Postdoctoral
Fellowships
Preparing
the Next Generation of Scientists
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The professional
development of young scientists is an important part of the mission
and daily life of the Carnegie Institution. Carnegie’s strong
program of postdoctoral education took shape after Word War II
during the presidency of Vannevar Bush. Bush saw that the benefits
would be reciprocal. Not only would the young scientists learn
from leading investigators at a crucial stage in their intellectual
development, but the Carnegie staff scientists would also gain
in vigor by exposing themselves constantly to the influence of
young minds.
Typically, more than seventy postdoctoral fellows are in residence
at the institution’s departments each year. Postdoctoral
fellows work on their own research projects under the guidance
of scientific staff members. Patterns of interaction vary, depending
upon the nature of the research and how the strengths of the
fellows complement those of the scientific staff members. There
are also broad differences among the departments. At the Departments
of Embryology and Plant Biology, for example, fellows typically
share laboratory space with staff members and are thus in daily,
indeed hourly, association. At the Observatories, by contrast,
after orientation postdoctoral investigators tend to work largely
independently, developing intellectual interests and external
collaborations in the same manner as staff astronomers.
The published work of Carnegie’s postdoctoral fellows,
sometimes done in collaboration with staff scientists, and sometimes
done independently, often brings early and wide recognition.
Carnegie fellows typically go on to work at universities and
private sector research institutions elsewhere. They often become
acknowledged leaders in their fields, energetically disseminating
to their peers the new ideas and methodologies they developed
at Carnegie. In this way, the influence of the Carnegie Institution
is multiplied worldwide.
Because of the Institution’s dedication to training the
next generations of scientists, funds in support of postdoctoral
fellows are a high priority. Accordingly, as a goal of the campaign,
we seek endowment funds of $2 million, which can support two
fellows each year.
Past Connections Yield a Gift
for the Future
When Carnegie trustee Jaylee Mead was a graduate student in astronomy
at Georgetown University, her Ph.D. advisor was a young woman
professor, a rare combination in the sciences of the early 1960s.
Dr. Mead is honoring that professor—Carnegie’s Vera
Rubin of the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism—by establishing
a $1 million endowed fellowship in Rubin’s name.
The Vera Rubin Postdoctoral Fellowship in Astronomy will allow
a young astronomer to work at either the Department of Terrestrial
Magnetism, where Rubin continues her 30 years of research, or
at the Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, California.
“As a student I benefited so much working with Vera,”
Mead said. “She taught me the right way to write a paper
and document my research. Those are not the things you learn
in the classroom; it’s important to have someone take you
under their wing early in your career.” Mead thinks that
Rubin is also
“a wonderful example of a good scientist and a good person.”
Rubin is very interested in encouraging young students, especially
women, toward careers in science. She has four children of her
own; each of whom now has a doctorate. “I am enormously
honored by this fellowship,” she said. “It is remarkably
generous and it is quite nice that she is a Carnegie trustee
as well.”
Spectra, Spring 2003 |
10-04 |
