UCSF and Gladstone Institutes among best places to work in academia

By Kate Vidinsky

UCSF and the UCSF-affiliated J. David Gladstone Institutes have been named among the top 10 best places to work in U.S. academia, according to 2009 survey results announced today by “The Scientist” magazine. The magazine ranks UCSF as the second best academic work setting and the Gladstone Institutes as sixth. 

UCSF and Gladstone are the only California institutions to rank in the top 10.

“We are honored to achieve this ranking, which reflects UCSF’s commitment to attracting and cultivating top talent and fostering collaboration among scientists,” said UCSF Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann, MD, MPH. “UCSF is a vibrant, amazing, innovative institution where great science is carried out and where people want to make a difference.”

The rankings were based on 2,355 responses from magazine readers and registrants on the magazine’s website who identified themselves as life scientists with a permanent position in an academic, hospital, government or research organization.  A total 94 U.S. institutions were represented in responses.

According to the magazine, survey respondents were asked to assess their working environment according to 38 criteria in eight different areas: overall job satisfaction, peers, teaching and mentoring, infrastructure and environment, pay, research resources, tenure and promotion, and management and policies.

Among the most important work environment factors cited in this year’s survey were collaboration, team building and unique funding opportunities. The rankings showed overall job satisfaction and peers as particular strengths at UCSF, while the survey cited infrastructure/environment and management/policies as positives at Gladstone.

Survey results and information on the top 40 U.S. and top 10 international institutions appear in the November 2009 issue of “The Scientist.” The article as well as in-depth analysis, full color charts, methodology and past survey results also can be found online at www.The-Scientist.com/bptw.

UCSF is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. Further information is available at http://www.ucsf.edu/.

The J. David Gladstone Institutes, an independent, non-profit biomedical research organization affiliated with the University of California, San Francisco, is dedicated to the health and welfare of humankind through research into the causes and prevention of some of the world’s most devastating diseases. Gladstone is comprised of the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease, the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology and the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease. More information can be found at www.gladstone.ucsf.edu.


The top 10 U.S. institutions in the 2009 survey are:

  1. Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
  2. University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), San Francisco, CA
  3. Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY
  4. University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, OK
  5. Emory University, Atlanta, GA
  6. J. David Gladstone Institutes, San Francisco, CA
  7. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, TN
  8. Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, WA
  9. The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, Ardmore, OK
  10. Mayo Clinic, Rochester, NY