Sudha Krishnamurthy Appointed to National Postdoctoral Association Leadership

Sudha Krishnamurthy, PhD, program director for the Office of Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Affairs, was recently selected to serve as an international officer for the National Postdoctoral Association (NPA). The position is a perfect fit for Krishnamurthy, who has been highly active as an advocate and organizer of students and postdocs since completing her own graduate and postdoctoral training.

“At Gladstone, Sudha is an outstanding resource for early career scientists, providing career advice, organizing professional development opportunities, and helping to build community,” said Robert Obana, chief operations officer at Gladstone. “This nomination is well deserved and will allow her to help a broader community of postdoctoral scholars throughout the country.”

International officers serve as expert advisors to the NPA Board of Directors, identify policy issues, such as changes to immigration or tax laws that may affect international postdocs and help to develop resources, such as the International Postdoc Survival Guide and a Guide to Visas.

“I look forward to bringing my own personal experience as an international postdoc, as well as insights gleaned from working with Gladstone trainees to this new position,” said Krishnamurthy. “I’ve identified four major areas of focus during my term with the NPA that I believe are the greatest challenges to international postdocs: integration into the community, access to resources, lack of information regarding immigration policies, and dealing with loneliness, depression, and lacking potential support mechanisms.”

The mission of the NPA is to improve the postdoctoral experience by supporting enhanced research training and a culture of professional growth to benefit scholarship and innovation. The international officer position was established in recognition of the fact that about 60 percent of US postdocs come from international backgrounds.