Prof. dr. Christian Gilissen
Research group leader, Genome Bioinformatics, Radboudumc
Who is Christian?
Christian: I did all of my career here at Radboudumc. I did my PhD in 2012 and then a postdoc for two years. In 2014, I became an assistant professor and got a permanent contract. In 2016, I became an associate professor. And in 2021, I became a full professor.
For me, my career was very smooth. I do computational work in genetics, a very unique niche, and there's a big demand for that. I also came at a very good time when the department as a whole was doing very well in terms of research. I focused mostly on the work, and my supervisors helped to push my academic career, because they thought it would be good to keep my expertise in the department. There were less rules back then, so if the department saw somebody who they thought had a lot of potential and it was strategically important, they had more possibilities to stimulate the career of that person.
I have a few postdocs myself as well. I always say, “if you want to have a successful scientific career, there's a large degree of luck in there, and so there's always the random chance.” And there's, of course, the things that you can do yourself to increase your chances, so a good CV. And what also helps is sometimes you need to be willing to do stuff for your organization.
Christian’s Portrait of Postdocs
What does postdoc mean to you?
Christian: To me, the postdoc is a transition period where you start out from a position that is a bit like a PhD, where you work on a research project that is your supervisor's. From there onwards, you explore to see if you can do something by yourself, whether you have good ideas, and to get your first independent funding.
I think, for many people, it's also for finding out whether this works for them. Sometimes postdocs who really like to do the research might not like to think themselves too much about what ideas are going to be useful to explore.
What would (not) fall under postdocs’ responsibility?
Christian: You have what falls under a postdoc’s responsibility, but also what should you be focusing on as a postdoc. In the end, if your goal is to become an independent researcher, you need to get funding. An important criteria for getting funding is to show that you have potential. You might have done a very good PhD, in a very good group. Then the postdoc is the moment where you can show that you can do well without that group or on a different project. It's a research position, so that is probably the most important.
Other potential responsibilities?
Christian: Some postdocs would like to focus on teaching. It's also one of our main tasks to teach. And if you want to grow into a PI position, supervision is also essential. For example, we work a lot with interns. All of my postdocs supervise an intern or sometimes a new PhD student.
There's a lot of freedom in a postdoc. The core will always remain the research. And next to that, I think you can explore a lot of other things, and it really depends on what you want to do.
Support in career development
How do you support your postdocs in their career development?
Christian: There are different things that you can try to do to help postdocs. Sometimes we have very talented people, and we’re able to give them some sort of a financial incentive, sponsoring the contract for a year or investing in their ideas.
If you aspire a long-term career as a PI, then it’s important that you feel that also other people think that this is a fruitful endeavor. Then we try to look together what we need to work on to make that happen. If a career as a PI is not something that is possible or desired, then we talk about other options and that usually depends on what you see that people enjoy.
It is good that people are now much earlier aware that there are other careers paths than just a research career. I think when you're that highly educated, it is not difficult to find an alternative career. You just have to be a little bit open-minded.
Is there support from your organization for career development?
Christian: No, not specifically. Usually, if postdocs feel like they want some advice or guidance on this, they just approach somebody who they feel has experience with this or who has contacts in companies or is doing work that is relevant.
At the level of the research institute, career days are organized, where you can discuss about what you want and get shown what options are out there. I think that's very good because in research we’re not always exposed to company options.
Do you see changes in the postdoc position?
Christian: I do see some changes. I'm a big believer in culture of a group, of a department. What has changed a lot after COVID is obviously that now a lot of people work from home. Also we’re flex-working, and people have to randomly choose their desk/office, so the workplace is no longer personalized. Because of this, people become more detached from other groups or from the department as a whole and focus more on their own work. In that sense, we also used to have lots of group events where researchers would meet for drinks or to celebrate something. Now that's no longer done that much because it is more difficult to get everybody together.
I feel that because of this, it is more difficult to feel connected to your department, which is actually important if you want to develop a career there, especially for postdocs. It's also a limiting factor in exploring new ideas, because a lot of ideas and projects actually come from just meeting other scientists and saying, “oh, how's it going? What are you working on now?”
How do you think of the trend of treating a postdoc like a student?
Christian: I have heard this comment before, especially postdocs in the US. I don't feel that it is like that here in the Netherlands. It’s not something that I support myself.
For me, the PhD is a training to become a researcher, and the postdoc is a training to become from a researcher to an independent group leader. When I was a postdoc, I had a lot of coaching. I received a training course that covered lots of different aspects how to work with people, how to organize your work, how to plan things, how to be creative, how to network, all of these kinds of things. It was very useful, and I would definitely encourage that.
Is the postdoc position attractive to early career researchers?
Christian: It depends on what you want in life.
At least in my department, with the type of work that we do, there's lots of benefits. We work with patients that we try to help. We work with super new technologies. We have a very collaborative and nice culture in the department. The salary, of course, is moderate compared to companies, but there is compensation in other things, such as the amount of freedom you have on how you do your work.
The problem is the long-term perspective. That is very limited. I think if you do a postdoc, you have to be willing to say, “okay, I will just do it. I will enjoy the work that I do and then see where it takes me.”. I'm not saying that everybody should do it like that, but it gives you a bit more relaxation and perspective.
What can be done to improve?
Christian: It's difficult. In the end, it is a pyramid, and many people want to become a group leader. I think, part of doing a PhD and a postdoc is actually learning what being a group leader entails.
I think we're already doing a lot, and many things are improving. Being very clear at the outset of a postdoc is important, about what the postdoc wants, about what the perspectives are, and also about that the fact that the perspectives for becoming a PI are limited.
What bothers me personally is that, even when there are people who we think are absolutely brilliant and excellent, there's sometimes not that much that we can do to help them. There’s less flexibility in the system. There's also a big gap now between a postdoc and an assistant professor, and there is no such thing as “an aspiring PI”. I think that could really help, where you can say for some people, even only as a label, that we see their potential to become a PI in the future, without any other commitments.