Has the dramatic growth in the NIH budget affected the training and production of biomedical Ph.D.s? Examination of new survey data reveals surprising findings. Despite the need for an increased workforce to carry out the expansion in biomedical research, there has not been an increase in new U.S. doctorates awarded, and time-to-degree in the biomedical sciences is no longer increasing. Further...

Dr. Joseph F. Pierre PhD is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Chicago, where he studies the interplay between nutrition, the microbiome, and the enteric immune and neuronal systems. His Young Investigator Perspective, “Rethinking The Biomedical Postdoc: But First Let’s Get The Data,” highlights the challenges faced by postdoctoral fellows in biomedical sciences and emphasizes the impor...

Postdoctoral positions in biology education research (BER) are becoming increasingly common as the field grows. However, many life science graduate students are unaware of these positions or do not understand what these positions entail or the careers with which they align. In this essay, we use a backward-design approach to inform life science graduate students of postdoctoral opportunities in...

A follow-up study of the 44 recipients of American Cancer Society, Inc., Special Postdoctoral Research Fellowship from 1962 to 1973 revealed that 11 of 21 M.D. candidates obtained their second (Ph.D.) degree at the end of training. By contrast, all but one among the 23 Ph.D. candidates were awarded the second (M.D.) degree. A great majority of either group remain in active research, regardless ...

What levels of preinternship training in testing and psychotherapy do internship directors expect students to have as they enter internship? This study addressed the question by surveying internship directors of all members of the Association of Postdoctoral and Internship Centers and asking them to specify the numbers of testing and psychotherapy experiences they believe an intern candidate sh...

A mentor can mean the difference between a mentoree's failure and success. Yet mentoring is more than an altruistic venture. A good mentor will be more likely to recruit and retain strong student and postdoctoral candidates, and cultivate productive personnel. Despite these advantages, faculty often receive little, if any, mentoring training. Here, three panelists, Marianne Bronner-Fraser, Ph.D...

Project co-financed by European Social Fund through Sectorial Operational Programme for Human Resources Development 2007 2013 Priority Axis 1 "Education and training in support for economic growth and society development based on knowledge " Key Area of Intervention 1.5 "Doctoral and postdoctoral research support" Project Title: " Universitary partnership for improving quality and interdiscipli...

Sascha Martens obtained both his Diploma and PhD at the University of Cologne in Germany in the laboratory of Jonathan Howard. He pursued his postdoctoral training as an EMBO Long-Term Fellow in the group of Harvey McMahon at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK, during which time he also received the AAAS/Science Program for Excellence in Science Award. In 2009 Sascha became a ...

Significant limitations have emerged in America's science training pipeline, including inaccessibility, inflexibility, financial limitations, and lack of diversity. We present three effective programs that collectively address these challenges. The programs are grounded in rigorous science and integrate through diverse disciplines across undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral students, and r...

Megan king received her BA in biochemistry from Brandeis University and then pursued a PhD degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at the University of Pennsylvania working in the group of Mark Lemmon. For her postdoctoral training, Megan chose the laboratory of Günter Blobel at the Rockefeller University in New York. Since starting her own group at the Cell Biology Department at Yale S...