At the end of March, two of our Postdoctoral Association representatives attended the National Postdoctoral Association (NPA) Annual Meeting, in Berkeley, CA. This two-and-a-half day meeting was intended to bring together postdocs and officers of postdoctoral affairs, in order to help fulfill the NPA mission to “enhance the quality of the postdoctoral experience.”

The first day of the meeting was designed for Postdoctoral Association (PDA) leaders and Postdoctoral Office (PDO) representatives from university administrations. Two parallel sessions (one for PDA leaders and one for PDOs) addressed issues of interest to each group. We attended the PDA session and had a chance to compare our PDA and postdoctoral program to those of other universities across the country. As it turns out, since our administration has taken some initiative to improve our postdoctoral experience and the PDA has successfully advocated for changes, RU postdocs enjoy one of the best postdoctoral programs in the country. For example, many institutions do not give letters confirming appointments; many do not offer benefits such as family health insurance plans and tax-deductible flexible accounts; at several institutions, such as large land-grant universities, there are no standardized salary minimums, let alone a sliding scale of ranges covering years of experience. Affordable housing is not an issue at most universities, so our residential program is rather unique in that respect. One source of information about various institutions is the NPA policy database, which can be found through the NPA Web site at http://www.nationalpostdoc.org. Feel free to compare us to other institutions and see how varied postdoctoral experiences can be. This does not suggest that there isn’t further work to be done: we are entertaining several ideas on how to improve our PDA to best enhance the postdoctoral experience at RU.

The rest of the meeting was of interest to all postdocs, and there were some in attendance who were not representing their institutions as PDA leaders. There were reports on the progress of the NPA on their recent projects, such as advocating the creation of a standard definition of a postdoc to be used across all institutions (one of which was recently created by the NIH and NSF). Further agenda items for the NPA include funding professional development for postdocs and increasing mobility of international postdocs, so that they are not tied to an institution because of their visa status.

The meeting also included several short concurrent sessions. One session covered retirement benefits for postdocs, and profiled the benefits offered by two institutions, the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University. U. Penn treats all of their postdocs as “trainees” (analogous to our postdoctoral fellows, i.e. those who have outside funding and thus are not classified as “employees”); accordingly, they have no access to retirement benefits, but do have health insurance, which is provided with no premium cost to the postdoc. Princeton has two classes that mirror ours (associates, who are employees, and fellows, who have outside funding). Previously, only associates had retirement benefits, which include an employer-contribution plan, and other benefits we enjoy here at Rockefeller such as disability, long term care insurance, and flexible spending accounts. As a result, very few postdocs at Princeton were applying for fellowships, because losing employee status meant losing several benefits. Princeton recently re-evaluated their benefits and decided to give equivalent, though not necessarily identical, benefits to fellows. Several institutions are addressing the issue of employment status of postdocs based on their funding source, as status directly affects several aspects of employment such as payroll taxes, benefits, and eligibility for retirement plans. For more information on this issue, please refer to our article (Another Postdoc Burden) in the April 2007 issue of Natural Selections.

Another session addressed the career lifecycle needs of postdocs. The Student-Postdoc Advisory Committee (SPAC) at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has identified different needs of postdocs at early, middle, and late stages of their postdoctoral training. For example, they provide postdocs in the early stage a “survival guide” that describes Center resources and policies and provides helpful information for living in Seattle. As postdocs progress, SPAC addresses additional needs such as career development skills, and tools for annual progress review conversations with mentors. To address the needs of senior postdocs involved in job searches, they have established peer mentoring groups to exchange expertise in various skills such as interviewing, public speaking, networking, and CV and résumé writing.

A few sessions during the meeting addressed the topic of mentorship for postdocs. Mentoring can significantly enhance the ability of students and postdocs to enter their ideal careers successfully. Many postdocs do not receive appropriate mentoring, and unfortunately there is no easy solution. UCSF provided an example of how to advocate for and establish a mentoring program. They pair postdocs and students with faculty members in addition to their PIs to facilitate mentoring. Some other potential solutions were suggested and/or tried by a few institutions, including establishing mandatory individual development plans (IDP); there are 20 universities across the country which have mandatory IDPs for their postdocs and mandate annual reports from PIs summarizing their postdocs’ career progress and future directions. The mentoring issue will continue to be one of the major topics on the NPA agenda.

Elias Zerhouni, Director of the National Institutes of Health, gave the keynote address. He gave a very inspirational speech about his visions for the future of biomedical research in general, and changes to postdoctoral training in particular. He has been a key advocate for expanding the opportunities available for young investigators, and he has created a New Career Path Committee at the NIH to evaluate the training practices and postdoctoral employment policies in NIH-funded institutions and how they can be improved. We are pleased that the director of the NIH is taking the initiative to make institutional policy changes to improve postdoctoral training in our country. Just as it takes changes in the attitude of faculty to change postdoctoral experiences at an institution, it also takes changes in attitudes of funding agencies to advocate change at institutions.

In summary, the NPA meeting was a very valuable experience for the PDA reps, and as a sustaining member institution we hope to be more influential in the NPA, as well as benefit more from membership. The NPA Web site is a great source of information for both postdocs and graduate students. Any postdoc at Rockefeller can get a free limited membership at the NPA and take advantage of their member benefits. Please visit their Web page, http://www.nationalpostdoc.org, for more information. As always, if anyone has any questions or suggestions for the PDA, please send us an e-mail at .