Brookhaven LAB Reviews

Pros

Top people, interesting characters, research environment, autonomy, and friendliness of most staff. Great location with good recreational facilities, birds and wildlife, woods to explore and social activities. Has a lot of community spirit.

Cons

The struggle for funding if you are on "soft money" can be stressful and soul-destroying. Some people are insecure and competitive.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't be so callous when it comes to laying off people who lose funding because of political decisions. They deserve all your support.

Pros

State of the art Technology
Some of the best in the field
Happy Employees
Abundant Parking
I was pretty satisfied working there

Cons

The food is rather expensive and the entire place is so big that it gets rather confusing at times to navigate.

Advice to Senior Management

There is not much I can say, keep doing what you're doing because it's pretty good. The food can be cheaper I guess.

Pros

Great Benefits, and work place policies are enforced. Many jobs available in different fields.

Cons

Government mentality. Cost savings rarely a consideration when doing things. Attitude of "That's the way we've always done it." is present everywhere and sometimes a detriment to what you are trying to accomplish. No one will ever admit wrong, or mistakes in judgement, even if it means living with less than desireable consequences. Technically a government contractor that is subject to government stipulations as well (ie payroll freeze)

Advice to Senior Management

Stop worrying what other labs are doing. If it doesn't work for Brookhaven Lab, then it doesn't work. Just because a system of doing things worked somewhere else, doesn't mean it WILL work here. Forcing initiatives down everyone's throat, becuase it was your idea and you want it to work, doesn't mean it will. Especially when it means losing great leaders, like Sam Aronson, because of the mess it has created.

Pros

Large campus with multidisciplinary exposure and caring scientific leadership to students and post doctoral fellows. Excellent benefits packages, especially retirement. Access to facilities and capabilities that may not be available elsewhere in the east coast.

Cons

The location is far from New York City and about 30 minutes drive from Stony Brook University, where most of the students and collaborations are available.

Advice to Senior Management

Despite many changes in the past several years, I hope the lab will continue to support women in science. I also hope the management will continue supporting non paying users as students and post doctoral fellows that might not have access to funding.

Pros

Flexible schedule and nice salary

Cons

Buerocratic and very high overhead

Pros

Good postdoc salary compared to other institutions.
Good facilities for quality of life, like gymnasium, swimming pool, day care, free parking, pollution free.

Cons

Away from city life, in the middle of nowhere.
Difficulty in access for your relatives, friends, partner if you are a foreign citizen.
Very few opportunities to attend conferences and workshops or to host and organize conferences and workshops.

Advice to Senior Management

Create more opportunities to retain talent.
Postdocs should not be seen as cheap expendable labor.

Pros

Great benefits, quality of life balance. Interesting work and opportunity to grow intellectually. Job security, generous vacation and sick time.

Cons

On the one hand scientists are top notch and work hard. On the other hand the support side of the house bloated with do-nothing bureaucrats who would never make it in industry. Cronyism rampant, management positions given to unqualified buddies/teachers pets. This is improving but it'll be a long time before the old guard retires.

Advice to Senior Management

Save millions of taxpayer dollars by eliminating management bloat. Stop the culture of cronyism that has existed for so long.

Pros

Science -- A diverse array of scientific opportunities for research with world class people.

Location -- Reasonably close to New York City.

Cons

Location -- Upton, NY is in the pine barrens of Long Island. There is not a lot around the lab to do. The cost of living is also substantial.

Advice to Senior Management

Spend less time addressing the lab community as a whole. Lab wide meetings are informative and helpful, but there were too many while I was there.

Pros

open to new techs
salary
environment (plenty of trees and wild animals around you)

Cons

workload (multiple tasks)
location (it's inconvenient, if you don't have a car, there's no train, bus or taxi)
food (only one cafe or restaurant is in service at a certain time of a day, though there are 3 of them at least)

Advice to Senior Management

balance the workload among employees, always follow the schedule

Pros

good pay, easy going atmosphere

Cons

Need decisiveness technically and clarity in HR emails