WIKIMEDIA, PEN WAGGENEROver the past three decades, the number of postdoctoral researchers in biomedical science has increased about three-fold, but jobs in industry and academic research have not kept pace with this increase. At the same time, PhD education and postdoctoral training in the sciences has become increasingly exploitative.
Postdocs carry out the brunt of the scientific research at American research universities. They are at a career stage when they have enough experience to make important contributions and are often the cutting edge of their fields. Yet many are institutionally invisible—counting neither as students nor as staff, and thus often not receiving salary, health insurance or retirement plans comparable to university staff. Many institutions cannot even state how many postdocs they employ. Postdocs are treated as transient satellites, often supported on short-term contracts.
Many young scientists train for over a decade to develop highly specialized technical skills, only to find that there are no jobs that match their training, and that they must repurpose themselves for other careers. Today, fewer than 10 percent of ...
