research statement for a postdoc

Search committee members are extraordinarily busy , so you must structure your statement strategically

Abstract : 10-15 lines at most. In a nutshell, what you work on and your plans for the next ten years in terms of the impact you hope to make on your field.

Ph.D work/background . What you worked on and what your work showed, demonstrated, elucidated, etc. Be very direct and to the point. Throw in anything the reader (who won’t be a specialist) will need to understand what you do.

Current postdoctoral research . Again, what you work on and what you hope to achieve. If needed, use a numbered list or bullet points.

Future Directions . I) What you hope to achieve over the next ten years; II) What you hope to achieve over the next 4-7 years; III) What you’ll tackle from the get-go(low-hanging fruits). Obviously, these are not sequential, but parallel. This section should be about 50-60% of the overall 3-5 page statement.  Once you're done, share your research statement with your faculty advisor and other colleagues for critical feedback.

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How to Construct a Compelling Research Statement

A research statement is a critical document for prospective faculty applicants. This document allows applicants to convey to their future colleagues the importance and impact of their past and, most importantly, future research. You as an applicant should use this document to lay out your planned research for the next few years, making sure to outline how your planned research contributes to your field.

Some general guidelines

(from Carleton University )

An effective research statement accomplishes three key goals:

• It clearly presents your scholarship in nonspecialist terms;
• It places your research in a broader context, scientifically and societally; and
• It lays out a clear road map for future accomplishments in the new setting (the institution to which you’re applying).

Another way to think about the success of your research statement is to consider whether, after reading it, a reader is able to answer these questions:

• What do you do (what are your major accomplishments; what techniques do you use; how have you added to your field)?
• Why is your work important (why should both other scientists and nonscientists care)?
• Where is it going in the future (what are the next steps; how will you carry them out in your new job; does your research plan meet the requirements for tenure at this institution)?

1. Make your statement reader-friendly

A typical faculty application call can easily receive 200+ applicants. As such, you need to make all your application documents reader-friendly. Use headings and subheadings to organize your ideas and leave white space between sections.

In addition, you may want to include figures and diagrams in your research statement that capture key findings or concepts so a reader can quickly determine what you are studying and why it is important. A wall of text in your research statement should be avoided at all costs. Rather, a research statement that is concise and thoughtfully laid out demonstrates to hiring committees that you can organize ideas in a coherent and easy-to-understand manner.

Also, this presentation demonstrates your ability to develop competitive funding applications (see more in next section), which is critical for success in a research-intensive faculty position.

2. Be sure to touch on the fundability of your planned research work

Another goal of your research statement is to make the case for why your planned research is fundable. You may get different opinions here, but I would recommend citing open or planned funding opportunities at federal agencies or other funders that you plan to submit to. You might also use open funding calls as a way to demonstrate that your planned research is in an area receiving funding prioritization by various agencies.

If you are looking for funding, check out this list of funding resources on my personal website. Another great way to look for funding is to use NIH Reporter and NSF award search .

3. Draft the statement and get feedback early and often

I can tell you from personal experience that it takes time to refine a strong research statement. I went on the faculty job market two years in a row and found my second year materials to be much stronger. You need time to read, review and reflect on your statements and documents to really make them stand out.

It is important to have your supervisor and other faculty read and give feedback on your critical application documents and especially your research statement. Also, finding peers to provide feedback and in return giving them feedback on their documents is very helpful. Seek out communities of support such as Future PI Slack to find peer reviewers (and get a lot of great application advice) if needed.

4. Share with nonexperts to assess your writing’s clarity

Additionally, you may want to consider sharing your job materials, including your research statement, with non-experts to assess clarity. For example, NC State’s Professional Development Team offers an Academic Packways: Gearing Up for Faculty program each year where you can get feedback on your application documents from individuals working in a variety of areas. You can also ask classmates and colleagues working in different areas to review your research statement. The more feedback you can receive on your materials through formal or informal means, the better.

5. Tailor your statement to the institution

It is critical in your research statement to mention how you will make use of core facilities or resources at the institution you are applying to. If you need particular research infrastructure to do your work and the institution has it, you should mention that in your statement. Something to the effect of: “The presence of the XXX core facility at YYY University will greatly facilitate my lab’s ability to investigate this important process.”

Mentioning core facilities and resources at the target institution shows you have done your research, which is critical in demonstrating your interest in that institution.

Finally, think about the resources available at the institution you are applying to. If you are applying to a primarily undergraduate-serving institution, you will want to be sure you propose a research program that could reasonably take place with undergraduate students, working mostly in the summer and utilizing core facilities that may be limited or require external collaborations.

Undergraduate-serving institutions will value research projects that meaningfully involve students. Proposing overly ambitious research at a primarily undergraduate institution is a recipe for rejection as the institution will read your application as out of touch … that either you didn’t do the work to research them or that you are applying to them as a “backup” to research-intensive positions.

You should carefully think about how to restructure your research statements if you are applying to both primarily undergraduate-serving and research-intensive institutions. For examples of how I framed my research statement for faculty applications at each type of institution, see my personal website ( undergraduate-serving ; research-intensive research statements).

6. Be yourself, not who you think the search committee wants

In the end, a research statement allows you to think critically about where you see your research going in the future. What are you excited about studying based on your previous work? How will you go about answering the unanswered questions in your field? What agencies and initiatives are funding your type of research? If you develop your research statement from these core questions, your passion and commitment to the work will surely shine through.

A closing thought: Be yourself, not who you think the search committee wants. If you try to frame yourself as someone you really aren’t, you are setting the hiring institution and you up for disappointment. You want a university to hire you because they like you, the work you have done, and the work you want to do, not some filtered or idealized version of you.

So, put your true self out there, and realize you want to find the right institutional fit for you and your research. This all takes time and effort. The earlier you start and the more reflection and feedback you get on your research statement and remaining application documents, the better you can present the true you to potential employers.

More Advice on Faculty Job Application Documents on ImPACKful

How to write a better academic cover letter

Tips on writing an effective teaching statement

More Resources

See here for samples of a variety of application materials from UCSF.

• Rules of the (Social Sciences & Humanities) Research Statement
• CMU’s Writing a Research Statement
• UW’s Academic Careers: Research Statements
• Developing a Winning Research Statement (UCSF)
• Academic Packways
• ImPACKful Tips

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Research Statements

The research statement is a critical document in academic and research applications, such as postdoctoral fellowships or faculty positions. It is a concise summary of your research background, current research activities, and future research goals. It serves as a tool to showcase the independent research you conduct, highlight your research agenda and goals, demonstrate your writing ability, and articulate potential funding opportunities you plan to pursue.

Printable Research Statement Guide

Length and Format

• 1-2 single-spaced pages (unless specified otherwise) • Adheres to the specific length and content requirements of each application

Audience and Context

• Write your research statement for an audience of professionals in your field. • Assume that the readers have a solid foundation in the subject matter.

Introduction

Begin with an introduction that contextualizes your work within your broader field. Discuss the larger questions your research addresses and the significance of those questions within the field.

Research Interests

Describe your specific research interests within the broader context. What questions or problems are you focused on, and why are they important?

Mention any academic publications, conference presentations, or collaborations resulting from your past research.

Incorporating your Research

This is an accordion element with a series of buttons that open and close related content panels.

Past Research

Provide a concise history of your past research. Discuss the initial questions you aimed to answer, the findings you obtained, and how your work contributed to the field.

Present Research

Discuss your ongoing research. What questions are you currently investigating, and what have you discovered so far? Explain how your current work connects to the broader academic discourse, and mention any forthcoming publications, conferences, or other professional activities. Include specific examples of your successes.

Future Research

Detail plans for future research. What questions do you intend to address next, and how do you plan to answer them? Explain how the institution and program to which you are applying can support your research goals. Discuss the potential implications of your future work.

Tie It All Together

Ensure your statement is logically connected, showing a progression in your research journey. Highlight the primary question or theme that has guided your academic career, its importance to the field, and how each stage of your work has contributed to addressing that question.

Your research statement should convey your motivation and passion for your work. Ultimately, a well-crafted research statement should demonstrate your expertise, potential contributions to the field, and compatibility with the academic institution to which you are applying. It should provide a clear and compelling narrative of your research journey and ambitions.

Humans To Robots Laboratory

Empowering every person with a collaborative robot, writing a research statement for graduate school and fellowships.

Writing a research statement happens many times throughout a research career. Often for the first time it happens when applying to Ph.D. programs or applying to fellowships. Later, you will be writing postdoc and faculty applications. These documents are challenging to write because they seek to capture your entire research career in one document that may be read in 90 seconds or less.

Think of the research statement as a proposal. Whether you are applying for a Ph.D. program or for a faculty position, you are trying to convince the reader to invest in you. To decide whether to make this investment they need to know three things: 1) what will you do with the investment, 2) why is that an important problem ? and 3) what evidence is there that you will be successful in achieving the goals that you have set out.

The first paragraph, therefore, should describe what problem you are aiming to solve, and why it is an important problem. One common failure mode is to be too general and vague in this paragraph. Yes we all want to solve AI! But you want to write about your specific take, angle, or approach. This will set up the rest of the statement, about why you are the one person uniquely qualified to solve the problem you set up here. Sometimes people shy away from being too specific, because they worry that it will put them in a box. Don’t worry! Research interests always evolve, and you will not be signing in blood to do this exact research plan. It is better to ere on the side of being too specific because it shows you can scope out an exciting project and that you have good ideas, even if you are not sure that this specific idea is the one you will eventually pursue.

The next paragraphs should describe your past work as it fits into the research vision you have outlined in the first paragraph. You can start with a paragraph for each project or paper you have worked on. The paragraphs can be more or less the abstract for the paper . However you should be clear exactly what your role in the project was, give credit to collaborators, and spend more time on the parts of the project you contributed to directly. You also need to tie it to the research vision in paragraph 1. The strongest statement presents your life, as an arrow that points unambiguously towards solving the research question you have outlined in paragraph 1. Of course, no one’s life is actually an unambiguous arrow! However I think it helps to think that way because you are trying to tie the projects together to show how they have prepared you and furthered you along the research trajectory. Even if this project wasn’t directly connected in terms of its research questions, you can write about how it taught you technical tools that you can apply to your research objective, or how it taught you something that led to your current research objective.

The last paragraphs should describe concretely what you plan to do next. If you are applying to a Ph.D. program, you should name the groups you wish to work with and explain why they are a good fit for you. For a fellowship, you should describe why this work is a good fit for the work done by the organization you are applying to.

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Research Statement

Research statements are a frequent component of the academic job market application portfolio and one of the more field-specific documents. In a research statement, you are explaining to the search committee your scholarly profile, research agenda, impact of your work, and how your scholarship fits into the department and institution.

While the research statement can vary widely depending on field and institution, in general, research statements:

• Are up to two pages in length
• Written as first-person narratives (e.g., "My research focuses on ..."; "I consider ...")
• Address research topic and details
• Demonstrate methodologies used, approach, techniques, etc.
• Address the impact of your work
• Speak to future research agendas
• Can address questions of diversity, equity, and inclusion

Content Considerations

While your research statement needs to specify your current research and the foundation you have developed in your doctoral program, you also need to speak to how this current work relates to a future-looking research agenda. You want to talk the search committee through the evolution of your research from current project to future pathways. Think of the statement in three parts:

• What is the current state of research and why is it important to your field?
• What immediate work (publications, grants, impact) will you get out of this research? Why is it important?
• How will you use the skills built in the first two parts to develop future projects? In what direction do you hope to grow? How is this research possible at this particular institution?

Finally, think about the reader of your research statement: a search committee that may be familiar with your field but still requires an easily legible and accessible statement. While drafting and revising, keep this reader in mind:

• Will they understand the jargon?
• Can your research be understood by colleagues outside of your adviser, committee, and immediate peers?
• What about the student population at this institution? How can they be involved and help develop your research agenda?
• What resources (equipment, access, buildings) does the institution have and how can that help with your research agenda?

You as a Peer

Of utmost importance in a research statement is that you are not talking as a graduate student. You are not proposing a dissertation or potential experiment. In the research statement, you are delineating the contours of your research so a hiring committee can determine if it is in the interest of the department to invest in your candidature. Think about the position you are applying to:

• How does your research style fit within the department?
• How does your research complement projects or programs already underway within the department?
• How would your research engage with the department’s broader interests (e.g., their teaching output or interdisciplinary perspectives)?
• How would your research benefit the institution (grants, collaborations, new courses, new projects, etc.)?

As with all application documents, make sure to have multiple eyes on the content before submitting your statement. Take advantage of the support Northwestern provides from the Graduate Writing Place, Office of Fellowships, and Northwestern Career Advancement .

Postdocs can make appointments for individualized feedback with the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs .

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• Research Statement

Research institutions increasingly request that applicants for academic positions involving a significant percentage of research time include a research statement with other application materials. This may be more common for postdoctoral scholars applying for research faculty positions, particularly in STEM fields, but is sometimes a request of graduate students and those in the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences for faculty positions involving both research and teaching responsibilities.

The research statement describes your current research and plans for future research endeavor. While your CV lists facts about your research, your research statement offers the opportunity to expand and provide personal context, such as why you chose this research subject, difficulties and how you resolved them, and why the research is important. In one to three pages, the statement demonstrates your:

• independent research ability
• writing proficiency
• potential for grant application success

Description of past research should lead to and support the goals you have for future research. The description of current research includes how you will communicate your results, such as publication in a dissertation, paper, book, or other academic forum. The statement should showcase your research success but, more importantly, describe your future research goals and how they are different (and independent from) those you pursued under your faculty adviser. It is key to show your path to research independence, that you developed and followed independent research that you plan to continue to develop wherever you are hired.

If your adviser recommends it, you might want to write different research statements for different institutions and describe how your research goals align with the mission of each institution and program you’re applying to. The most important reviewer of your research statement prior to you sending it with your other portfolio items is your faculty adviser.

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How to write a research statement for a postdoc fellowship

In this post, I share the research statement I wrote to become a finalist in a prestigious postdoctoral fellowship competition called the Owen Chamberlain Postdoctoral Fellowship at Berkeley Lab.

At the time of the application, I did not have any main-author papers published yet but some in the pipeline.

If you are wondering what do you even write in a research statement, I am totally with you.

I felt the same way.

What do I say?

Then I learned that what you mainly say in a research statement is what you have done already and how that makes you great.

I don’t know exactly how many people apply for postdoc fellowships like these but I have heard it’s hundreds.

I was selected as a finalist along with 4 or 5 others.

I had loads of fun visiting the place, interviewing, and giving talks.

At the interview, they told me they didn’t yet know their budget that year.

They ended up not giving the fellowship to anyone that year – as far as I know.

I loved the experience though and here’s the research statement!

Research statement

Multimessenger astronomy and astrophysics, although broad, capture my research interests most accurately. Be it neutrinos, X-rays, dark matter, or gravitational waves, I find these rapidly-growing avenues of studying the Universe most promising, and the Chamberlain Fellowship would allow me to expand on my current expertise while applying the knowledge, skills, and experience gained during my Ph.D.

My Ph.D. is focused on a NASA long-duration balloon experiment for ultra-high-energy (> 10 18 eV) neutrino detection called the ANtarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA). ANITA uses the polar vortex to orbit in roughly circular trajectories, at an altitude of ~ 40 km, over the continent of Antarctica, for about a month during the Austral Summer. This experiment provides a unique opportunity to study high energy astrophysical phenomena by means of an emerging cosmic messenger, namely the neutrino. There have been four ANITA missions so far.

ANITA searches for radio pulses in the 200 – 1200 MHz frequency range, produced by neutrino interactions in the Antarctic ice. The human activity that produces radio waves in the same frequency range, such as military communications satellites, has been known to interfere with and even prevent ANITA science operations. To mitigate radio interference, I built tunable filters for the ANITA-IV mission (2016). During my deployment in Antarctica last year, after a successful launch of ANITA-IV, I operated the tunable filters in real-time. The filters helped to increase the instrument livetime of ANITA by almost a factor of 3. Details are in our pre-print at https://arxiv.org/abs/1709.04536 .

At present, I am studying and classifying anthropogenic noise using data from the ANITA-II and ANITA-III flights. I am a lead contributor to the development of a new analysis technique to search for a diffuse flux of ultra-high-energy neutrinos. Additionally, I am leading the development of new techniques to perform the first search for afterglow neutrinos from Gamma Ray Bursts using data from the ANITA-III and ANITA-IV flights. We are expecting to publish results from these analyses at the end of the Fall of 2017 and in the Spring of 2018, respectively.

I am interested in experiments such as Daya Bay and DUNE, that probe the Universe with neutrinos at energies complementary to those probed by ANITA. These experiments will allow me to increase my breadth both in their particle physics and astrophysics goals. Additionally, I am interested in the next-generation dark matter experiment LZ, that aims to answer fundamental questions about the Universe through the detection of dark matter.

Due to my experience with building and deploying ANITA-IV, I am well-placed to make strong contributions to detector development, testing, calibration, and deployment for new and upcoming experiments. By the time I graduate, I will have worked on multiple analyses using complementary techniques involving data from three flights of ANITA, making me well-rounded and capable of leading analysis projects for the above-mentioned experiments. In conclusion, my research interests align with multiple opportunities that could be supported by the Chamberlain Fellowship, and that would also benefit from my background in particle astrophysics instrumentation and analysis work.

Here is a related post where I talk about the dangers of taking too long to finish a Ph.D. and its impact on winning postdoctoral fellowships.

Dangers of a Ph.D. Taking Too Long

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8 responses to “how to write a research statement for a postdoc fellowship”.

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This is a very helpful post, thank you! I like that your research statement is not very long and can be easily reverse engineered to get a general outline for any discipline. You’re a great writer 🙂

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Research statements for faculty job applications

The purpose of a research statement.

The main goal of a research statement is to walk the search committee through the evolution of your research, to highlight your research accomplishments, and to show where your research will be taking you next. To a certain extent, the next steps that you identify within your statement will also need to touch on how your research could benefit the institution to which you are applying. This might be in terms of grant money, faculty collaborations, involving students in your research, or developing new courses. Your CV will usually show a search committee where you have done your research, who your mentors have been, the titles of your various research projects, a list of your papers, and it may provide a very brief summary of what some of this research involves. However, there can be certain points of interest that a CV may not always address in enough detail.

• What got you interested in this research?
• What was the burning question that you set out to answer?
• What challenges did you encounter along the way, and how did you overcome these challenges?
• How can your research be applied?
• Why is your research important within your field?
• What direction will your research take you in next, and what new questions do you have?

While you may not have a good sense of where your research will ultimately lead you, you should have a sense of some of the possible destinations along the way. You want to be able to show a search committee that your research is moving forward and that you are moving forward along with it in terms of developing new skills and knowledge. Ultimately, your research statement should complement your cover letter, CV, and teaching philosophy to illustrate what makes you an ideal candidate for the job. The more clearly you can articulate the path your research has taken, and where it will take you in the future, the more convincing and interesting it will be to read.

Separate research statements are usually requested from researchers in engineering, social, physical, and life sciences, but can also be requested for researchers in the humanities. In many cases, however, the same information that is covered in the research statement is often integrated into the cover letter for many disciplines within the humanities and no separate research statement is requested within the job advertisement. Seek advice from current faculty and new hires about the conventions of your discipline if you are in doubt.

Timeline: Getting Started with your Research Statement

You can think of a research statement as having three distinct parts. The first part will focus on your past research, and can include the reasons you started your research, an explanation as to why the questions you originally asked are important in your field, and a summary some of the work you did to answer some of these early questions.

The middle part of the research statement focuses on your current research. How is this research different from previous work you have done, and what brought you to where you are today? You should still explain the questions you are trying to ask, and it is very important that you focus on some of the findings that you have (and cite some of the publications associated with these findings). In other words, do not talk about your research in abstract terms, make sure that you explain your actual results and findings (even if these may not be entirely complete when you are applying for faculty positions), and mention why these results are significant.

The final part of your research statement should build on the first two parts. Yes, you have asked good questions, and used good methods to find some answers, but how will you now use this foundation to take you into your future? Since you are hoping that your future will be at one of the institutions to which you are applying, you should provide some convincing reasons why your future research will be possible at each institution, and why it will be beneficial to that institution, or to the students at that institution.

While you are focusing on the past, present, and future or your research, and tailoring it to each institution, you should also think about the length of your statement and how detailed or specific you make the descriptions of your research. Think about who will be reading it. Will they all understand the jargon you are using? Are they experts in the subject, or experts in a range of related subjects? Can you go into very specific detail, or do you need to talk about your research in broader terms that make sense to people outside of your research field focusing on the common ground that might exist? Additionally, you should make sure that your future research plans differ from those of your PI or advisor, as you need to be seen as an independent researcher. Identify 4-5 specific aims that can be divided into short-term and long-term goals. You can give some idea of a 5-year research plan that includes the studies you want to perform, but also mention your long-term plans, so that the search committee knows that this is not a finite project.

Another important consideration when writing about your research is realizing that you do not perform research in a vacuum. When doing your research you may have worked within a team environment at some point, or sought out specific collaborations. You may have faced some serious challenges that required some creative problem-solving to overcome. While these aspects are not necessarily as important as your results and your papers or patents, they can help paint a picture of you as a well-rounded researcher who is likely to be successful in the future even if new problems arise, for example.

Follow these general steps to begin developing an effective research statement:

Step 1: Think about how and why you got started with your research. What motivated you to spend so much time on answering the questions you developed? If you can illustrate some of the enthusiasm you have for your subject, the search committee will likely assume that students and other faculty members will see this in you as well. People like to work with passionate and enthusiastic colleagues. Remember to focus on what you found, what questions you answered, and why your findings are significant. The research you completed in the past will have brought you to where you are today; also be sure to show how your research past and research present are connected. Explore some of the techniques and approaches you have successfully used in your research, and describe some of the challenges you overcame. What makes people interested in what you do, and how have you used your research as a tool for teaching or mentoring students? Integrating students into your research may be an important part of your future research at your target institutions. Conclude describing your current research by focusing on your findings, their importance, and what new questions they generate.

Step 2: Think about how you can tailor your research statement for each application. Familiarize yourself with the faculty at each institution, and explore the research that they have been performing. You should think about your future research in terms of the students at the institution. What opportunities can you imagine that would allow students to get involved in what you do to serve as a tool for teaching and training them, and to get them excited about your subject? Do not talk about your desire to work with graduate students if the institution only has undergraduates! You will also need to think about what equipment or resources that you might need to do your future research. Again, mention any resources that specific institutions have that you would be interested in utilizing (e.g., print materials, super electron microscopes, archived artwork). You can also mention what you hope to do with your current and future research in terms of publication (whether in journals or as a book), try to be as specific and honest as possible. Finally, be prepared to talk about how your future research can help bring in grants and other sources of funding, especially if you have a good track record of receiving awards and fellowships. Mention some grants that you know have been awarded to similar research, and state your intention to seek this type of funding.

Step 3: Ask faculty in your department if they are willing to share their own research statements with you. To a certain extent, there will be some subject-specific differences in what is expected from a research statement, and so it is always a good idea to see how others in your field have done it. You should try to draft your own research statement first before you review any statements shared with you. Your goal is to create a unique research statement that clearly highlights your abilities as a researcher.

Step 4: The research statement is typically a few (2-3) pages in length, depending on the number of images, illustrations, or graphs included.  Once you have completed the steps above, schedule an appointment with a career advisor to get feedback on your draft. You should also try to get faculty in your department to review your document if they are willing to do so.

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• WHERE I WORK
• 20 May 2024

How my research is putting blue crab on the menu in Croatia

• Jack Leeming

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Neven Iveša is a biotechnologist at the Juraj Dobrila University of Pula, Croatia, and a professional fisher. Credit: Elisabetta Zavoli for Nature

You have full access to this article via your institution.

“It’s dirty, hot work picking up blue crabs ( Callinectes sapidus ). They like murky water, and you need special clothing and equipment to wade through the swampy lagoon here in the Palud – Palù ornithological reserve in Pula, Croatia. It was the end of a long day in September last year when this photo was taken, and I was hot and sweaty under that special clothing. And once you find a crab, you have to be careful not to injure yourself picking it up: either on its sharp lateral spine, or from its very strong claws.

I catch the crabs because they are an invasive species, and because it’s my job: as well as working as a biotechnologist, I’m a fisher. Blue crabs are native to Chesapeake Bay in the eastern United States, and they probably made their way here on a ship in the early twentieth century.

There has been a large population in the Po river estuary for many years — but a combination of factors, including global warming, has seen them spread down the Adriatic coast since 2022.

The crabs are a problem because they eat the bivalves, fish and other crabs that make up the diets of many of the endangered seabirds here at the nature reserve — without that vital source of food, these birds will be even more threatened and we’ll face a serious loss of biodiversity.

My colleagues and I at the Juraj Dobrila University of Pula are encouraging local people to eat the crabs, which are sold at the markets. We’ve held awareness activities since long before 2022, in anticipation of the explosion of the invasive population. I know more and more people who collect blue crabs for food.

We’re losing the battle against climate change: the changes are too fast and we are far too slow to adapt to them. But I hope by better understanding the biological capital we have available here, we can build a better relationship with nature.”

Nature 629 , 964 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-01475-w

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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2024 — 2025 Cohort of Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellows for Academic Diversity Named

Senior Vice Provost for Research Dawn Bonnell and the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs have announced the 2024-2025 cohort of Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellows for Academic Diversity .

Designed to help postdocs advance their careers while enriching the community of scholars at the University of Pennsylvania and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), the fellowship program has supported nearly 100 postdocs across nine of Penn’s schools and at CHOP since its inception in 2010. Half of these fellows have gone on to positions in academia while the remaining have found careers in industry, nonprofits, and government.

During the three-year fellowship period, postdocs conduct research while participating in training and development to enhance professional skills. New programming and networking events have recently been added to augment the fellows’ research and scholarship activities and to help prepare the postdocs for the next step in their careers.

This year’s cohort, with the majority beginning their fellowships in July, will work across the School of Arts & Sciences , Perelman School of Medicine , School of Nursing , Annenberg School for Communication , Graduate School of Education , School of Social Policy and Practice , and the Wharton School .

Marilyn Baffoe-Bonnie (she/her) will be working with Robert Aronowitz exploring the intersections of science, technology, and society. Under his mentorship, she will investigate gene therapy, sickle cell disease, and emerging issues in aesthetic medicine. Additionally, Dr. Baffoe-Bonnie examines the social and ethical dimensions of aesthetic procedures to promote patient safety and equity in access to therapies.

Indie Garwood (she/her) will be working on neural engineering, neurostatistics and computation, and fundamental neuroscience in non-human primate (NHP) models with an eye for human translation. Dr. Garwood will be working in the lab of Bijan Pesaran , at the Perelman School of Medicine’s Department of Neurosurgery.

Allante Moon (she/her) researches the mental health impacts of educational systems on Black youth and Black women collegians, particularly within postsecondary institutions. Dr. Moon will work under the guidance of DeMarcus A. Jenkins . Drawing on her public health background, she plans to examine health policy implications for racially minoritized individuals in educational settings.

Kemi Oyewole (she/her) examines the evolution of instructional coaching in K12 schools. Under the mentorship of Rand Quinn , Dr. Oyewole will investigate the motivations behind the adoption of coaching, delving into its rise in popularity despite ambiguous needs and significant costs.

Julian Quiros ( he/him) investigates child welfare administrative data platforms, focusing on the Philadelphia Family Data System (PFDS). Guided by Julia Ticona , his research explores the influence of data-driven governance in child welfare, aiming to reveal complexities in representation.

Alisa Shockley (she/her) investigates the impact of gun violence on community life and environmental justice. Her research combines participatory mapping and spatial analysis methods to understand how gun violence disrupts daily routines and community spaces. Dr. Shockley will work with Sara Jacoby , Michelle Kondo , and Eugenia South .

Diondra Straiton’s (she/her) research examines how to optimize training efforts to support clinicians working with autistic youth in publicly funded and under-resourced community settings. Dr. Straiton will join David Mandell at the Perelman School of Medicine’s Penn Center for Mental Health, to create and implement parent coaching interventions for traditionally underserved autistic children.

Elena Wong (she/her) will be working with Lindsey Cameron and Katherine Klein at the Wharton School. Her research considers the role of an individual’s identity in relation to workplace well-being, with a focus on how one’s self-concept influences their experiences and outcomes in the workplace.

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Assistant or Associate Teaching Professor, Personal Financial Planning

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Dear Stanford Community,

As you know, last December a Special Committee of the University’s Board of Trustees initiated a review of allegations of misconduct related to my scientific research and papers that I authored or coauthored. I have consistently denied any allegations, including those based on anonymous and unsubstantiated sources, that I engaged in fraud or any other unethical conduct related to my research and papers.

The Findings on the Issue of Research Misconduct

Today, after a comprehensive and months-long review process that included input from an independent Scientific Panel, the Special Committee has issued a report detailing its conclusions.

I am gratified that the Panel concluded I did not engage in any fraud or falsification of scientific data. Specifically, the Panel did not find that I engaged in research misconduct regarding the twelve papers reviewed, nor did it find I had knowledge of or was reckless regarding research misconduct in my lab.

As I have emphatically stated, I have never submitted a scientific paper without firmly believing that the data were correct and accurately presented. Today’s report supports that statement.

Stepping Down as President

Although the report clearly refutes the allegations of fraud and misconduct that were made against me, for the good of the University, I have made the decision to step down as President effective August 31.

The Panel’s report identified some areas where I should have done better, and I accept the report’s conclusions. Specifically, the report discusses steps I took to address issues that arose with some publications. I agree that in some instances I should have been more diligent when seeking corrections, and I regret that I was not. The Panel’s review also identified instances of manipulation of research data by others in my lab. Although I was unaware of these issues, I want to be clear that I take responsibility for the work of my lab members.

I expect there may be ongoing discussion about the report and its conclusions, at least in the near term, which could lead to debate about my ability to lead the University into the new academic year.

Stanford is greater than any one of us. It needs a president whose leadership is not hampered by such discussions. I therefore concluded that I should step down before the start of classes. This decision is rooted in my respect for the University and its community and my unwavering commitment to doing what I believe is in the best interests of Stanford.

Leadership Transition and Ongoing Role as Stanford Faculty Member

I communicated my decision to the Board of Trustees, and they accepted my view that a leadership transition in time for the start of the next school year is the best course of action. I am confident the Board will appoint a superb leader as the next President of our beloved institution.

While I will be stepping down as President, I will remain on the Stanford faculty and look forward to continuing to conduct my scientific research on brain development and neurodegeneration under the auspices of one of the world’s preeminent educational institutions.

Assessment and Actions Regarding Research Papers in Question

In the 32 years I have headed a research laboratory, I have published 74 papers of which I am a principal author, and over 150 of which I am a non-principal author.

Of the twelve papers that were part of the Special Committee’s review, seven are ones of which I am a non-principal author and where the images in question were generated in the principal author’s lab. With respect to those papers, the Panel’s conclusions support that I did not have knowledge of any errors or manipulation of research data.

The remaining five papers are ones of which I am a principal author. In a separate document available on my website , I provide information on the Panel’s conclusions and corrective actions I believe it is necessary for me to take with respect to these five papers, but I want to briefly touch on two points.

First, four of the five papers are ones that I have known for some time have issues. While I took steps in the past to address these issues, I agree with the Panel that in some cases those steps were insufficient.

Second, with respect to three of those four papers, which are more than two decades old, new information from the Special Committee’s review has revealed that the person responsible for the issues engaged in manipulation of research data in that trio of papers. Evidence of manipulation of research data by another individual in one figure in a fifth paper published two decades ago has also recently come to light. The Panel concluded I had no knowledge of the data manipulation before any of these papers were published or, indeed, until recently, and that it would not have been reasonable to expect me to have detected it at the time.

With the knowledge I have now, it is clear that the issues with these five papers require me to retract the trio of papers and correct the other two.

These findings have also caused me to further reassess the processes and controls I have in place. While I continually maintain a critical eye on all the science in my lab, I have also always operated my lab on trust – trust in my students and postdocs, and trust that the data they were presenting to me was real and accurate. Going forward, I will be further tightening controls, including, for example, more systematically matching processed images to original raw data, both in the course of each scientific study and especially when bringing a study to publication. I will vigorously apply this and other best practices to ensure that these kinds of problems do not recur.

I have been in this role for nearly seven years, and it has been the greatest honor and most fulfilling experience of my career. I will always cherish my time as Stanford’s President, and I am proud of what we accomplished together during my tenure.

I am especially proud of our partnership to develop a Long-Range Vision for Stanford as a Purposeful University, focused on education, knowledge, solutions and sustainability, and on supporting a diverse and inclusive community. From this flowed, among other things, the new Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability; a new undergraduate curriculum focused on citizenship; robust expansion of our financial aid programs; creation of impact accelerators for medicine, education, social problems and sustainability; establishment of institutes to help shape the digital future; and foundational support for our scholars in all fields to remain at the cutting edge of their disciplines. The Vision has inspired our broader community, triggering more philanthropic support in the past few years than was raised in our last major campaign. I look forward to seeing how our community continues to pursue excellence in these areas and others in coming years.

There is so much for which I am grateful, and I have many to thank. I first want to thank the Board of Trustees for giving me the extraordinary opportunity to lead Stanford – and for the diligence and professionalism with which the Scientific Panel, the Special Committee, and the Special Committee’s outside legal counsel conducted the review. I also want to extend a heartfelt thank you to Provost Drell and the entire Stanford leadership team for their partnership and support these last seven years, which have been marked by so many accomplishments. Most of all, I want to thank the entire Stanford community – for your brilliance, dedication, and the wonderful contributions you each have made to this institution as students, professors, staff members, and more. I am confident that Stanford will continue to be a pioneer and a force for good in the world, and I remain eternally grateful and devoted to the institution that we all love.

I look forward to continuing my relationship with all of you and those who become part of the Stanford community in the future.

Marc Tessier-Lavigne

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Academy of Medical Sciences announces new Fellows for 2024

The Academy of Medical Sciences has elected 58 exceptional biomedical and health scientists to its prestigious Fellowship.  

The new Fellows have been recognised for their remarkable contributions to advancing biomedical and health sciences, ground-breaking research discoveries and translating developments into benefits for patients and wider society.  

The 2024 cohort features two notable firsts – University of Liverpool’s Professor Reecha Sofat is the first participant of the Academy’s FLIER leadership programme to be elected to the Fellowship, and Professor Samir Bhatt from Imperial College London is the first Springboard awardee to become a Fellow of the Academy.  

Professor Sofat, who specialises in clinical pharmacology, said : “ The FLIER programme was instrumental in shaping my development as a leader in healthcare research and innovation. It provided me with invaluable skills, networks and perspectives that have accelerated my career trajectory. I am honoured to now join the Academy Fellowship where I can continue to drive progress at the interface of academia, industry and policy.”  

Epidemiologist and statistician Professor Bhatt was awarded £100,000 for his work on infectious disease outbreaks through the Academy’s Springboard scheme, which offers a bespoke package of support to biomedical researchers at the start of their first independent post to help launch their research careers.  

Professor Bhatt, Professor of Statistics and Public Health, said: “The Springboard award from the Academy was an important and pivotal moment in my independent research career. It provided essential funding and support to pursue my research vision and has contributed to many new research directions as well as the work we undertook during the COVID-19 pandemic. To now be elected to the Academy Fellowship is a testament to the importance of nurturing and inspiring the next generation of biomedical leaders.”  

The expertise of Fellows elected this year spans a wide range of clinical and non-clinical disciplines, from midwifery to cancer stem cell biology. They join an esteemed Fellowship of over 1,400 researchers who are at the heart of the Academy's work, which includes nurturing the next generation of researchers and shaping research and health policy in the UK and worldwide.  

This year's cohort marks a significant milestone in the Academy's efforts to promote equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) within its Fellowship election. Among the new Fellows, 41% are women, the highest percentage ever elected. Additionally, Black, Asian and minority ethnic representation is 29%, an 11% increase from the previous year. The new Fellows hold positions at institutions across the UK, including in Edinburgh, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Nottingham and York.  

Amongst the 2024 Fellows is Professor Vittal Katikireddi , Professor of Public Health and Health Inequalities at the University of Glasgow and Honorary Consultant at Public Health Scotland. Professor Katikireddi's research focuses on improving the development and application of evidence to inform public health policy.    

Professor Katikireddi said : " Becoming a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences is a welcome recognition of the importance of public health research in tackling health inequalities. By harnessing the power of data and innovative methodologies, we can generate robust evidence to guide policymakers in creating healthier, more equitable societies ."  

Professor Andrew Morris PMedSci, President of the Academy of Medical Sciences, said : “It is an honour to welcome these brilliant minds to our Fellowship. Our new Fellows lead pioneering work in biomedical research and are driving remarkable improvements in healthcare. We look forward to working with them, and learning from them, in our quest to foster an open and progressive research environment that improves the health of people everywhere through excellence in medical science.   

“We are immensely proud that two talented individuals – Professors Sofat and Bhatt – have seen such success following their involvement with Academy programmes designed to nurture research talent and future leaders.   

“It is also welcoming to note that this year's cohort is our most diverse yet, in terms of gender, ethnicity and geography. While this progress is encouraging, we recognise that there is still much work to be done to truly diversify our Fellowship. We remain committed to our EDI goals and will continue to take meaningful steps to ensure our Fellowship reflects the rich diversity of the society we serve."  

The new Fellows will be formally admitted to the Academy at a ceremony on Wednesday 18 September 2024.  

The Academy of Medical Sciences is the independent, expert body representing the diversity of medical science in the UK. Its mission is to advance biomedical and health research and its translation into benefits for society. The Academy's elected Fellows are the most influential scientists in the UK and worldwide, drawn from the NHS, academia, industry and the public service.  

The full list of Academy of Medical Sciences Fellows elected in 2024:  

Professor Ivan Ahel , University of Oxford (Structural Biology)  

Professor Amrita Ahluwalia , Queen Mary University of London (Vascular Pharmacology)  

Professor Ammar Al-Chalabi , Kings College London (Neurology)  

Dr Annaliesa Anderson , Pfizer (Vaccinology)  

Professor Michael Barrett , University of Glasgow (Parasitology)  

Dr Axel Behrens , Institute of Cancer Research (Cancer Stem Cell Biology)  

Professor Samir Bhatt , Imperial College London (Health Science)  

Professor James Boardman , University of Edinburgh (Neonatal Medicine)  

Professor G Marius Clore , The National Institutes of Health (NMR Spectrometry)  

Professor Constantin Coussios , University of Oxford (Biomedical Engineering)  

Professor Mark Cragg , University of Southampton (Experimental Cancer Biology)  

Professor Alun Davies , Imperial College London (Vascular Surgery)  

Professor Jane Davies , Imperial College London (Paediatrics)  

Professor Christopher Denton , University College London (Rheumatology)  

Professor Waljit Dhillo , Imperial College London (Neuroendocrinology)  

Professor Michael Eddleston , University of Edinburgh (Clinical Toxicology)  

Professor Gene Feder , University of Bristol (Primary Care)  

Professor Dean Fennell , University of Leicester (Mesothelioma Research)  

Professor Rashida Ferrand , London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (International Health)  

Professor Nita Forouhi , University of Cambridge (Population Health and Nutrition)  

Professor Fang Gao Smith , University of Birmingham (Anaesthesia and Critical care)  

Professor Susan Gathercole , University of Cambridge (Child Psychology)  

Dr Fiona Godlee , ex- British Medical Journal (BMJ) (Health Journalism)  

Professor Alison Grant , London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (International Health)  

Professor Catherine Harmer , University of Oxford (Neuroscience)  

Professor Andrew Horne , University of Edinburgh (Reproductive Sciences)  

Professor Srinivasa Katikireddi, University of Glasgow (Public Health)  

Professor Saye Hock Khoo , University of Liverpool (Pharmacology)  

Professor Julian Knight , University of Oxford (Genomic Medicine)  

Professor David Lalloo , Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (Tropical Medicine/Global Health)   

Professor Teresa Lambe , University of Oxford (Vaccine Immunology)  

Professor Azeem Majeed , Imperial College London (Primary Care)  

Dr Niall Martin , Artios (Drug Discovery)  

Professor Roberto Mayor , University College London (Neurobiology)  

Professor Jane McKeating , University of Oxford (Virology)  

Professor Adam Mead , University of Oxford (Haematology)  

Professor Hisham Mehanna , University of Birmingham (Head and Neck Surgery)  

Professor William Newman , Manchester Centre for Genomic Medicine (Genomic Medicine)  

Professor Faith Osier , Imperial College London (Immunology and Vaccinology)  

Professor Maddy Parsons , King's College London (Cell Biology)  

Professor K John Pasi , Roche Products Ltd (Haematology)  

Professor Eugenia Piddini, University of Bristol (Cell Biology)  

Professor Sergio Quezada , University College London (Immunotherapy)  

Professor Rebecca Reynolds , University of Edinburgh (Metabolic Medicine)  

Professor Richard Riley , University of Birmingham (Biostatistics)  

Professor Alison Rodger , University College London (Infectious Diseases)  

Professor Rustam Al-Shahi Salman , University of Edinburgh (Neurology)  

Professor Jane Sandall , King’s College London (Midwifery)  

Professor Mark Sculpher , University of York (Health Care Research)  

Professor Kevin Shakesheff , University of Nottingham/Open University (Pharmacy)  

Professor Alexander Simpson , Newcastle University (Respiratory Medicine)  

Professor Debra Skene , University of Surrey (Neuroendocrinology)  

Professor Reecha Sofat , University of Liverpool (Clinical Pharmacology)  

Professor Tara Spires-Jones , University of Edinburgh (Neurodegeneration)  

Professor Shakila Thangaratinam , University of Birmingham (Maternal Health)  

Professor James Wild , University of Sheffield (Magnetic Resonance Physics)  

Dr Marta Zlatic , MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (Neuroscience)  

Professor Krina Zondervan , University of Oxford (Women’s Reproductive Health)

This year Fellows were chosen from 365 candidates. The eight Sectional Committees met in March to consider potential Fellows for 2024 entry to the Academy. Three nominators from within the Fellowship must back each candidate. The Academy Registrar oversees the election. 115 candidates were shortlisted for peer review. The election brings the total number of Fellows to 1472.  

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