Postdoctoral Training

Each postdoctoral fellow employed by the University of Pennsylvania must complete a training program on the responsible conduct of research. The nature of this training program varies from department to department. The requirements for the program of the Department of Physics and Astronomy are simple: Each postdoc is expected to read two articles, Ethics and the Welfare of Physics and Trust and the Furture of Research, in the November, 2004 of Physics Today. In addition, each postdoc is required to meet at least once with his or her advisor to discuss issues like authorship, acquisition of data, copyrights, patents, research misconduct, and conflict of interest. Further information about these issues can be found at the Penn website on Responsible Conduct of Research.

It is the responsibility of each postdoctoral advisor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy to ensure that postdocs under his or her supervision complete this training program. The School of Arts and Sciences maintains a database on all postdocs in the school. Advisors should notify Vivian Hasiuk when postdocs have completed their training programs so that she can indicate on the databas that training has been completed.