Top Pick for Postdocs in Canada

Dalhousie University has been named fourth on the list of Best Places to Work for Postdocs outside the United States on The Scientist Magazine's annual list. Dal is number one among the four Canadian institutions that made the list.

The more than 3500 postdoctoral scholars who responded to this year's survey rated a valuable training experience, access to research equipment and library resources, and a good mentoring relationship as the ingredients that make for a great workplace. Full survey results will be detailed in the article "Best Places to Work for Postdocs: 2005," appearing in The Scientist on February 14, 2005.

"This survey indicates that postdoctoral fellows at Dalhousie recognize and appreciate the very collaborative and supportive work environment at the university," says Carl Breckenridge, Vice President, Research at Dalhousie."We're very gratified by this international recognition."

According to The Scientist, institutions in Canada, Scandinavia, and The Netherlands occupy 11 of the top 15 slots for non-US institutions. Each of these institutions has adequate funding resources, and good networking and career development opportunities, which foreign postdocs consider important factors for workplace satisfaction.

More than 40,000 survey invitations were sent to individuals who had registered at www.the-scientist.com and identified themselves as a non-tenured life scientist working at a non-commercial research institution in the United States, Canada, Western Europe, or Israel, the magazine received 3,533 valid responses representing 769 individual institutions.

The top overall results for non-US institutions are:

1. Umea Plant Science Center, Umea, Sweden
2. Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
3. Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
4. Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada
5. University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
6. Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Canada
7. University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
8. University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
9. Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Copenhagen, Denmark
10. University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
11. University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
12. Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
13. Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
14. Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands
15. Centro de Investigaciones Biologicas-CSIC, Madrid, Spain