​The Power of Compound Interest
Albert Einstein purportedly described compounding as the most powerful force in the universe and compound interest as the eighth wonder of the world. 
​
We mostly think of compound interest in the form of finances and growing wealth. And compound interest in that domain is, indeed, quite powerful and important. The crucial aspect of this type of growth is that it relies heavily on time. The more time one has to allow their money to grow at some rate of return (3%, 5%, 8%), the more money they will have at the end of some specified period of time. The earnings that accrue each year (or day, or month, depending on how interest is paid out) adds to the amount the individual invests themselves and also, itself, produces interest and earnings over time.

​An example from the investment learning blog grow illustrates how much of a difference 10 years can make: if a person starts saving $5,000/year for their retirement at age 25, they will end up with more than twice as much retirement savings ($1,300,000) by age 65 as someone who waits until 35 to start ($565,000), assuming an 8% rate of return, compounded annually.

​So, don't wait to invest in your retirement...even if it is $50 or $100 per month. That adds up over time. 

​Exponential Growth & COVID-19
Time matters so much in the world of compound interest as the growth of money in this case is exponential.

You might have heard a bit about the power of exponential growth as it relates to the spread of COVID-19 within a population. While pure exponential growth is not the best way to model the spread of COVID-19 infections, using it as an example demonstrates the point that, again, time matters when it comes to compounding growth of, in this case, a viral infection.

​An example used in the Forbes article linked above nicely illustrates the point of growth in viral spread: if just 1 person is infected on January 1st and the number of infected people doubles every three days (1 person has the ability to infect another in three days time from casual interactions, etc...), 1,024 people will be infected on January 31 (as each newly infected person also infects someone else every 3 days), 2,048 on February 3 (doubling of infections every 3 days), and by March 19th (78 days after the initial infection), 67 million people will be infected! Obviously COVID-19 didn't spread this fast due to various measures to slow the spread but, clearly, exponential growth is scary.

​The point here, and that we learned all too well in 2020, is that if one does not intervene early to stop the spread, the growth of viral spread will produce levels of infection that are nearly impossible to deal with barring some major new intervention like a vaccine, which thankfully, is coming in the case of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the disease that is COVID-19. 

Another interesting bit of research that resurfaced in the media during the spread of COVID-19 was the concept of exponential growth bias - the fact that most people ​consistently underestimate how fact value increases exponentially. In fact, an interesting study published in PNAS found that helping individuals better understand how impactful exponential growth can be for COVID-19 transmission led to increased support for measures to slow the spread of the virus.

​So, while we may struggle to comprehend exponential growth initially, understanding this process better is critical to taking actions that can affect this type of growth, whether we want to harness it for good (i.e., saving for retirement) or combat its negative effects (viral transmission).

Big Things Come from Small Beginnings - Growing Your Professional Presence & Career

​What does exponential growth have to do with your career?

Well, I believe we build our expertise and personal brand over time and can experience outsized returns in our careers if we start early and seek out means of increasing our rate of return, which could include:

1. Publishing your scholarly work (if you are a researcher)
2. Building an online brand and presence (via LinkedIn and/or a personal website)
3. Sharing your work & expertise via online platforms (LinkedIn posts, articles, or blog posts on other platforms)
4. Growing your professional network & reach
5. Developing relationships with professionals in your current or desired career field
6. Communicating your value, expertise, and story broadly, including learning how to communicate to general audiences  

2020...what a year.
Who knew at the beginning we would be here?
Certainly times have been tough and many are apart.
However, these circumstances made us appreciate what we should have from the start.

It’s often the little things that matter in life:
A sunny day, brisk walk, or chats with loved ones be they friends, family, your husband or wife.
In all the noise of our busy lives we often forgot to slow down and see
How much we had to be thankful for...hopefully you agree?

As this year reaches its end
We look forward to rounding the COVID-19 bend.
Science has delivered advances to slow the spread
And brighter days are ahead.

When our lives begin to restart
Let us not forget what we learned while apart:
Connection, love, and hope should be at the heart
Of our society as we chart
A path forward in the year ahead
One full of promise and not dread.

Here’s to a brighter, better future for all of us. ​

Reinforcement Learning, Reward, & Addiction
Stimulus-response learning drives most of the behaviors we think of as “drug addiction” in people. When one is addicted to a drug of abuse, stimuli associated with the use of the drug (think, one’s neighborhood bar or a friend you routinely smoke with when together) can themselves drive drug use behavior. This is true even when the actual use of the drug is no longer “pleasurable” for the addicted individual. In fact, most drug addicted individuals do not find the use of their addicted drugs “pleasurable” any more. 

This is because addiction is known to progress from a binge/intoxication stage of use to a withdrawal/negative affect stage and finally to a preoccupation/anticipation stage which can then reactivate drug use. Thus, drugs are initially used because they are pleasurable but over time this shifts and individuals use drugs of abuse to relieve negative withdrawal effects and not for pleasure. And, as mentioned above, drug use can be triggered by stimuli that were associated with drug use that promote preoccupation with using the drug even in individuals trying to stop or limit their use. ​

While these findings help us understand how the dopamine system acts in response to addictive drugs, we have yet to examine how the initial dopamine release to drugs of abuse maps onto “reward” and may promote continued early use that ultimately leads to addiction. ​

Follow-up studies have also shown the amazing ability for dopamine-producing neurons to encode reward prediction in a scaled manner (stronger dopamine response to higher probability predictors of reward) and has resulted in perhaps the most well-accepted computational model for a biological process: the temporal difference model for reinforcement learning. ​

The processes of reinforcement learning described above naturally occur but the extra boost of dopamine release associated with taking an addictive drug further strengthens stimulus-response associations. Cues or stimuli that predict drug use can then themselves become “rewarding” and trigger wanting/craving responses in the brain as it anticipates drug use. And via other dopamine-related processes, drug use behaviors can become habitual, being guided by stimuli and the environment more than one’s active choice to use drugs. ​

Concluding Thoughts
Hopefully this piece has illustrated the complex role dopamine plays in signaling reward. Research that has emerged over the last few decades using sophisticated techniques to measure brain signaling in animals and humans has implicated dopamine in reinforcement learning processes and, by extensive the incentive salience of cues associated with rewards. The role of dopamine in signaling what stimuli predict reward is hijacked and pushed into overdrive by drugs of abuse that themselves release dopamine. Thus, after repeated pairings of stimuli and drug rewards, the brain adapts to respond powerfully to drug-related stimuli and cues, prompting craving in addicted individuals. 

Not everyone is as susceptible to these dopamine-mediated learning processes, though. How individual differences in biology ultimately map onto risk for drug addiction is a matter of intense interest in the field of neuroscience but is beyond the scope of this current post. For the time being, I encourage you to explore the references below for more on the complex and nuanced role dopamine plays in reward and learning processes.   ​

Approximately 2 years ago I was navigating a multi-pronged job search where I considered a variety of career paths to pursue after my postdoctoral fellowship at Vanderbilt University. I am now approaching the end of my second year working in postdoctoral affairs at North Carolina State University, which I began in January 2019. 

This piece about my transition from postdoc to working in postdoc affairs originally appeared in the National Postdoctoral Association's online newsletter, The POSTDOCket, in April 2019. I have added some additional thoughts and reflections in bold (red). 

​Like many postdoctoral scholars, I considered a variety of careers during my time as a postdoc at Vanderbilt University. I applied to tenure-track faculty jobs in fall 2017 and 2018, submitting nearly 25 applications each year (read more in my Tales from the Academic Job Market). I also talked with individuals in my immediate and extended network (via informational interviews) who worked in a variety of areas outside academia: medical writing, medical science liaison, & life science consulting.

Only since fall 2018 did I think that a career in postdoctoral affairs was both an option, and an area where I had the necessary qualifications. In retrospect however, I realize I had been steadily building a portfolio of postdoc affairs involvement and professional development knowledge over the past few years.

I got my first in-depth exposure to postdoctoral affairs while working with the Vanderbilt Postdoctoral Association (VPA) as treasurer in 2016-17 and junior co-chair (vice president) in 2017-18. During that time, the VPA executive board and I worked with our newly centralized Office of Postdoctoral Affairs (OPA) to broaden our programming for a wider postdoc audience.

Although developing programming to be broadly relevant and useful to postdocs from varying fields was a challenge, we made progress in reaching a larger and more diverse population of Vanderbilt postdocs through our social and professional development events. While interacting with postdocs in my VPA leadership roles, I began to understand the range of challenges they faced: international employment issues, family care issues, mental health issues, and lack of supervisor/mentor support, just to name a few.

I have subsequently written about some of the challenges postdocs face on this blog.
​See:

• The Challenges of Being an International Researcher: Implications for Advanced Degree Labor Markets
  
  • Part 1
  • Part 2
• ​​Call to Action: Measuring Postdoc Impact

I can't emphasize enough the value of getting involved in something beyond your work/lab/school while a graduate student or postdoc....you learn so much about other skills you have to offer and, through volunteering, have a chance to give back to your community. 

My exposure to the challenges and various levels of support available to postdocs at a national level was broadened by attending the National Postdoctoral Association (NPA)’s Annual Conference in 2017 and 2018. I learned from other postdoctoral offices and organizations about work that they were doing geared toward improving postdoctoral career readiness (i.e., thinking broadly about career options) and outcomes.

In speaking with NPA poster presenters, I learned how they successfully campaigned for higher starting postdoc salaries, organized joint events with nearby institutions to share costs, leveraged alumni networks, and tracked career outcomes. The importance of using data to campaign for change and track interventions was a key lesson I learned from these interactions.

In my current role, I have begun working on better postdoc career outcomes transparency. In fact, I present data on the subject during our mandatory new postdoc orientation at NC State University. By showing postdocs the range of career fields they can move into early in their tenure, I hope to prompt them to realize there are many successful "next steps" available to them after their time as a postdoc.
​
I have also led the development of a Postdoc Climate Survey we launched this year and hope to leverage this data to continue to advocate for initiatives that improve the postdoctoral experience here at NC State. 

Around the time I was becoming more involved in the postdoctoral community at Vanderbilt and beyond, I became interested in a career in science communication and medical writing. At the NPA annual meeting, I learned about The POSTDOCket, the online newsletter for the organization. I began writing for The POSTDOCket following the 2017 NPA annual meeting, where I profiled a workshop I attended by SciPhD.

Over the next few years, I wrote twelve pieces for the newsletter and continue to contribute to it. My interview with Sam Castañeda, a pioneer in postdoctoral support services and resources at the University of California, Berkeley, was particularly inspiring as I learned more about the impact that postdoc offices can have on improving the postdoc experience through community building, personal and professional support services, and advocating at the state and national level.

​In addition, I began writing about my own journey in career exploration for the NIH BEST blog in fall 2018, in hopes that sharing my experiences of the post-PhD job hunt would help current trainees on the job market.

I now serve on the NPA Board of Directors and liaise with The POSTDOCket team. If you are a postdoc or someone who supports postdocs, contributing your ideas and writing to The POSTDOCket is an excellent way to begin establishing yourself as a thought leader in the postdoc affairs space. Offering helpful advice to postdocs in The POSTDOCket is another excellent reason to write for this outlet.  

I had many great examples of career and professional development resources available to me while a postdoc at Vanderbilt. The Vanderbilt Office of Biomedical Research Education and Training (BRET) offers an incredible array of programming to graduate students and postdocs. During my  time as a postdoc at Vanderbilt I assisted in planning some of this programming. In fact, the people I worked with in the BRET Office at Vanderbilt were the ones who directed me towards a job advertisement for a postdoc program manager position for which they thought I was a good fit. After reading the job description they forwarded to me, it seemed to be a job where I could work to help postdocs feel more “career ready” and simultaneously try to improve institutional resources and support for them, which really appealed to me. 

While applying to this and similar program manager positions, I learned from a contact who I met at the NPA Conference (and on her LinkedIn feed, no less—the power of networking and LinkedIn in action!) of the postdoc program manager position at North Carolina State University—the ideal job for me (based on geographic preference and being nearer to family). The story of my first “real job” offer, subsequent soul searching, and eventual acceptance of my current position can be read elsewhere.

​One organization to keep on your radar if you are interested in a career in graduate or postdoc career & professional development work is the Graduate Career Consortium (GCC).
​I joined GCC shortly after beginning my position at NC State and have found the community very supportive and collaborative. GCCers share resources and ideas about how to help those of us working in PhD career and professional development do our jobs better. Through various committees, GCC members are focused on important topics around grad/postdoc career outcomes as well as developing useful resources for trainees including ImaginePhD, a career exploration platform for the humanities and social sciences. GCC members also share advice on career planning for both trainees and the professionals who serve them through the weekly Carpe Careers column on Inside Higher Ed. In addition, the GCC member message board is great way to learn about job openings in this space. Finally, the GCC offers a trainee membership for grad students and postdocs interested in learning more about a career in grad/postdoc career and professional development. 

The week of September 21-25, 2020 is National Postdoc Appreciation Week, a time for institutions and supervisors to express their appreciation for the contributions postdoctoral scholars make in a variety of areas from research to teaching and mentoring. 

As a quick refresher, a postdoctoral scholar (postdoc) is an individual with an advanced degree (Ph.D.) engaged in a period of additional training to build the skills and experiences necessary to launch themselves into an independent career of their choosing.

While traditionally a postdoc was considered the necessary "next step" in one's training progression to ultimately obtain a faculty position, postdocs move into a variety of careers after their time in postdoctoral training.

​The goal of postdoctoral offices are to support these scholars in their career and professional development. However, many postdoc offices are under-resourced to provide this much needed support to a critical component of the scientific workforce. Many are offices of 1-2 people responsible for supporting anywhere from 300 to 1,200+ postdocs. I believe one of the missing pieces allowing postdoc offices to obtain additional support is to better measure and report on the contributions postdocs make to the academic and research institutions that employ them. 

Postdoctoral scholars contribute much to the scientific enterprise and the research and teaching missions of universities.

Despite the varied and important roles they play, postdocs are often overlooked as a key constituency by administrators and leaders at research and academic institutions in the United States and globally.

I believe that measuring postdoctoral impact on the teaching/training and research/scholarship endeavors of institutions will better illuminate the key role they play in research organizations.
​I also hope this process leads to increased institutional support for the postdoc population.

​The first task is to identify metrics that would be useful to gauge the impact postdocs have on their field, lab, peers, students, and university. Some metrics could include:

1. Papers published (# of papers published, # of 1st-authored papers published)
2. Students mentored (# of students mentored, dissertation/thesis supervision of graduate/undergraduate students)
3. Teaching (# hours lectured, # courses taught, # of students taught, course evaluations)
4. Grant money (% of contribution to advisor’s research grant applications, Co-Principal Investigator (PI) roles on grants, postdoc fellowships received)
5. Contribution to lab and project management (assisting their PI supervisors in managing experiments/projects/timelines, freeing up PIs to focus on other tasks) 
6. Patents filed, intellectual property developed
7. Service performed for the university (sitting on various committees, serving in a leadership role for a campus organization like a postdoctoral association)

​Their are also structural challenges & barriers to measuring postdoc impact in these domains. 

1. Publications are often not published until 6-12 months after the first manuscript submission. Thus, a metric of publications will show postdoc impact in the past and not current impact. Conference presentations and preprint publications by postdocs may be additional metrics one could collect to gauge short-term scholarly impact. 
2. Postdoc mentoring of students is often not formalized (or even officially allowed). While a postdoc may contribute substantially to helping a graduate student in their dissertation work, the Principal Investigator (PI) of the lab (the postdoc's supervisor) is the mentor of record.
3. Regarding teaching, postdocs are often not allowed to be “instructor of record” on courses (except in the case of the small number of teaching postdocs, whose job duties include primarily teaching) and are often discouraged from teaching in place of conducting research work. However, lecturing and other teaching roles postdocs perform should be measured as this contributes to the overall educational mission of universities.
4. In the area of grants, postdocs often contribute substantially to grant applications, whether that be in the form of preliminary data they collect/analyze or assisting PIs in conceiving and/or writing of grant proposals. However, a postdoc cannot serve as a PI (and sometimes, depending on the policy of the training institution, Co-PI) on grant applications as they are not “faculty.” Thus, quantifying postdocs’ contribution to grant money received is complicated. There is no doubt, however, that they play a role (and sometimes substantial one) in many grant applications.
5. Measuring postdoc contributions to lab management is complex. It is the PI’s role to manage their labs. Thus, even if postdocs contribute substantially in assisting them in this role, some PIs may not feel that they can acknowledge this work as it could diminish their perceived role as the lab’s director.

​Many of the challenges of measuring and acknowledging postdoctoral contributions come down to the hierarchy of academia. Postdocs are “under” PIs whose own metrics of success largely mirror that of the postdoc. While this could suggest areas where there should be mutual benefit (both postdoc and supervisor/PI benefit from publications), there could also be cases where this situation introduces conflict. For example, a PI needs to secure external funding in their name to receive tenure at most research intensive academic institutions. Postdocs also need to show the ability (or potential) to secure external funding to transition into independent, tenure-track faculty positions. If postdocs cannot receive credit for their contributions to their supervisor’s grant application(s), however, one cannot truly measure their impact in this regard. This situation can also harm postdocs’ ability to secure independent faculty positions of their own, stifling their career progression.

One immediate way to address this and that I acknowledge is occurring with many PIs is to include mention of postdoc contributions to successful grant applications in letters of reference the PIs write on their behalf. In this way, a PI can make clear that the postdoc contributed substantially to a successful research grant application and will be capable of serving as PI on their own grants if they transition to an independent faculty position of their own. 

​As the measurement of graduate student and postdoc career outcomes and progression has gained attention, so too should the measurement of postdocs’ contributions in their current roles. Standardization of the metrics used to assess postdoc contributions and impact need to be undertaken to make data robust and comparable across departments and institutions. In addition, a standardized collection method would allow data to be aggregated to quantify postdoc impact at a national or international level. 

Thus, quantifying postdoc impact will allow postdoc offices to better advocate for additional resources to support this important (but often overlooked) population. ​

​While much progress has been made in improving the working conditions and support (stipends) for postdocs in the US driven by many dedicated individuals and the efforts of the NPA, a need to move toward a more structured, data-driven approach to demonstrating their impact is needed. Only by showing the impact postdocs make can the offices who support them effectively advocate for additional institutional resources to enhance the lives and training of postdocs. By doing so, we can more effectively nurture the next generation of researchers and allow them to leverage their skills, interests, and values to improving society in the variety of careers they pursue after their postdoctoral training. 

Publications on Postdoc Impact
Bringing the lab back in: Personnel composition and scientific output at the MIT Department of Biology

Contribution of postdoctoral fellows to fast-moving and competitive scientific research

Postdocs as Mentors - When it comes to everyday mentoring and training in the sciences, postdocs are the new PIs.

Useful tools to quantify publication metrics
Pubmetric - Authorship crawler that document the publishing record for trainees and their PIs via Pubmed

Publons - Track your publications, citation metrics, peer reviews, and journal editing work in a single, easy-to-maintain profile

​SciVal - From Elsevier. Allows you to visualize your research performance, benchmark relative to peers, develop strategic partnerships, identify and analyze new, emerging research trends, and create uniquely tailored reports. 

​See also
​NC State Libraries Research Impact & Metrics Landing Page 

Academic Analytics

NPA Institutional Policy Report & Database - a great model that currently focuses on postdoc offices reporting on postdoc benefits, salaries, and numbers in addition to office size and budgets ​