I’ve been fortunate to have worked at Johns Hopkins over several decades. Before signing on as editor of Hopkins Medicine magazine in 2007, I spent 12 years leading the staff of Johns Hopkins Magazine, the university’s flagship publication. These years have afforded me a long view that proved particularly illuminating with “Invisible No More,” our story about the improving conditions for the school of medicine’s 1,200 postdoctoral fellows.

When we tackled this same subject back in 1998 in Hopkins Magazine with “The Postdoc’s Plight” (Bit.ly/JHPostDocs1998), the situation for fellows was dismal. Hopkins postdocs received only student level insurance and weren’t eligible for other benefits such as dental, retirement or childcare.

Pay varied wildly (some postdocs were paid next to nothing and most earned under $25,000 annually), some fellows remained stalled in positions for eight or 10 years, and there was little to no formal career training. Sharyl Nass, then co-president of the Johns Hopkins Postdoctoral Association, aptly summed up the situation this way: “We feel like we are not being treated like grown-ups.”

As I reacquainted myself with that earlier article and then dug in to edit our 2021 story, I was gratified to confirm that we aren’t just paying lip service: Life has improved significantly for our postdocs today — and deservedly so

Sue DePasquale