How does postdoc training in the US compare with countries outside the US? The Scientist talked with Lauw Klaassen, a postdoc currently at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience and previously at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, to find out. In Houston, the training, which he helped organize, consisted of a once weekly hour-long workshop that focused on subjects such as grant-writing and manuscript preparation. His training in the Netherlands, organized as a yearly three-day retreat, focused more on alternative career options for postdocs. Klaassen said that getting away from his lab to focus solely on his career felt more productive than trying to get away from experiments for weekly workshops. The Scientist's postdoc rankings, he said, are useful in highlighting the institutions that providing their postdocs with the services they want, and will hopefully spur other institutions to step up to the plate. How does postdoc training in the US compare with countries outside the US? The Scientist talked with Lauw Klaassen, a postdoc currently at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience and previously at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, to find out. In Houston, the training, which he helped organize, consisted of a once weekly hour-long workshop that focused on subjects such as grant-writing and manuscript preparation. His training in the Netherlands, organized as a yearly three-day retreat, focused more on alternative career options for postdocs. Klaassen said that getting away from his lab to focus solely on his career felt more productive than trying to get away from experiments for weekly workshops. The Scientist's postdoc rankings, he said, are useful in highlighting the institutions that providing their postdocs with the services they want, and will hopefully spur other institutions to step up to the plate. 
