17 September 2024

The daily contributions made by postdocs are essential in setting a positive work environment and progressing the science of each lab. Postdocs have a valuable impact on the biological community in general and they deserve recognition for their efforts. We believe that, as our future leaders in biology, it is vital to provide postdocs with the right support during these early stages of their academic career by helping to grow their network, providing access points to join the biological community, maximising the impact of their research and helping to raise their profile. As our relationship with postdocs grows, our postdocs have enriched The Company of Biologists community in a myriad of ways.

We value and recognise all the ways in which postdocs contribute to The Company of Biologists as Workshop organisers, Pathway to Independence Fellows, The Node and FocalPlane correspondents, preLighters and preLights Ambassadors. Here, we showcase a small sample of past and present postdoctoral excellence.

Mario Del Rosario is one of the organisers for the 2025 Global South Workshop, ‘Democratising Microscopy in Latin America: Imaging Across Scales and Regions’ that will be hosted by The Company of Biologists in October 2025 in Banos, Ecuador. Mario has previously written a guest preLights post with Ricardo Henriques and has been interviewed by FocalPlane.

Martín Estermann was a preLights ambassador who created a webinar series ‘From preprint to publication.’ He has been highlighted in the FocalPlane ‘Featured image’ series. Martín has previously moderated the 2024 SciCommConnect writing sprint session.

Girish Kale was a preLights Ambassador. He was recently interviewed as one of Development’s Pathway to Independence (PI) Programme Fellows. Development’s PI programme aims to support researchers in the developmental biology and stem cell field as they transition from postdoc to principal investigator. Girish has also represented preLights at national and international meetings. He recently attended and reported on the ‘Diversity and Evolution in Cell Biology’ Journal Meeting, where he presented newly developed research in poster format that was at the interface of cell biology, developmental biology, tissue mechanics, and evolution.

“I really intend to keep doing this, especially the science communication activities that I’m currently involved in. In fact, it has become an integral part of my workflow. It would of course be great if I can get students interested in doing this kind of thing as well. However, this will also depend on what kind of person they are, and what their interests are. Fortunately, I never had to defend myself for spending time on science communication and outreach,” said preLights Ambassador and PI Programme Fellow – Girish Kale – Read the full interview with Development here.

Our Workshop on ‘Cell Size and Growth, from Single Cells to the Tree of Life’ was solely organised by two postdocs, Clotilde Cadart and Matthew Swaffer. They were instrumental in ensuring the running of a smooth programme, which culminated in a successful first in-person event after the pandemic. In addition to being a Workshop organiser, Clotilde was part of the first cohort of Development’s Pathway to Independence Programme Fellows. Both Clotilde and Matthew have since started their own labs.

“As a postdoc, I was getting quite frustrated because I’d had several funding applications rejected. So, I thought that, if people didn’t find my problem interesting, I needed to do something to make people more interested. I came across the opportunity to organise a Workshop and so, together with Matthew Swaffer, we put together a proposal on cell size and growth and were fortunate to get selected. The Company of Biologists did an amazing job of facilitating all the logistics so that we could really focus on the science. The size and format of these events are really great for thinking creatively, and for generating a sense of community, which – as I say – is really important to me,” said Workshop organiser and PI Fellow – Clotilde Cadart – Read the full interview with Development here.

While a postdoc, Mariana De Niz was a prolific preLighter and wrote 100+ preLights posts. Concurrently, Mariana was a FocalPlane correspondent who started the Latin American Microscopists series. After ending her tenure as a postdoc, she has continued her initial series and started a new Towards global access series. Mariana is also one of the organisers for the upcoming ‘Democratising Microscopy in Latin America: Imaging Across Scales and Regions’ Workshop in October 2025 in Banos, Ecuador. Mariana has also written the Essay ‘Autism in science – ‘through the looking glass’ and the role of empathy in the equation’ in Journal of Cell Science.

Postdoc Appreciation Week (PAW) runs from 16 September to 20 September 2024. If you are in the UK, find out which local programmes would be best suited for you. PAW originally started in the USA in 2009 by The National Postdoctoral Association, if you are in the USA find out about their virtual and in-person events.