Career Center

A Postdoctoral Fellow (""postdoc"") is a professional apprenticeship designed to provide
recent Ph.D. recipients with an opportunity to develop further the research skills
acquired in their doctoral programs or to learn new research techniques, in preparation
for an academic or research career. In the process of further developing their own
research skills, it is expected that Postdoctoral Fellows will also play a significant role in
the performance of research at the University and augment the role of graduate faculty
in providing research instruction to graduate students. A Postdoctoral Fellow works
under the supervision of a regular faculty member, who serves as a mentor to the
Fellow, and it is expected that the faculty mentor will impart the realities, and variety, of
scientific careers, and will encourage experiences outside the laboratory to broaden
postdocs' aspirations. Within the confines of the particular research focus assigned by
that faculty member, the Postdoctoral Fellow functions with a considerable degree of
independence and has the freedom (and is expected) to publish the results of his or her
research or scholarship during the period of appointment. Thus, the role of Postdoctoral
Fellows is clearly differentiated from full-time technical employees.
Postdoc appointments are characterized by all of the following conditions:
* the appointee was recently (within the last eight years) awarded a Ph.D. or equivalent
doctorate (e.g., Sc.D., M.D.);
* the appointment is temporary;
* the appointment involves substantially full-time research or scholarship;
* the appointment is viewed as preparatory for a full-time academic and/or research
career;
* the appointee works under the supervision of a faculty member; and
* the appointee has the freedom and is expected to publish the results of his or her
research or scholarship during the period of appointment.
As an EOE/AA employer and an ADVANCE Institution that strives to create an academic
climate in which the dignity of all individuals is respected and maintained, the University
of North Carolina at Charlotte encourages applications from all underrepresented
groups. Applicants subject to criminal background check.

The Postdoctoral appointee must have recently (within the last eight years) been awarded a Ph.D. or equivalent doctorate (e.g., Sc.D., M.D.)

The employee will have already acquired a Ph.D. or equivalent degree and should be
able to exercise scientific judgment daily. They will evaluate incoming information
through experimental data and observations, written literature documentation, and oral
communications and use this information to make judgments about what step(s) will next
lead to progress.
Preferable expertise: Strong computational skills are required. Background microbial ecology, metagenomics, molecular genetics, evolution are not required but are highly desirable.