National Postdoc Appreciation Week

To: The Caltech Community
From: Kaushik Bhattacharya, Vice Provost
Re: National Postdoc Appreciation Week

This week is National Postdoc Appreciation Week and an opportunity to recognize the achievements of these remarkable scholars. Postdocs come to Caltech having already excelled in research and work on the most pressing problems as they prepare for their own independent career.

Caltech has significantly more postdoctoral scholars in proportion to its size compared to any of its peer institutions. This reflects the unique mission of our Institute and also the critical role that postdoctoral scholars play in fulfilling this mission. While they are here, they are leaders in the laboratory, mentors for students, and an important external face for science and engineering overall as they share their work and educate the public about advancements across many fields. Postdoctoral alumni from Caltech have gone on to become leaders in academia, industry, and national laboratories. For example, our former postdoctoral scholars have won 15 Nobel Prizes and 14 national medals of science and technology.

We thank each of our 600 current postdocs as well as the those who have come before them for their contributions to our campus and to the advancement of new fields, discoveries, and technologies. Caltech is the institution it is today, in part, because of all that you do. Thank you.