Undergraduate

High attrition rates in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines are an ongoing problem. Most studies to date have focused on undergraduate and graduate student attrition, with a particular emphasis on students’ attributes, undergraduate preparation, and mentoring relationships. Systematic studies of the experiences of Postdoctoral Researchers are few and far between. One example is a recent post-COVID survey organized by Nature. The responses to Nature’s survey uncovered a list of issues that Postdoctoral Researchers face: “high pressure, long hours, relatively low wages compared with those for analogous research positions outside academia, and pervasive job insecurity”. Another example is a study that looks into challenges that female postdocs face in academia (R. Ysseldyk et al. Front. Psychol. 10, 1297, 2019). The study revealed that a sense of belonging and the overall work environment are critical for female postdocs to overcome the decision to leave academia. 

The goal of this study is to assess the experiences of Postdoctoral Researchers at NIST using the “Aspects of Postdoctoral Researcher Experience Scale NIST Survey” which is an adapted version of the “Aspects of Student Experience Scale” (ASES) survey. The original ASES survey was developed by researchers at Western Michigan University to study how graduate students experience is affected by various factors and which factors are important in fostering a supportive environment. The questions included in ASES were developed based on prior literature and the American Physical Society Bridge Program (APSBP) recommendations, revised based on APSBP feedback, and subjected to psychometric evaluation. It has been demonstrated that ASES meets the standard criteria for divergent validity, discriminant validity, and internal consistency. The “Aspects of Postdoctoral Researcher Experience Scale Survey” is a revised version of the ASES survey, modified to be relevant to Postdoctoral Researchers. 

This study will be used to inform what changes might be necessary to ensure that Postdoctoral Researchers are successful while at NIST and that the time spent at NIST prepares them well for the next steps on their career path. This work is a critical step towards ensuring that Postdoctoral Researchers are well supported during their time at NIST.