PDA Executive Council

While all SFU Postdoctoral Fellows are considered members of the Postdoctoral Association, some of them take a more active role within the association. They represent the interest of Postdoctoral Fellows to the SFU administration, organize activities, and support Postdoctoral Fellows in other ways. The current elected members are listed below.

2023-2024 Executive Council

PDA Executive Council President

Dr. Andreu Arinyo I Prats
Department of Archeology

Andreu is an external postdoc funded by the European Union Marie Skłodowska fellowship, with a background in physics,  now working at the Human Evolution lab at SFU. His research focuses on modeling cultural systems affected by shocks and how these are susceptible to cultural loss. He enjoys the outdoors, hiking, climbing, kayaking, and being a heavy and adventurous traveler. He is keen to go deep into a good conversation over a drink or a walk. He is eager to make the best of the postdoctoral community at SFU.

EXECUTIVE COUNCIL Vice Presidents

Dr. Alexandra Kitson

School of Interative Arts and Technology

Dr. Alexandra Kitson is an NSERC funded postdoctoral fellow at the School of Interactive Arts and Technology (SIAT) located in Surrey. She is actively involved in community-based research within the Tangible Embodied Child-Computer Interaction (TECI) Lab with Dr. Alissa Antle. Dr. Kitson’s primary focus is to facilitate the design, development, and evaluation of digital well-being and mental health technologies including wearables and mixed reality. Her goal for the PDA is to bring together postdoctoral-association from across all three campuses to foster a greater sense of community. 

Dr. Padmapriya Muralidharan
Department of Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology

Priya Muralidharan is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology studying ion channel biophysics using induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes with Prof Thomas Claydon. She pursued her Ph.D. at the University of Western Australia and moved to Memphis, USA for her first postdoc, and then moved to Canada for her second postdoc in November 2019. Having lived in different countries she definitely can appreciate the challenges of any international postdoctoral-association. She joined the SFU-Postdoctoral association to meet, help and represent fellow postdoctoral-association at the Canadian Association of Postdoctoral Scholars.

Dr. Numaira Obaid,
School of Mechatronics Engineering

Numaira is a postdoctoral fellow in the School of Mechatronics Engineering (MSE). Her work examines the role of the spinal degeneration in the biomechanics of fall-related spinal cord injuries in older adults. Numaira is looking forward to getting more involved in the SFU postdoc community.

Dr. Canan Güneş,
Department of Mathematics Education

Canan Güneş is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Mathematics Education studying how teachers use the knowledge acquired during their tertiary education in their teaching of school mathematics with Prof Rina Zazkis. She pursued her Ph.D. in the same department starting in 2017. Having an interest in education and research, and also living in Vancouver for a couple of years, she joined the SFU-Postdoctoral association to involve in organizing Postdoc Research Day and to support the organization of social events.  

Dr. Pietro Spagnolettia
Department of Chemistry

Pietro is a postdoc in the Department of Chemistry with the Andreoiu group. His research is focused on gamma-ray spectroscopy experiments to study the structure of atomic nuclei, investigating such phenomena as “pear-shaped” nuclei, shape-coexistence, and the decay behaviour of nuclei produced via fission in nuclear reactors. He obtained his PhD in Scotland before moving to SFU in early 2020.

These elected members are supported in their endeavors by a number of active members. We are always happy to welcome additional active members, so if you would like to contribute to the SFU Postdoctoral Association please be in touch with one of us or e-mail us at sfu_pda@sfu.ca.

As a Postdoctoral Fellowship can be over and done with in a relatively short time, from time to time Executive Council members move on to other challenges and places. 

Previous Executive Councils