the multidisciplinary study of the marine environment.

Dr. Sato will use her award to attend a conference and give a seminar at a research institution in Korea on biological-physical interactions in marine ecosystems.

Dr. Bezerra Da Silva will use his award to conduct research on the mechanisms of insecticide resistance of two major pests of US berries and grapes.

Spring 2016

Carla Schubiger(Dept. of Biomedical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine) - Carla's award will fund travel to Hawaii to research the efficacy of a marine probiotic to preserve coral reefs from bleaching.

Erin E. Gorsich(Dept. of Biomedical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine) - Erin's award will fund travel to a conference ad grant-writing workshop on modeling infection patterns of the foot-and-mouth disease of the African buffalo.

Fall 2015

Christopher Gaulke (Dept. of Microbiology) – Chris's award funded his mentorship of an undergraduate in a microbiome bioinformatics project.

Matthew Jones (Dept. of Forest Ecosystems and Society) – Matt's award funded travel as invited speaker to a national geophysical meeting and attend several workshops for networking.

Cleo Davie-Martin (Depts. of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology/ Dept. of Microbiology) – Cleo's award funded travel and special training to become an expert in PTR-MS (proton transfer reaction mass spectrometer) instruments.

OPA Professional Awards: Requests for Proposals

Spring 2017, Fall 2016, Spring 2016, Fall 2015, Spring 2015.