“MIT’s Postdoctoral Association
MIT’s 1,300 or so postdocs have a lot on their hands; they are driving forward world-class research while preparing their next career move and often starting a family.
Paulina Hill, a postdoc in the Langer lab, recognized that postdocs’ needs are different from those of faculty and students and that postdocs needed a voice at MIT (“Why I Rallied MIT Postdocs,” May/June 2013). And in September 2011, the Postdoctoral Association (PDA) was founded. Supported by Maria Zuber’s Office of the Vice President for Research, the PDA has already achieved many of its initial goals.
With the PDA’s voice, it is now easier for MIT’s leadership to understand the needs and aspirations of postdocs—and easier for postdocs to have a say in Institute decisions that affect them. The PDA helped create the Faculty Postdoctoral Advisory Committee (FPAC) that gathers administrative staff, faculty members, and postdocs to advise the vice president for research on postdoctoral affairs. It is also advocating for more postdocs on institutional committees. Committed to helping postdocs in their professional development, the PDA last year facilitated and secured access to the Writing Center, Infinite Connection accounts, and one-on-one counseling with Career Services. It also began offering travel grants to help postdocs participate in conferences. Inspired by MIT’s vibrant undergraduate and graduate student communities, the PDA is bringing postdocs together around social and scientific events. This is important because a stronger MIT postdoc community will serve postdocs during and after their MIT experiences and could also encourage postdoc alumni to give back in future years.
The PDA offers living proof that postdocs are an active part of the MIT community. Although postdoc turnover is high (the PDA went through four leadership changes in less than two years!), new faces are constantly coming to the PDA to make sure that MIT stays one of the best places in the world for a postdoc to do research.
Thomas Crouzier, PDA president
Cambridge, Massachusetts”