All About Your Ambassadors And This Website

Overview

Web addresses

• www.seaes.manchester.ac.uk/ambassadors or • http://data.cas.manchester.ac.uk/ambassadors

What is this website about?

This is the SEAES Ambassadors researcher development website.  It is intended to be the primary place for SEAES research staff to find out about personal and career development support opportunities and for handy information to help in day-to-day working life as a research staff member in the school.  It acts as a condensed repository of relevant information and knowledge that’s otherwise scattered and tedious to find across the rest of the university, and much of the content is tailored to be school-specific where possible.  We’ve tried to cover everything we can think of, but please help us by pointing out errors, or suggesting useful additional content or omissions that we’ve overlooked. This website is a completely voluntary project created by the Postdoc Ambassadors for SEAES and is independently managed in our own time.  Please also treat information here as ‘unofficial’, although we do try to be accurate.  We keep this site updated regularly (see what’s new).

How to navigate this website

The site navigation bar (’navbar’) at the top of every page contains links to all web pages in the site.  The main buttons represent the main sections (discussed below) and the flyout menus contain all the related sub-pages.  There are also ‘NavText’ links at the top right of each page header to help indicate relative location in the site and navigate. • ‘Home’: Takes you to the front page • ‘About us’: This website and Ambassador overview page • ‘Contact us’: Takes you to the page with all our contact details • ‘Researcher development’: The main section for your personal and career development • ‘Day-to-day support’: The main section to help with your day-to-day work • ‘Funding and careers’: Takes you to a page containing a list of funding and careers / job opportunities • ‘Quick links’: Takes you to a page containing handy quick-links to all pages on this site and useful external links.

What are Ambassadors and how can they

help?

The Researcher Development Ambassadors are post- doctoral research staff members who are responsible for championing the personal development of all research staff in their particular school and are to represent their interests at faculty level.  The Ambassadors are a recent Faculty-driven initiative set up in summer 2012 by the Faculty Researcher Development Team and associated deans, and the official responsibilities of the role can be found in the bottom panel on the right. As Ambassadors, we have two general aims: 1. To act as a two-way communications relay directly between the research staff in the school and Faculty 2. To support the personal and career development of research staff We achieve these aims in a number of ways.  We relay concerns or feedback raised by postdocs to faculty at our regular main Ambassador meetings with the Faculty Researcher Development Team and also feedback outcomes or other items of interest back to the postdocs.  We also generally listen out for anything beneficial to the personal and career development of research staff and let you know.  This can include, for example, any university policy developments which may affect you, or news about training courses and workshops available (please suggest some to us that you would like to see internally).  We also try to attend the university’s Research Staff Association and other relevant meetings, and generally keep our ear to the ground for information, opportunities, and developments which would be beneficial to research staff.

Who are the SEAES Ambassadors?

Post-doctoral research staff Dr Robert Sparkes and Dr Christopher Emersic are the current contracted Researcher Development Ambassadors for the School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences.  You can find out more about us personally in the right panel.  The centre panel outlines what we’ve been up to in this role amongst other ongoing activities. Please talk to us: let us know of any useful things you hear about which others could benefit from, ask us any questions so we can try and find answers for you, or discuss concerns or issues with us which we can raise with faculty.  In general, let us know what you want as research staff! Note: All current Ambassadors for the whole university are listed on the contact page.

Ambassador activities

Come along to our Postdoc forums!

As well as this website, we meet up every month or so with postdocs informally in a forum where you can chat to us about all things concerning research staff.  We alternate between Simon and Williamson buildings each time, but all research staff are welcome.  And we have a budget for confectionery!  Look out for the posters dotted around Williamson and Simon Buildings, or check the front page of this website for the location and time of the next meeting.

Activity summary

June 2014–December 2014

• Attended June Ambassadors meeting (minutes available here)

January 2014–May 2014

• Continued regular postdoc forums • Numerous updates and additional content to website • Sought and found a new Ambassador to take over from Christopher • Attended March Ambassadors meeting (minutes available here)

October–December 2013

• Continued regular postdoc forums • Numerous updates and additional content to website (requiring lots of research and organisation) • Attended Staff Survey steering focus group meeting on behalf of research staff • Attended RSA meeting on public engagement and fed back to postdocs

Reflections of Ambassadors

We’ve made a page where we reflect on and provide some personal insights into our experiences in the Ambassador role.

SEAES Ambassador biographies

August 2013+

Dr Robert Sparkes is a PDRA in the Molecular Organic Geochemistry Group. He joined the department in 2012 and studies the export of organic carbon from thawing Siberian permafrost to the Arctic Ocean. Robert uses various isotopic, spectroscopic and chromatographic techniques to identify and characterise complex organic molecules in offshore sediments, and link them to their terrestrial sources. Previously he graduated with an MSci in Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge, and completed a PhD there in 2012 studying the export of organic carbon from mountain belts to foreland basins. Dr Christopher Emersic arrived in Manchester as an undergraduate student of Physics at UMIST in 1999.  After graduating with an MPhys in 2003, he worked under the supervision of Dr Clive Saunders on his PhD involving cloud chamber laboratory studies of thunderstorm electrification, graduating in 2006.  Dr Emersic was then awarded the US NRC Research Associateship and researched lightning and thunderstorm science in Oklahoma, United States.  This was followed by a post- doctoral position in New Mexico making lightning measurements, and then by a funded NSF grant he wrote to further study lightning.  Dr Emersic returned to Manchester University in mid-2009 where he remains; initially researching cloud and ice microphysics in the Manchester Ice Cloud Chamber, he is now part of the UV group looking at the conspicuity of LED light in foggy conditions.

Official Ambassador responsibilities

Provide input to the development of effective, professional researchers Have an awareness of your School’s internal communication methods, such as Post-doc forums, newsletters, online discussions, posting boards, etc. Pass on relevant information about local and national development opportunities for researchers in your School Meet with other School Researcher Development Ambassadors and the Researcher Development team at four meetings per year Occasionally act as the research staff representative at quarterly meetings of the EPS Faculty Skills and Training Development Steering Group on a rotating position with other School representatives Contribute ideas or give feedback to the team responsible for organising the annual University Research Staff Conference Champion researcher development, helping to raise School-wide awareness of relevant issues and opportunities More information here