In May, five new PDA representatives were chosen for the 2006-2007 academic year. The five individuals, Allison Alcivar, Zhiying Li, Patrick Lusk, Kristine Nowak, and Huidong Wang, are from very different backgrounds and bring different interests and expertise to the PDA representative committee. In the coming year, we plan to follow up closely with the administration on issues regarding housing and daycare, and to continue to provide more career development programs. We look forward to working with all postdocs and research associates (RAs), and we are always available to answer your questions. The PDA can be contacted at .

Allison Alcivar joined the James Darnell lab in February 2006 to study the role of Stat3 in cancer. After spending all her life in Southern California, she moved east to Philadelphia for graduate school. She completed her Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania studying the mechanisms of death receptor-dependent cell death. Prior to coming to Rockefeller, Allison spent six months as an editorial intern at Nature Medicine. You might better recognize her as one of the owners of Rawley, the white bulldog puppy.

Zhiying Li is a native of Beijing, China. For her Ph.D. she studied neurotransmission and is now a second year postdoc in the Friedman lab. As may have been the case for many others, her transition from graduate student to postdoc has been both exciting and taxing and involved a steady learning curve. What drew her to run for PDA representative were the initiatives and activities begun by the PDA in the last year, all of which were accomplished by a group of self-motivated individuals making an effort to positively contribute to the postdoc/RA community in every way. She is excited to be part of the current PDA and continue this active role in supporting the postdoc/RA community at Rockefeller. She looks forward to meeting and speaking with many more of you in the coming year!

Patrick Lusk is a Canadian who was born and raised just outside of Toronto. After moving throughout Ontario, Patrick settled into university life close to the Rocky Mountains in Edmonton, Alberta. His graduate work focused on elucidating the molecular mechanisms governing nuclear pore complex assembly and function. This work led him to join the Blobel lab in July of 2005 where he has begun to investigate the targeting and function of inner nuclear membrane proteins. You might see Patrick looking sad on his mountain bike, longing to stumble upon a trail to ride.

Kristine Nowak grew up outside Philadelphia and received her Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD working on the structure and function of chloroplast ATP synthase. She joined the Breslow lab in fall 2003 and made a dramatic jump to study the genetics and immunology of atherosclerosis. She is especially interested in increasing the contact of our PDA and postdocs/RAs with those from other institutions in New York and with the National Postdoctoral Association. She looks forward to working with everyone here at Rockefeller to represent the interests and concerns of postdocs and RAs to the administration, and to improve the quality of life on campus for everyone.

Huidong Wang received her Ph.D. from SUNY Downstate Medical Center working on small RNAs in local translation regulation in a neuronal system. To continue in the exciting field of local protein synthesis in learning and memory, she joined Robert Darnell’s lab in 2005 to study the role of the brain-specific protein NOVA in synapses. With her experience as a former member of her graduate school council, she is very excited to be on the PDA. She appreciates this great opportunity to be a part of the grassroots system to make our stay at Rockefeller less stressful and more productive, and to make this period of our lives a giant stepping stone for our future careers.