Postdocs at Stanford advance pioneering research while modeling curiosity and intellectual rigor for students – exhilarating work for those who love discovery. But opportunities for connecting with peers aren’t necessarily built into researchers’ day-to-day work.

Biology postdoc Deka Mohamed found that while postdoctoral life can be rewarding, it can also feel isolating when researchers are dispersed across labs and departments. Drawing on her own experience, she helped launch Grow & Tell, a seminar series that brings plant biologists across campus together to build relationships and spark collaboration.

Mohamed is one of 18 postdocs honored with this year’s Stanford Postdoc Champions Community Impact Award. The awards recognize postdocs’ work outside of their research to increase community and belonging at Stanford and beyond. Awardees are nominated by the Stanford community and chosen by a committee of staff and current postdocs.

This year’s award recipients were honored in a ceremony at the ChEM-H-Neurosciences research complex for bringing their peers together on campus in a variety of ways, including through the Stanford University Postdoctoral Association (SURPAS), and for efforts to increase inclusivity in the sciences.

Chelsie Burchett, who finished her psychology postdoc year at Stanford in August, studies the relationship between sense of belonging and academic and career outcomes among postdocs, to inform how institutions can recruit and retain diverse populations. She opened the ceremony with a presentation on her research on the Stanford postdoc experience. Initial findings showed a strong correlation between sense of belonging and how successful postdocs feel – and that programs such as the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs’ mentoring in research workshops are an important part of that.

“How can we foster the belonging that we were looking to measure? A lot of it comes down to creating these spaces where people can gather and also where they feel like they’re valued as a scientist, as a future professor, or academic,” Burchett said. “From what we've seen in the data, people are really finding value in the value that people are finding in them.”

Neuroscience postdoc Hülya Torun, who was recognized for her work with Canary CREST, a summer training in cancer research for undergraduates, and Pathways to Neurosciences, a mentorship program that fosters belonging among neuroscience trainees, expressed a sentiment shared by all of the honorees: “I believe science thrives when everyone feels they belong.”