They come into the Laboratory from the outside scientific world and they bring with them new ideas, enthusiasm, energy, and passion for their field of study. They motivate those around them and provide a vital link to the academic world.

Postdocs are an essential component of our strategy for recruiting, developing and shaping our workforce. We depend on a vital postdoc program to bring new skills to the Laboratory and bring a fresh new perspective to our work.

They bring with them knowledge of the latest research in academia and the new ideas that research breeds. Through the postdoc program, faculty members at the world's greatest universities send some of their best graduates to the Laboratory. Importantly, the postdoc program is an essential tool to allow us to engage the widest possible pool of new scientific talent. In fact, postdocs account for about one third of the foreign nationals who work at the Lab.

In 1989, I joined the Laboratory as a postdoc in materials science and I remember my supervisor at the time telling me that my job was to do science and become famous. I felt very fortunate. Within six months, he asked me to lead the writing of a manuscript for work that had started before I arrived at the Lab, but which I had been heavily involved with both as a graduate student and then for those first six months as a postdoc. I did that, with great difficulty at first, and we soon published the paper. I went on to do a lot of science during those years, work that I am proud of still today. As for becoming famous, I'll let history be the judge of that. Now, I see my role as helping others achieve their full potential.

At the Laboratory, postdocs receive encouragement and advice from senior scientists, and have the opportunity to work side by side with experts on multidisciplinary science endeavors of a scale that can only be done at a national laboratory. Another valuable part of the postdoc program is the opportunity to develop professional skills in areas such as writing grant proposals and peer-reviewed research papers and learning to compose talks and posters that can be presented at national and international conferences.

The Laboratory's commitment to both world-class research and professionally mentoring postdocs allows them to make the most of their time here. In fact, in a recent international poll conducted by The Scientist the Laboratory was ranked in the top 25 national institutes as one of the best places to work for postdocs. In 2004, we were in the top 10.

It is good to see that the Lab's postdoc population is currently growing. In 1995, the Laboratory had 168 postdocs, but that number dwindled in the mid and late 2000s to a low of 110.  Recently, that trend has been completely reversed. At the end of December 2010, there were 160 postdocs at the Lab. 

Although as many as 50 percent of the Lab's postdocs are retained as staff, those that leave for other positions remain a part of the extended Lab community. Postdocs who come to LLNL and have a good experience at the Lab, then move on to jobs in academia or elsewhere, hopefully remaining key collaborators and becoming "ambassadors" for the Lab in the rest of the technical community.

So the next time you see a postdoc, thank her or him for bringing vibrancy to the Laboratory that we might otherwise be missing. After all, they are a major source of talent for the Laboratory's future workforce.

Founded in 1952, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is a national security laboratory, with a mission to ensure national security and apply science and technology to the important issues of our time. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is managed by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.