NCSES GSS 2012 GSS2012 32

Table 32. Postdoctoral appointees in science, engineering, and health in all institutions, by detailed field: 2006–12

Field	2006	2007old^a	2007new^a	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
All surveyed fields	49,343	50,712	50,840	54,164	57,805	63,439	62,639	62,851
Science and engineering	34,887	35,894	36,223	38,203	40,804	44,320	44,121	43,841
Science	30,245	30,986	31,281	32,741	34,388	37,351	37,335	36,738
Agricultural sciences	927	948	985	1,147	1,083	1,190	1,256	1,290
Biological sciences	18,807	19,218	19,109	19,827	20,159	21,726	21,107	20,086
Anatomy	377	364	341	350	371	413	374	287
Biochemistry	2,416	2,365	2,305	2,314	2,351	2,523	2,314	2,232
Biology	2,319	2,438	2,341	2,506	2,430	2,533	2,341	2,268
Biometry and epidemiology	300	337	349	330	395	566	523	536
Biophysics	224	187	186	165	180	263	194	185
Botany	636	612	610	625	640	559	561	596
Cell biology	2,407	2,387	2,429	2,382	2,638	2,780	2,653	2,574
Ecology	192	208	200	221	233	216	200	205
Entomology and parasitology	241	246	246	222	248	233	261	266
Genetics	851	934	940	989	1,054	1,348	1,460	1,407
Microbiology, immunology, and virology	2,150	2,340	2,258	2,204	2,265	2,566	2,574	2,437
Nutrition	259	324	298	243	214	245	247	224
Pathology	1,587	1,573	1,576	1,791	1,791	1,811	1,673	1,582
Pharmacology	1,436	1,345	1,349	1,411	1,523	1,652	1,554	1,383
Physiology	1,261	1,188	1,319	1,329	1,427	1,461	1,527	1,399
Zoology	103	103	101	68	78	76	85	87
Biological sciences nec	2,048	2,267	2,261	2,677	2,321	2,481	2,566	2,418
Communication^a	ne	ne	30	32	38	62	67	58
Computer sciences	467	516	456	493	594	763	759	760
Earth, atmospheric, and ocean sciences	1,495	1,322	1,250	1,339	1,424	1,740	1,774	1,956
Atmospheric sciences	128	117	119	116	124	189	167	209
Geosciences	542	511	515	540	536	601	578	637
Oceanography	346	337	337	330	410	332	408	446
Earth, atmospheric, and ocean sciences nec	479	357	279	353	354	618	621	664
Family and consumer sciences and human sciences^a	ne	ne	8	19	22	30	52	58
Mathematical sciences	579	621	624	723	737	791	830	902
Mathematics and applied mathematics	512	579	571	643	675	715	733	782
Statistics	67	42	53	80	62	76	97	120
Multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary studies^a	ne	ne	244	348	459	785	704	742
Neuroscience^a	na	na	285	343	645	838	1,398	1,525
Physical sciences	6,703	6,760	6,719	6,885	7,447	7,583	7,490	7,430
Astronomy	360	400	401	432	507	532	524	509
Chemistry	4,045	3,997	3,952	3,943	4,219	4,179	4,005	4,016
Physics	2,130	2,203	2,206	2,327	2,517	2,608	2,694	2,651
Physical sciences nec	168	160	160	183	204	264	267	254
Psychology^b	873	1,106	1,088	1,077	1,219	1,132	1,124	1,132
Clinical psychology	62	72	72	65	130	135	94	104
Psychology, general	537	698	686	732	755	664	639	613
Psychology nec	274	336	330	280	334	333	391	415
Social sciences	394	495	483	508	561	711	774	799
Agricultural economics	36	48	44	45	43	44	47	60
Anthropology (cultural and social)	61	80	80	88	77	86	82	96
Economics (except agricultural)	16	33	37	35	65	60	38	50
Geography	63	40	40	40	58	62	58	69
History and philosophy of science	8	13	9	9	9	17	9	14
Linguistics	25	26	20	21	14	27	31	31
Political science	62	44	44	55	77	93	220	176
Sociology	37	60	53	42	59	83	91	97
Sociology and anthropology	6	1	1	2	3	0	2	2
Social sciences nec	80	150	155	171	156	239	196	204
Engineering	4,642	4,908	4,942	5,462	6,416	6,969	6,786	7,103
Aerospace engineering	165	178	178	154	168	212	202	170
Agricultural engineering	116	139	139	135	110	119	129	133
Architecture^a	na	na	5	11	22	10	16	6
Biomedical engineering	591	640	640	710	960	1,023	1,069	1,161
Chemical engineering	735	758	790	880	1,084	1,077	1,137	1,098
Civil engineering^a	458	419	417	465	535	571	551	590
Electrical engineering	721	885	884	987	1,025	1,095	1,035	1,152
Engineering science	224	192	183	214	226	236	281	292
Industrial engineering	51	73	71	115	109	151	121	127
Mechanical engineering	644	725	722	784	948	1,021	889	985
Metallurgical and materials engineering	571	555	564	605	758	841	860	854
Mining engineering	11	4	5	5	4	4	4	5
Nuclear engineering	85	77	73	85	90	107	111	120
Petroleum engineering	18	22	22	28	36	44	35	53
Engineering nec	252	241	249	284	341	458	346	357
Health^b	14,456	14,818	14,617	15,961	17,001	19,119	18,518	19,010
Clinical medicine	12,584	12,805	12,472	13,837	14,601	16,515	16,165	16,361
Anesthesiology	335	334	334	395	435	497	407	436
Cardiology	420	394	432	515	532	624	687	787
Endocrinology	287	299	313	334	475	456	439	473
Gastroenterology	247	245	245	236	269	303	343	319
Hematology	243	293	293	344	429	347	364	367
Neurology^a	1,565	1,614	1,304	1,363	1,418	1,305	1,029	952
Obstetrics and gynecology	334	182	182	228	279	349	324	307
Oncology and cancer research	1,156	1,432	1,508	1,571	1,681	1,919	1,867	1,923
Ophthalmology	340	375	371	466	462	466	461	518
Otorhinolaryngology	155	125	125	137	137	142	158	144
Pediatrics	937	901	901	985	1,003	1,311	1,441	1,583
Preventive medicine and community health	276	342	351	379	395	630	654	730
Psychiatry	812	855	791	888	918	959	979	1,089
Pulmonary disease	136	198	198	237	251	285	294	279
Radiology	837	885	841	845	977	1,032	987	979
Surgery	1,135	1,243	1,209	1,249	1,342	1,267	1,241	1,373
Clinical medicine nec	3,369	3,088	3,074	3,665	3,598	4,623	4,490	4,102
Other health^b	1,872	2,013	2,145	2,124	2,400	2,604	2,353	2,649
Dental sciences	192	206	272	270	291	353	346	343
Nursing	61	65	65	92	70	55	79	76
Pharmaceutical sciences	718	756	798	809	977	1,070	1,009	982
Speech pathology and audiology	52	84	84	59	58	55	48	59
Veterinary sciences	452	420	498	486	470	468	450	534
Other health nec	397	482	428	408	534	603	421	655

na = not applicable; data were not collected at this level of detail. ne = not eligible; data were not collected for this field prior to 2007.

nec = not elsewhere classified.

^a In 2007, eligible fields were reclassified, newly eligible fields were added, and the survey was redesigned to improve coverage and coding of eligible units. “2007new” presents data as collected in 2007; “2007old” shows data as they would have been collected in prior years. The science fields Communication and Family and consumer sciences and human sciences were newly eligible in 2007; data for these two fields begin in 2007new. The science field Multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary studies was also added to the code list in 2007; some data reported in this field were reported under other fields before 2007 and are included in those fields in 2007old. Neuroscience is reported as a separate field of science in 2007new; data were reported under health field Neurology in 2007old and previous years. Architecture is reported as a separate field of engineering in 2007new; data were reported under Civil engineering in 2007old and previous years. See appendix A in http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/nsf10307/ for more detail.

^b In 2010, the postdoc section of the survey was expanded, and significant effort was made to ensure that appropriate personnel were providing postdoc data (see appendix A for more information). Thus, it is unclear how much of the increases in 2010 and later years over 2009 and prior years are from growth in postdoctoral appointments and how much are from improved data collection. More information on the changes to the postdoc data collection is available at http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf13334/.

^c Postdoc data from 2010 and 2011 were reimputed following the 2012 data collection; these data supersede those contained in previous reports.

NOTES: “Field” refers to the field of the unit that reports postdocs to the GSS.

SOURCE: National Science Foundation, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, NSF-NIH Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering.

Data from survey cycle Fall 2012, as of December 2013.