Imagine the time and effort that goes into earning an MD or PhD. Now add another three to five years of training, conducting research and getting published. Now imagine that the average college graduates make more in their first years out of college than someone with this advanced level of education and achievement.

That’s the reality of postdoctoral life in the United States — a reality Stanford University and the medical center are trying to improve. As of Sept. 1, Stanford created a more comprehensive benefits program for its postdoctoral scholars.

In addition to a pay raise, the new benefits plan includes standardized vacation, maternity and sick-leave policies, as well as fully paid medical, dental and disability coverage for individual postdocs.

Aileen Cleary works on immunology research at the medical center. She and other postdocs at Stanford are now offered a better compensation package. PHOTO: ERIC WEISSMAN

The new recommended minimum salary for all first-year postdoctoral scholars in the School of Medicine is $35,000. On the university side, it’s $32,500. Both amounts will increase in each subsequent year as a postdoc.

"The benefits changes are part of our effort to enhance the experience of postdocs at Stanford," said Michael Cowan, associate dean for postdoctoral affairs at the medical school. It’s hard to be a postdoc here, she added, because of the high cost of living in the Bay Area. "We’re trying to make the environment as good as we can."

As part of its Strategic Plan Initiative, the School of Medicine looked to the postdoctoral advisory committee for recommendations. The committee identified quality of life and cost of living as the most important issues to postdocs, said David O’Brien, director of institutional planning for the School of Medicine.

"The pay raise and benefits enhancements are an institutional acknowledgement of how crucial postdocs are to our success," he said.

Faculty members couldn’t agree more. "Postdocs are such a vital part of research," said W. James Nelson, PhD, senior associate dean for research and graduate and postdoctoral education, and the Rudy J. and Daphne Donohue Munzer Professor in the School of Medicine. "They are the engine that drives the research in the labs." More importantly, he added, they are the next generation of principal investigators, heads of labs and leaders in their fields.

Putting theory into practice

Aileen Cleary, MD, PhD, is among those emerging leaders. A postdoc at Stanford, Cleary is conducting research in David Lewis’s lab in immunology and doing clinical work in the hematology/ oncology unit at Packard.

Cleary’s work was beneficial in discerning why a 6-year-old patient suffering a third bout of salmonella ended up in the emergency room with acute abdominal distress. Most children get diarrhea from salmonella. This child’s intestines were rotted out, she explained.

In looking at his blood, she found that he had a receptor defect in his immune system. She also found that the child had a decreased amount of memory cells. These are the cells that stick around after an infection, so that when a person gets an infection again, the immune system responds more robustly.

To Cleary, the new benefits package is a great improvement. Cleary, whose child is now 10 months old, remembers running from office to office at a very pregnant 36 weeks just to fill out disability forms for her maternity leave. "Having a standard policy for all postdocs will simplify the experience," she said.

Salmonella was also at work in steering Ed Leonard, MD, to postdoctoral work. Leonard became interested in infectious diseases after suffering a bout of salmonella in medical school. A four-week infectious diseases rotation clinched his decision to change his focus on gastroenterology. Leonard chose Stanford for the opportunity to work in Stan Falkow’s lab, where he is studying a common cause of infectious bacterial diarrhea in humans. He is looking at the interaction between human cells and the bacterium. While he finds his postdoctoral work challenging and fun, he admits it has been difficult financially given the historically low pay.

Life as a postdoc

A postdoctoral scholar is a trainee in residence who is pursuing advanced studies beyond the doctoral level in preparation for an independent career. For many, the typical career path is to become a faculty member, said Cowan.

It is not an easy road to take, explained Karen Christopherson, PhD, co-chair of Stanford’s postdoctoral association. There is no clear career path, she said, and most postdocs are still in training well into their 30s. So while their peers are bringing home six-figure incomes and putting money away for retirement, postdocs are still struggling to make ends meet. Christopherson described the experience as being in a perpetual holding pattern, waiting to get enough publications for a coveted faculty post.

Is cost of living really that big a factor? Definitely, said Christopherson. "We’ve had people interview here who we really like but can’t afford to come, especially if they have children," she said.

As Nelson pointed out, most postdocs are a bit older, usually in their late 20s to early 30s. Nearly 50 percent are married, and many have families. "We need to be respectful of the family-work life balance," he added. "The work the postdoc committee and association has been doing to enhance the benefits package for postdocs is part of the total process of improving their quality of life."