Profile of Postdoctoral Scholars at Stanford
More than a third of Stanford’s faculty who are members of the Academic Council act as mentors one or more postdocs at any given time. In 2009-2010, 1800 postdoctoral scholars were actively researching under those faculty members mentorship in the Schools of Medicine, Engineering, Humanities and Sciences, Earth Sciences and Education.
Approximately 66% of Stanford postdocs are in the bio- and life-sciences and are appointed at the School of Medicine. This includes nearly 200 clinical fellows who are appointed for one year as postdoctoral scholars as part of their advanced clinical training, typically during the research-intensive period of their programs.
Approximately 60% of postdoctoral scholars at Stanford are foreign nationals. The largest numbers of scholars come from the European Union and China, in addition to scholars from Australia, many countries in Asia and South/Latin America and several Eastern European, African and Middle Eastern countries.
Postdoctoral scholars may be appointed at Stanford for a period of four years, with a fifth additional year that may be granted by request from the faculty mentor. The vast majority of postdocs (85%) spend between 2 and 2.5 years at Stanford.
Postdoctoral scholars provide exit survey information upon the end of their appointments at the University, which solicits information about the postdoc’s next step. The four most popular reported ‘next steps’ indicated were: faculty positions; research positions in academic settings, a second postdoc, and a position in industry.
The School of Medicine Community Academic Profiles provides an important window into the innovative work done by Stanford postdocs. CAP aims to promote collaboration with scientists worldwide.
With these online profiles, postdocs update their academic activities, research interests, publications, photos and a number of additional important categories of information. The CAP system also interfaces with PubMed and would allow the individual profile to be updated directly with the publications list.