October 13, 2022

The Research University Alliance (RUA) [researchuniversityalliance.org] is an alliance within the National Science Foundation AGEP (Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate) program.

 AGEP focuses on discovering and testing strategies to recruit and retain underrepresented minority groups in STEM academics, culminating in a job as a faculty member somewhere in the U.S.

 As part of AGEP, RUA is dedicated to creating a cross-university community of senior Ph.D. students and postdocs who want to go on in academics, with a focus on individuals from historically underrepresented demographics in MPESE fields (Mathematics, Physical Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Computer Science, and Engineering).  Unfortunately, RUA is not open to international students or international postdocs at this time. 

 Each term, UW-RUA funds 5-10 senior Ph.D. students or postdocs to go on a Research Exchange (RE) visit to one of our eight partner R1 universities: Caltech, Georgia Tech, Harvard, Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA, University of Michigan, UT-Austin. 

 REs are short (3-7 day) campus visits designed to elevate and celebrate you and your work to a receptive mentor, colleague and collegial crowd.  If you’re wondering how you might get yourself in front of an audience of friendly faculty ready to consider you for a postdoctoral or faculty position, this is it!

 Graduate students should expect to give a lab seminar or chalk talk, meet with other members of the lab, other faculty in the department, and departmental leadership.  Postdocs should expect to give a departmental seminar, lab chalk talk, meet with departmental faculty, and with department, college and university leadership.

 Not sure you’re ready, or who you would visit?  Thinking you need to have your research here at UW completely finished and published before you can go anywhere?  No worries!  The UW-RUA Coordinator, Jazzmine Waugh (ruacoordinator@uw.edu) can help talk you through your concerns, and get you started looking at potential faculty mentors.

 RE awards include up to $1,500 to directly support travel (airfare, food and accommodation, miscellaneous expenses). They do not provide funding for research, nor does it provide salary and benefits.

 Interested?

Reach out to Jazzmine Waugh, the UW-RUA Coordinator (ruacoordinator@uw.edu) for help in navigating next steps.

Attend one of our Zoom help sessions:

Wed. Oct. 19 from 1-2:30 PM: https://washington.zoom.us/j/99477942542 [washington.zoom.us]

 Fri. Oct. 21 from 2:30-3:30 PM: https://washington.zoom.us/j/94059391846 [washington.zoom.us]

Fill out an Application [forms.gle] for an RE visit.

 For best consideration, please apply by 28 Oct 2022.

 If you have any questions, please reach out to Jazzmine Waugh (ruacoordinator@uw.edu), or contact me directly (dratner@uw.edu) – we hope to see your application!