Upcoming events

Information from the election committee: electable positions

Submitted by information-officer
on Sat, 2012-04-28 20:23

Summer is quickly approaching, and with it the next TNDR annual meeting. One of the main purposes of the annual meeting is to elect people to TNDR's board and all the representative positions that TNDR appoints.
In a an effort to increase the transparency of these elections and the interest among the PhD student corps, the TNDR board, on behalf of the election committee, is pleased to present a schematic summary of all positions that TNDR manages, including their main duties and, where applicable, their monetary or temporal compensation.
All positions are elected, and as such considered trustee positions.

The board of TNDR consists of six positions, as per the current bylaws.
Number of meetings are per semester, unless otherwise stated. Compensation is per academic year.

TNDR board No. of meetings Language Main task Compensation
Ordförande Chair 3 plus 3 Swedish necessary Plans, organizes and executes TNDR's work. 4000 SEK,
30 days
Vice ordförande Deputy chair 3 plus 3   Stand-in for the chair, helps other board members as needed. 2000 SEK,
10 days
Sekreterare Secretary 3 plus 3 Fluent Swedish writing required Write and maintain meeting minutes. 2000 SEK,
10 days
Kassör Treasurer 3 plus 3   Manage the budget and TNDR's bank account 2000 SEK,
5 days
Informationsansvarig Information officer 3 plus 3 English Maintain and develop information infrastructure, both physical and virtual. 2000 SEK
Socialt ansvarig Social organizer 3 plus 3 English Plan social activities and other communal events. 2000 SEK

And associated with the board, but not formally part of it, we have an accountant and an election committe, whose jobs are mostly confined to a short period prior to TNDR's annual meeting.

Function Language Main task Comments
Revisor Auditor Swedish reading-skills necessary Check that the financial activity of the board is as formally stated.  
Valberedning Election committee   Find and nominate candidates for positions at TNDR's board, as well as all representatives. The job is shared between at least two persons.

 

TNDR elects representatives to two university-level bodies: the PhD student board, which is part of the student union (Uppsala studentkår), and the university scholarship board.

Body No. of positions No. of meetings Language Extra-meeting duties Compensation
Doktorandnämnden
The PhD student board		 2 regular,
2 subst.		 3 Meetings usually in Swedish... Some preparation required 8 days
Universitetets stipendienämnd
University scholarship board		 1 regular 1 Swedish Little to no preparation None

 

At the TekNat faculty, TNDR has monopoly on PhD student representation and elects representatives to several committees besides the faculty board itself.
Number of meetings are per semester, unless otherwise stated. Compensation is per academic year, unless otherwise stated.

Body No. of positions No. of meetings Language Extra-meeting duties Compensation
Fakultetsnämnden
The faculty board		 2 regular,
1 subst.		 3 Strictly Swedish Extensive preparation required 500 SEK/meeting,
15 days
Forskarutbildningsnämnden
Graduate education board		 2 regular 3-4 Swedish Some preparation required, correspondence 15 days
Fakultetens stipendienämnd
Faculty scholarship board		 1 regular 1 Swedish Little to no preparation None***
Bibliotekssamverkan N
Library council N		 1 regular 3 Swedish Little to no preparation None***
Anställningsberedningen
The recruitment committee		 1 regular,
1 subst.		 1 per month Swedish, and English Extensive preparation required 500 SEK/meeting,
20% employment
Docenturnämnden
Assistant professorship committee		 1 regular,
1 subst.		 3 Understanding Swedish necessary Some preparation required 5 days***
Fakultetens jämställdhetsutskott
The equality committee		 1 regular       5 days***

***The stated compensation length can be negotiated by the position-holder (keep track of amount of time spent, apply to the faculty board at the end of the year for compensation).

 

Finally, but not the least, TNDR elects representatives to a few other boards associated with the faculty.

Body No. of positions No. of meetings Language Extra-meeting duties

Compensation
International science programme
 		 1 regular 2-3 English Light preparation None
Centrum för accelerator- och instrumentutveckling
Centre for accelerator and instrument development
 		 1 regular        
UPMARCs styrelse
UPMARC board		 1 regular,
1 subst.		        

If you are interested in any of the positions above you should get in touch with someone from the election committee.
If you have any inquiries, e-mail any of the election committee members: Maria Garcia, Marie Andersson, and Wei Li.

Additional details about the above positions (including comments by the incumbents) can be found here.
A pdf version of this post is also available.

TNDR fika!

Date: 
Tuesday, April 24, 2012 - 15:15 to 16:15
Venue: 
Å2002

Long time no fika! Let's change that. There will be something to eat, like ice-cream or cookies, and there will be coffee and tea. See you there!

TNDR participated in IBG-session on "employment in Sweden"

Date: 
Wednesday, April 18, 2012 - 16:10 to 16:30
Venue: 
Zootissalen, Evolutionsmuseet

TNDR participated in the afternoon meeting on "employment in Sweden" organised by IBG for their master's degree students.

Master's students are a very important group for TNDR, and as such they should be correctly informed about their rights and obligations as applicants to grad school, and as possible later PhD students themselves.

If you have any questions about grad school at our faculty, feel free to use our Google+ or FB-page, or e-mail the board directly.

The presentation slides from TNDR's talk are now available. [pdf, 3 MB]

Student-union election time

Submitted by admin
on Tue, 2012-04-17 05:56

I initially intended to write a few lines promoting the Uppsala studentkår (the student-union) election which is currently on-going (vote here, by the way), but after voting myself I could not stop feeling annoyed about the poor design solutions on the voting landing-page and in the voting UI itself. Allow me to explain what I mean by that.

First, the election main landing page, which features a nice bullet-point list describing the voting procedure, lacks an English translation. Considering that 45% of all Ph.D. students at TEKNAT have another native language than Swedish, that's fail number 1...

The same page also features a button that takes the voter to the voting system itself. This button needs to be much larger, and needs to feature an English translation! Since the whole purpose of the landing page is to funnel users into the voting system, this constitutes fail number 2...

Last, once logged-in to the voting system (which is inside a popup-window, why?) the "log-out" button is, for some obscure reason, prominently featured right next to the "continue"-button. I mean, need I say more? Of course people are going to click on the log-out button by mistake, and once the user gets pissed off, it is usually really hard to get them back...

In any case, I do encourage all Ph.D. students to actually vote, irregardless of the peculiarities of the voting pages.

PS. The commenting system on this site is broken, sorry for that. Please use our Facebook page or Twitter feed to voice your comments!

Visa situation of the PhD students in Sweden

Submitted by chair
on Thu, 2012-04-12 13:58

SIGN THIS PETITION before the upcoming parliamentary debate on the 30th of May, 2012, to send a clear message to the Swedish Government that it is in the best interests of Sweden to provide International Doctoral Candidates with the right to permanent residency at the completion of their degree (after 4 years – like other migrant workers in Sweden).

This motion should be supported not only to provide opportunities for these highly-skilled individuals to contribute to Swedish society after their studies, but to also foster strong relationships with the home nations of these candidates; and further secure Sweden’s reputation as an internationally-supportive place of higher research studies.

Sign here - today:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/903/398/359/permanent-residency-for-docto...

Suggested weekend essay: "How to write like a scientist"

Submitted by information-officer
on Sat, 2012-03-31 16:54

From Science, a well-written essay on how (not?) to write like a scientist by Adam Ruben.
This should be required reading for all aspiring PhD's, really. Unless we want to write nothing but dry, lifeless articles for the rest of our careers (and read nothing but more of the same).

I didn’t know whether to take my Ph.D. adviser’s remark as a compliment. “You don’t write like a scientist,” he said, handing me back the progress report for a grant that I had written for him. In my dream world, tears would have come to his eyes, and he would have squealed, “You write like a poet!” In reality, though, he just frowned. He had meant it as a criticism. I don’t write like a scientist, and apparently that’s bad. I asked for an example, and he pointed to a sentence on the first page. “See that word?” he said. “Right there. That is not science.”

The word was “lone,” as in “PvPlm is the lone plasmepsin in the food vacuole of Plasmodium vivax.” It was a filthy word. A non-scientific word. A flowery word, a lyrical word, a word worthy of -- ugh -- an MFA student. I hadn’t meant the word to be poetic. I had just used the word “only” five or six times, and I didn’t want to use it again. But in his mind, “lone” must have conjured images of PvPlm perched on a cliff’s edge, staring into the empty chasm, weeping gently for its aspartic protease companions. Oh, the good times they shared. Afternoons spent cleaving scissile bonds. Lazy mornings decomposing foreign proteins into their constituent amino acids at a nice, acidic pH. Alas, lone plasmepsin, those days are gone. So I changed the word to “only.” And it hurt. Not because “lone” was some beautiful turn of phrase but because of the lesson I had learned: Any word beyond the expected set -- even a word as tame and innocuous as “lone” -- apparently doesn’t belong in science. I’m still fairly new at this science thing. I’m less than 4 years beyond the dark days of grad school and the adviser who wouldn’t tolerate “lone.” So forgive my naïveté when I ask: Why the hell not? Why can’t we write like other people write? Why can’t we tell our science in interesting, dynamic stories? Why must we write dryly? (Or, to rephrase that last sentence in the passive voice, as seems to be the scientific fashion, why must dryness be written by us?)

More here.

SULF PhD seminar: Career paths within and outside academia

Submitted by chair
on Thu, 2012-03-29 15:26

SULF/Uppsala invites to a PhD seminar

Career Paths within and outside Academia

When: Tuesday, April 17, at 9-12
Where: Room 4004, Ångström laboratory

What do you want to do after your defense? What can you do? Stay in academia, apply for a postdoctoral position? Find a job in the industry or try to use your research results to establish your own company? Take the time to think about your options and your future career.

Register at agi@sulf.se no later than April 10th. Please find more information in the attached file:

Doktorandgasque (PhD student dinner and party) 27/4 April!

Submitted by chair
on Fri, 2012-03-16 10:05

We now have all information for the PhD student dinner and party in April. Hope to see you all there!
There's even a facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/events/332106293494021/

[EN] Hi, you are invited to the Doktorandgasque (PhD student dinner and party), to be held Friday, 27/Apr/2012, at Smålands nation. The dinner starts at 18:30, the party at 2200. The price is 350 SEK (alcohol-free: 300 SEK) for the dinner (party included!) and 50 SEK for the party only. No nationcard is required, everybody is welcome. The dress code is business informal.

To register, please complete the following two steps no later than the 19th of April:
(1) send an e-mail with your choice (party or dinner) along with allergies, food and drink preferences and your name to: doktorandgasque@gmail.com
(2) transfer the corresponding amount to: Uppsala studentkår, postgiro 5372-8, state “name + 27/4” (it's also possible to pay cash at Uppsala studentkår, Övre slottsgatan 7).
Welcome!

[ZH] 主题:PhD 晚餐聚会活动
 大家好，非常高兴邀请大家参加于2012年4月27日，星期五，在Smålands nation举行的PhD 晚餐聚会活动。本次活动的注册费是350SEK (无酒精饮料:300 SEK )，无需出示nation卡。着装要求---business informal。报名参加的同学只要按一下两个步骤注册即可，注册时间不晚于2012年4月19日。
(1) 发送邮件到doktorandgasque@gmail.com， 注明姓名，食物饮料的相关要求就。
(2) 汇寄相应金额注册费到: Uppsala studentkår, postgiro 5372-8, 注明 "姓名+27/4", 也可以直接现金交付，地点是Uppsala studentkår, Övre slottsgatan 7。

[ES] ¡Hola! Estás cordialmente invitado a una fiesta especial para estudiantes doctorales (Doktorandgasque) que tendrá lugar el viernes 27 de abril de 2012 a las 18:30 en Smålands Nation. El valor de la entrada es de 350 coronas (sin alcohol: 300 coronas) y no se requiere tarjeta de Nation. Todos son bienvenidos. El código de vestimenta es ejecutivo informal. Para registrarte, sigue los siguientes pasos antes del 19 de abril:
(1) envía un correo a doktorandgasque@gmail.com especificando si sufres de algún tipo de alergia o si tienes alguna petición especial en cuanto a comida y bebida.
(2) transfiere el pago correspondiente a la cuenta postgiro 5372-8 a nombre de Uppsala studentkår, especificando lo siguiente: "NOMBRE + 27/4". También es posible pagar en efectivo en las oficinas del Uppsala studentkår en Övre Slottsgatan 7.
¡Bienvenidos!

[FA] شما به ميهمانى شام دعوت شده ايد
اين ميهمانى براى دانش جويان دكترا ميباشد كه در روز
Friday, 27/Apr/2012, 18:30, at Smålands nation
بر گزار ميشود. از شما دعوت ميكنيم اگر تمايل به شركت در اين ميهمانى را داريد،
19th of April قبل از روز
doktorandgasque@gmail.com   به اين ادرس ايميل فرستاده
هزينه : 350 كرون واريز كنيد
Uppsala studentkår, postgiro 5372-8,      بنوييسسيد:       “نام و نام خانوادگى + تاريخ 27/4”    
همچنين ميتوانيد پول را نقدى در اين ادرس  پرداخت كنيد :
Uppsala studentkår, Övre slottsgatan 7
به اميد ديدار
 

[SE] Hej, jätte välkommen till doktorandgasquen fredag, 27/Apr/2012, på Smålands nation. Sittningen börjar 18:30, släppet 22:00. Priset är 350 SEK (utan alcohol: 300 SEK) för sittningen (släppet inkluderat!) och 50 SEK för släppet. Inget nationskort behövs, alla är välkomna! Klädkoden är kavaj.

Anmäla dig innan den 19:e april genom att:
(1) skicka ett e-mejl med ditt val (sittning eller släpp) och eventuella allergier, mat- och dryckpreferencer och ditt namn till: doktorandgasque@gmail.com
(2) betala summan (350 eller 300 eller 50) till: Uppsala studentkår, postgiro 5372-8, ange “namn + 27/4”.
Välkommen!