Across the country this past week, campuses were celebrating an often-overlooked group: postdocs. Postdocs, who are in an awkward limbo between students and faculty, don’t have the same structured community or formal presence as undergraduates or graduate students, and so it may be surprising that there are nearly 2,100 such people on the Stanford campus.
That begs the question: What are these 2,100 people doing on campus? They may be continuing their training, but what does the Stanford community get out of the deal?
Most obviously, postdocs contribute directly to research. Postdocs already have their doctorates and are more independent as scholars and scientists compared to graduate students. Earning starting wages of $50,000 and costing no tuition benefits, postdocs offer a pretty good deal for carrying out research projects self-reliantly, while professors furiously write grants, travel to conferences, teach classes and carry out other administrative tasks necessary to run a research program.
However, through this high level of training and physical presence at their work, postdocs also add directly to the Stanford community in a less obvious way: through mentorship of others.
Imagine a typical postdoc on campus, who may work in a lab with other postdocs, grad students and staff in the form of lab managers and technicians. Even brand new postdocs arrive with a certain expertise (remember, they already have their doctorate) and soon offer insights to labmates on experimental techniques, statistical evaluation, fellowship writing, career advice, how everyone experiences imposter syndrome … you know — mentorship.
Carlos, a senior graduate student in the immunology program, can attest to the value of this mentorship.
“I can’t imagine where I’d be without the postdocs in my lab,” Carlos explained. “From advice on improving experimental design to hands-on demonstrations of techniques, a large portion of my graduate training has come from the mentorship I have received from postdocs.”
And postdocs are offering this mentorship to a lot of people. A recent survey of Stanford postdocs indicated that around 40 percent of postdocs had formal mentorship responsibilities (i.e. they were specifically assigned to mentor another person(s)). When postdocs were asked about informal mentoring (no specific arrangement, but casual mentoring of people in their lab), that number rose to more than 60 percent who were spending time each week mentoring others. It’s estimated that more than 3,200 students and staff are mentored by postdocs. The types of mentees are broad, including graduate students, undergrads, staff and, in some cases, even high school students.
National Postdoc Appreciation Week was created in order to bring awareness to who postdocs are and what they do. Postdocs have become integral to the university ecosystem, not just at Stanford but at institutions across the country. They contribute to the University’s research output, and they also add value by spending time mentoring those around them. They bring in cultures and ideas from around the globe (more than half of postdocs are international) that inform and enhance the Stanford experience for others around them.
And, as Martha Cyert, professor and chair of the Provost’s advisory council on postdoctoral affairs, notes, “Postdocs are the fastest growing population at Stanford and are critical for the research and educational missions of the Schools of Engineering, Medicine, Humanities and Sciences, Education and Earth Sciences.”
That seems worth taking a moment to appreciate.
Katharine Brown is a post-doctoral scholar in the department of developmental biology. Contact her at kvbrown ‘at’ stanford.edu.