I wouldn't say that all tenured or tenure-track faculty or other professors are necessarily more experienced than all postdocs - especially these days with the shortcomings in career opportunities in science, postdocs are racking up quite impressive CV's. My CV itself would out-do some current profs. I have seen if there were truly a competitive system in science.

You should look in general outside the NSF/NIH. These are rigid systems controlled by the establishment (current profs and permanent science employees) and of course they don't want to be competing with postdocs (and want to keep the competition pool small in general). Most Universities I know, for example, won't allow postdocs to be principle investigators on grants they write. So my recommendation is, don't write any grant you can't be PI of.

HOWEVER, societies like National Geographic Society, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and others accept grant proposals on their merits, not based on the titles of the applicants. I think other philanthropic foundations work the same way.

Also, for things advertised as "fellowship" or even "Grant" that are targeted toward postdocs, don't be afraid to ask "does this REQUIRE that I select a faculty boss?". I have found some that say no outright, or "we encourage it, but it's not required". That could also be a foot in the door - write it anyhow and get letters of support from department chairs and the institutions I mentioned before (tech startup incubators, etc.) willing to HOST your researchers - basically give you some kind of appointment should you bring home the bacon (get one or more grants funded). If you show them the money, some more forward-thinking places/departments will show you the labspace (and appointment)!

Aaron T. Dossey, Ph.D.
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology




On 4/14/2011 10:58 AM, Pekin, Burak K wrote:
Hello Aaron,
Could you direct me to funding opportunities for post-docs or other non-tenure 
tract researchers. It looks like most opportunities are either geared toward 
getting a post-doc scholarship or are in open competition with more experienced 
researchers.
-Burak

-----Original Message-----
From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news 
[mailto:ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU] On Behalf Of Aaron T. Dossey
Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2011 9:59 AM
To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU
Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Looking for a postdoctoral position - career options

Biogeochemistry and geochemistry are pretty popular topics. I have seen several faculty positions on 
these topics over the past several months (dunno how many there are currently) at "Science 
Careers", in the back of Science Magazine, on Chemical&  Engineering News, on the American 
Chemical Society's jobs/careers list, etc. (URLs below). There may be chemistry, biochemistry, organic 
or inorganic chemistry "broadly defined" positions in which you could also pursue your 
biogeochemistry
research:

General statement for anyone looking for a postdoc position: Why not go for a 
faculty position? Don't worry, you're qualified - don't be afraid to apply!
ALSO don't forget that there is funding out there that we (postdocs, or other 
non-professor scientists) can apply for and we should all be applying, 
especially if you haven't landed that holy grail faculty position! I am 
applying for some. If you get your own funding, that is good either way - 
either it helps you land a more stable independent research position (like 
faculty, etc.) or generally gives you more independence (start your own lab, 
company, or affiliate with an institution for lab space as a staff scientist or 
some other affiliation, or affiliate with one of these biotech/research 
incubators that many universities have)!

http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/

http://chemistryjobs.acs.org/jobs

Aaron T. Dossey, Ph.D.
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology




On 4/14/2011 6:44 AM, Baojing Gu wrote:
To whom it may concern,

I am a PhD candidate from Zhejiang University, China, and will get the
doctoral degree this June. During my PhD studies, I mainly focus on
human and nature coupled biogeochemistry (including nitrogen and
carbon cycling on a large scale), and urban ecology (mainly testing
the role of human in urban ecosystem).

Our new paper about coupled human and nature nitrogen cycling in
urbanized region published in Environ. Res. Lett. (Gu et al., 2011)
has been download over 500 times in 41 days after online, which lists
top 3% of all paper published in IOP journals.

I also interest in the connection between nitrogen cycling and human
health, and further how this connection changes global climate and
environment on the basis on socioeconomic development.

My Short CV:

EDUCATION
2006-present. PhD Candidate - Institute of Ecology and Conservation
Biology, Department of Biological Science, College of Life Sciences,
Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China. Research filed: "Urban Ecology&
Biogeochemistry".

2007-2008. Visiting PhD student - Department of Renewable Resources,
University of Alberta, Edmonton, and Global Environment and Climate
Change Center (GEC3), McGill University, Montreal, Canada. Research filed:
"Environmental Science&   Ecological Modelling".

2002-2006. B.A. - Honors Program of Science, Chu Ko Chen Honors
College and Biological Science, College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang
University, Hangzhou, China.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Gu, B., Liu, D., Wu, X., Ge, Y., Min, Y., Chang, J. Utilization of
waste nitrogen for biofuel production in China. Renew. Sust. Energ.
Rev., 2011, (Accepted).

Li, S., Wu, X., Xue, H., Gu, B., Cheng, H., Zeng, J., Peng, C., Ge,
Y., Chang, J. Quantifying carbon storage for tea plantations in China. Agric.
Ecosys. Environ., 2011, (Accepted).

Gu, B., Zhu, Y., Chang, J., Peng, C., Liu, D., Min, Y., Luo, W.,
Howarth, R.W., Ge, Y. The role of technology and policy in mitigating
regional nitrogen pollution. Environ. Res. Lett., 2011, 6, 014011.
Insight: including humans in urban biogeochemistry research
(http://environmentalresearchweb.org/cws/article/news/45414)

Wang, Y., Xu, H., Wu, X., Zhu, Y., Gu, B., Niu, X., Liu, A., Peng, C.,
Ge, Y., Chang, J. Quantification of net carbon flux from plastic
greenhouse vegetable cultivation: a full carbon cycle analysis.
Environ. Pollut., 2011, 159, 1427-1434.

Min, Y., Gong, W., Jin, X., Chang, J., Gu, B., Han, Z., Ge, Y. NCNA:
Integrated platform for constructing, visualizing, analyzing and
sharing human-mediated nitrogen biogeochemical networks. Environ.
Modell. Softw., 2011, 26, 678-679.

Gu, B., Ge, Y., Zhu, G., Xu, H., Chang, J., Xu, Q. Terrestrial
nitrogen discharges to the ocean derived from human activities in the
Greater Hangzhou Area, China. Acta. Sci. Circum., 2010, 30(10),
2078-2087. (In Chinese with English abstract)

Gu, B., Chang, J., Ge, Y, Ge, H., Yuan, C., Peng, C., Jiang, H.
Anthropogenic modification of the nitrogen cycling within the Greater
Hangzhou Area system, China. Ecol. Appl., 2009, 19(4), 974-988.

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
Gu, B., Ge, Y., Chang, S.X., Peng, C., Chang, J. Ecological
consequences of rapid urban development in Edmonton, Alberta.
Frontiers of Soil Science, Canadian Society of Soil Science 2008
annual meeting. Prince George, British Columbia, July 6 - 10, 2008.
(Oral presentation)

Gu, B., Ge, Y., Chang, J., Chang, S.X. Ecological and socioeconomic
consequences of rapid urban development in Edmonton, Alberta.
Abstracts of the 45th Annual Alberta Soil Science Workshop: Ecological
Footprint of Human Activities on Alberta's Soils. February 19-21,
2008. Lethbridge Lodge Hotel and Conference Centre, Lethbridge,
Alberta. (Poster paper)

See my homepage for detail information:
http://www.cls.zju.edu.cn/eae/English/BaojingGu

Please feel free to contact me if you are interested.

Best Regards!

Baojing

--
Baojing Gu
Urban Ecology&   Biogeochemistry
College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University Office Tel&   Fax:
+86-571-8820 6465 Cell phone: +86-139 581 10801
Homepage: http://www.cls.zju.edu.cn/eae/English/BaojingGu

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