UW-Madison ranked high by postdoctoral scholars

These days, medical students aren’t the only ones who take on additional training after they receive advanced degrees. Many graduate students follow a similar path, once they become doctors of a different kind. Instead of residencies, they pursue postdoctoral scholarship or research.

As of October 2002, approximately 600 of these scholars — commonly called “postdocs” — were conducting research at UW–Madison, recently ranked by the publication, The Scientist, as among the 20 best places for postdocs to work.

Although many academic departments at UW–Madison offer postdoctoral positions, those that are science-related offer the most. For example, last October the School of Education employed five postdocs, while the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences employed close to 150. Within CALS, the departments of biochemistry, genetics and horticulture had 46, 14 and 15 postdocs, respectively. By the time they complete their positions, these postdocs will have stayed at UW–Madison, on average, between one and two years.

For those graduate students wanting a career in academia, the postdoc experience has almost become a necessary qualification among potential employers.

“The job market for academic positions is so tight,” says Martin Cadwallader, dean of the Graduate School. “Those applicants who have done postdoctoral work often have an edge over those who haven’t.”

Graduate students recognize this edge. “I have always wanted to pursue an academic career, and, in order to improve my chances of working at a good university, a postdoc is almost a must,” says Amadeu Sum, a postdoc who completed his graduate studies at the University of Delaware. “What I’ve been doing at UW–Madison is taking the steps to accomplish my future goals.”

Unlike the graduate school experience, the postdoctoral one provides scholars and researchers with the opportunity to broaden their areas of expertise while working closely with faculty and advising graduate students.

Sum, for example, came to UW–Madison primarily to work with Juan de Pablo, a chemical engineering professor who studies the thermophysical properties of fluids and solids at the molecular level by using simulation methods.

“The type of work he does is cutting-edge and probably the best in the country or even the world,” says Sum. “Professor de Pablo is a real go-getter. He collaborates in many different projects and tries to get us involved in as much as possible. That gives us more experience and exposes us to different areas.”

By taking on additional training, postdocs — who are already experts — build and expand upon the specialized areas they researched as graduate students, as well as upon philosophies of research.

“My doctoral adviser had his philosophy of research and my postdoctoral adviser has a very different one. By seeing how different people think, I can assess to myself how I do things,” says Sum. “The concepts I use now are not foreign, but the way the calculations are applied is completely new to me.”

Sum, who has been a postdoc at UW–Madison for nearly two years, wishes he had more one-on-one time with his adviser. Nevertheless, he says, “I think I have gained a lot from this experience. I’ve had the liberty to express my ideas and pursue my research interests.”

Although postdocs don’t anguish over writing dissertations like they did as graduate students, they use their post-graduate experience as an opportunity to write research articles. Sum explains, “As postdocs, the goal is to do the best research you can do and publish as many papers as possible.”

Achieving this goal offers additional career advantages — more publications to list on a curriculum vitae.

Postdocs, such as Sum, say their experiences at UW–Madison have been satisfying overall. In fact, among the 150 institutions around the globe included in recent ranking by The Scientist, UW–Madison placed 19th.

Nineteen postdocs from UW–Madison participated in the survey.