postdoc

A postdoc is a Ph.D. holder who has not been able to secure a stable academic position and therefore sticks around in different labs. A postdoc often lives off soft money in a series of 2-/3-year appointments, until he or she lands a tenure-track position, leaves academia for an industry job, finds a room in the parents' basement, or commit suicide in despair.

Jane: "You know, something's eating away that leftover muffins on the table. Must be mice or roaches hiding in this lab."

Tom: "No, that's our postdoc John."

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