Postgraduate Society
Promoting professional development, fostering a sense of community, facilitating communication, and ensuring representation.
Community Centered. Mission Driven.
The mission of BTI’s Postgraduate Society (PGS) is to promote professional development, foster a sense of community, facilitate communication, and ensure the representation of postdoctoral associates, graduate students, and technicians at BTI.
The PGS carries out its mission by providing opportunities for the BTI community to interact scientifically and socially and by organizing events that specifically contribute to the professional development of early-career scientists.
The Annual BTI Science Symposium provides the BTI community with an all-day event that includes scientific seminars, a PGS poster session, and opportunities to socialize among attendees. This major event focuses on a specific theme each year and is open to all BTI members: students, postdoctoral researchers, scientific staff and faculty, and all support staff.
PGS members organize this lecture, followed by a happy hour, once or twice each year. We invite top-tier scientists from around the world to speak at BTI. This event is open to the entire BTI community and to anyone interested in the invited speaker’s work.
PGS Fests cultivate scientific and social interaction while building a sense of community within BTI. Scientific seminars highlight current research by scientists working locally at Cornell and elsewhere in Central New York State, or in the general Northeast region of the United States. A subsequent happy hour provides a casual atmosphere for socializing and discussing scientific research.
The Professional Development Series provides students and postdoctoral associates with lunchtime seminars that aim to strengthen specific skills necessary for career advancement. These seminars may focus on resume development and academic and nonacademic career paths in science, and provide general opportunities to learn about new techniques that may enhance current research projects.
The PGS serves all postgraduates who work in BTI, including technicians, postdoctoral associates, and graduate students.
The PGS Mentoring Program is for anyone at BTI interested in participating as a mentee. All interested staff and students are invited to take advantage of this opportunity to connect with BTI alumni and expand their professional network.
The BTI-PGS Mentoring Program provides career advice and professional development resources for graduate students, postdoctoral associates, and research technicians (“mentees”) interested in diverse scientific careers. The program connects mentees with mentors in their chosen career fields and provides resources to foster communication among mentees, mentors, and their primary academic advisors.
