postdoctoral research associate

research associate

engineer

associate scientist

physicist

Brookhaven National Laboratory

My experience with this place it’s been awful, and myself and most of my coworkers doing basic science are pretty disappointed.
From the outside, national labs seem like good place to work. But the reality is that they are really different from the academic environments that most of the scientists are used to. They are not either a company or a university. Somehow is hard to jump into a better position and is pretty hard to get hired (you are probably gonna say: I know somebody who was hired!....try and see…). Of course, your situation is gonna depend on your adviser but in general my coworkers want to leave, and are desperately looking for new jobs. Also, some of the scientific stuff come from industry and dont really have a broad academic background which is important for postdocs who want to pursue an academic career (recommendation letters from important professors are pretty important for this, and in national labs there are no important professor).
However, engineering and administrative positions are pretty good. They have sense of continuity, good benefits and have, in general a happy life.
My advice: if you are a postdoc who wants to go industry, this is the place for you. If you wanna pursue an academic career don’t go here or you’ll be screwed!
Good luck!

BNL is a huge science facility  and part of the DOE where the brightest minds in the world collaborate on cutting edge research on state of the art equipment.  I assisted in the science learning center where elemntary students came on field trips to use hands on manipulatives to learn about science and how it relates to the research being conducted on premise.  I have relocated to Florida recently but still help with virtual programs on zoom.  Its awesome to encourage and motivate students towards the STEM fields, giving purpose to learning and making it fun.  The people there all so interesting and like a big family.  Probably the hardest part of the job is also the most enjoyable.  Learning and understanding how the experiments work and staying on top of all they do there. Ecspecially to answer the questions from our future budding scientists.



BNL is govt owned but contractor operated so they expect you to work for low wages while expecting nobel prize winning work from you. They heavily favor degrees over actual achievement and efficiency. There is definitely an old boys club where they tend to hold back information that you need to succeed in you position.

Some of my supervisors were an absolute dream to work for. I had so much fun learning and growing in the beginning but they made some out of turn promotions to the wrong people and it has gone downhill to make matters worse the pay increase is miniscule and no assurance of any further growth.

Don't take this place as your first job perhaps 3rd or 4th job or if you want to gain experience right out of college but get out within 1-2 years lest you become career tracked.

I am surrounded by experts in many fields on Physics and Technology. Everyday is easy to learn how to use new equipment, how to deal with the unexpected during the experiments. I keep a fluent contact with many high-tech companies which is always a good way to keep updated about the needs in "real world" out of the lab. The multicultural environment is also an enrichment process which allows me to learn and understand other cultures. I have to manage with many different workers, from supervising students to keep involved technitians helping in the experiments design. The hardest part is the management of time and the planning of different experiments at the same time in different locations inside the lab. The most enjoyable part is when an experiment is succesful and all the work probes to be worth...:).

The typical day is stress free production with month end deadlines to meet.  Most days there are new learning experience you encounter with great management who are willing to teach and share their knowledge.  Life with my co-workers are fun and enjoyable we share and care for each other, we also celebrate each other birthday by each person contributing for the persons of the month birthday. The hardest part of the job is meeting deadlines, however, because of the culture of working together as a team and the desire to make the company achieve its goal we have been alway met the challenge successfully. The most enjoyable part of my job is achieving my daily goals.This is a very productive organization with great quality of life experience, This organization care about the well being of the employees.

Although I was hired to fill a "One-year term" appointment, that provision was downplayed and I was actively encouraged to accept the position with the suggestion from management that "all new hires are deemed 'term' appointments" with renewals almost a certainty. Prior to accepting the position, management was less than honest with me and should have made it quite clear that there is no expectation of a renewal at the end of the term.

Brookhaven National Laboratory is a US DOE laboratory and, with the new administration's antipathy towards climate science and science in general, over 500 layoffs were sustained laboratory wide.

Great place to work. You work with some of the smartest scientists and engineers in the world. People take pride in their work. There is a high level of responsibility that goes along with working on very expensive equipment with life threatening failure mode consequences. At the end of the day you  feel good about working on something that will further science and perhaps someday lead to amazing practical results in the fields of energy and health.

I would meet with my other engineers and professor. We would meet at the lab and work on the magneto optic kerr effect project. I learned about the ferromagnetic properties of different materials and plotting them in labview software to create a visual graphical representation of the data generated. The environment was awesome, everyone was friendly and dedicated to their work. The hardest part was figuring out how to integrate the photo elastic modulator with the labview software when there wasn't any instructions on how to do so. The most enjoyable part was working the different scientist and coming up with a solution and actually resolving and issue to present in our meetings.

Most of the days were spent planning and executing the development of metal chelators, their complexes, and metal clusters and nanoparticles as theranostic agents (agents for diagnostic imaging and therapy) for targeted radiation and chemotherapy. The management always came up with innovative ways to do research and co-workers provided lot of help and encouragement. The hardest part was working with radioisotopes with protective gear and equipment that at times limited dexterity and the most enjoyable part was working with co-workers, experienced senior scientists and management staff.

This is an unusual working place, this is National Laboratory, you need to try it to understand all features and bugs.
Start to learn how to write a proposals or be a part of long-last project that has a big budget. A lot of trainings, starting with cibersecurity and finishing with diversity of working place.Nice coworkers and great benefits and o lot of bureaucracy. I think that there are more managers and supporting personal than actual scientists in the national lab system.

Each September is very stressful as one FY is ending and next FY is going to start because of DOE budget problems.

Nice place to work and nice place to live (I mean the Eastern part of Long Island), relatively close to Manhattan.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Postdoctoral research associate 4 salaries reported	$80,150 per year
Research associate 4 salaries reported	$84,000 per year
Engineer 3 salaries reported	$95,000 per year
Associate scientist 3 salaries reported	$130,000 per year
Physicist 4 salaries reported	$137,892 per year

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