HMS established a postdoctoral office early this year and has set up a preliminary council of postdoctoral fellows and faculty to begin to address some of these action points. Preliminary discussions also are in progress between the postdoctoral office and representatives of the major HMS-affiliated hospitals to address postdoctoral issues in the HMS community at large. The second day of talks, at the Postdoc Network National Meeting supported by the American Association for the Advancement of Science through sponsorship by Science's career resource program Next Wave, focused on the efforts of postdoctoral associations to survey their populations. Issues of salary, benefits, child care, and career counseling generally ranked of highest concern. Despite the problems postdocs face, capturing and focusing their attention on potential solutions is a widespread challenge.
Many fellows seem reluctant to voice their complaints or to work toward improving their situation.
A resource for change might be postdoc associations that serve as gathering points for fellows, encouraging communication across departmental lines. HMS attendees at the Washington meetings, including this article's authors Dorothy Berkoben, staff assistant in the HMS postdoc office, and Roslyn Orkin, assistant dean for faculty affairs, hosted a panel discussion of their thoughts and impressions at an open meeting for Quad-based postdocs on April 26. Harvard has the largest number of postdoctoral fellows in the country, so whatever decisions are reached at HMS and elsewhere in the university will likely influence change on other campuses.