The results were tallied based on 3,529 responses from readers of The Scientist or registrants on the journal’s website who identified themselves as non-tenured life scientists working in academia or other non-commercial research institutions. The survey was open to scientists in the U.S., Canada, Western Europe and Israel. A total of 61 U.S. institutions and 30 non-U.S. institutions were included in the rankings.

Respondents were asked to assess their working environments by indicating their level of agreement (strongly agree, strongly disagree, neither agree nor disagree) on a scale of one to five with 56 criteria in 12 categories. They also indicated which factors mattered most to them.

Also ranked were the top 15 non-U.S. institutions, lead by the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.

Top U.S. Institutions in ‘Best Places to Work for Postdocs 2004’ Survey

1. Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia
2. Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
3. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park
4. National Cancer Institute (Bethesda, Rockville, Frederick)
5. HSPH
6. MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston
7. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore
8. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole
9. Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle
10. National Institutes of Health, Bethesda
11. University of Minnesota, St. Paul
12. California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
13. Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC
14. Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville
15. University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh