<img alt=“scientist punchstock.JPG” src=“https://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/scientist%20punchstock.JPG” width=“230” height=“220” hsapce=10 border=0 align=right />Yesterday was National Postdoc Appreciation Day and we asked our readers: why do you love postdocs?

There seem to be two schools of though out there. In the first camp, postdocs are appreciated for academic reasons:

“They make the lab go round” – mariopinedakrch.

“They mix the passion, curiosity and creativity of phd students w/ the experience and reason of PIs…and add it a drop of red wine” – juicytrouble.

“They bring creativity, excitement, & fantastic writing skills to the lab, esp if Canadian” – abelpharmboy.

Then there are those who (perhaps understandably) see only the bad side of life…

“We luv pdocs ‘cos it’s only human to luv defenceless, overworked, underpaid, always-anxious-for-survival creatures of God!” – rajkashana.

“I love pdocs b/c theyre the last buffer zone of academia before you have to get a real job” – poikiloblastic.

“I luv pdocs bcos I got to drive a U-Haul truck from SC to FL cos my boss was too cheap to pay removal ppl” – fatyak.

This theme was continued by other twitter users not in response to our question:

“When a job has an appreciation day, you know it sucks” – iddux.

“The best appreciation one can show a postdoc… is to find a way to gainfully employ them as something besides a postdoc…” – djenygma.

In a class of her own (n=1) wendypedia gets a dishonourable mention for answering a slightly different interpretation of the question. “Postdocs are better lovers (something about that PhD…)”

However, as we all know there can be only one winner, and in violation of all ethical norms the (imaginary) prize goes to: Nature employee Brendan Maher, for this:

Why do I #luvpdocs ? I’m married to one, and love her patience, her work ethic and her underappreciated brilliance.

Ahhhhhhh.