An early career researcher which usually means within eight years completing the PhD, around the age of 32-38. After successfully defending my PhD thesis in 2021, four years have passed by, including 2 years's post doc studying and 2 more years' professional career training. For someone who acquired PhD degree earlier at age of 28(22.5+5.5), they have a great chance to transit to an independent researcher in either academic or industrial before 35 if they involve in some great projects. This suggests within seven years after graduating, there are chances for stepping onto an independent researcher level.
Of course, a great project desires the long time to keep focus on, while it is not always the case to contribute to the research without worrying about the cost of living. Albert Einstein acquired his bachelor in physics and mathematics at the age of 21, and with the help of his classmate's father, he secured a permanent position at the Swiss Patent Office in Bern(1902). This government position offered him and his wife Mileva stable finical support until he resigned the Swiss Patent Office on October 15, 1909. He then headed to the assistant professor position at university of Zurich. Surprisingly, during the seven years government position, he defended his PhD at university of Zurich in “miracle year” - 1905 and published four groundbreaking papers including the E=mc2. This was definitely a huge success as an early career researcher.
But how could he worked in Swiss patent office - full time job as well as making consistent research progress in the short five years (1900-1905), let along in 1915, he continued to propose a general theory of relativity. It turns out that many European universities at that time including the Zurich university was structured course of study with mandatory classes and exams, the Flexible Doctoral Program allows Albert Einstein did not require full-time attendance or coursework, and his research on molecular dimensions was accepted as a suitable dissertation.
As Einstein's doctoral advisor at the University of Zurich, Alfre Kleiner provided guidance and support during Einstein's early career. He also advised Einstein to publish his work on the electrodynamics of moving bodies. Furthermore, Kleiner recommended Einstein for a newly created professorship in theoretical physics at the University of Zurich.
Similar to the theoretical physics developing mathematical and computational models to understand the universe, Bioinformatics is focusing on dry lab work to use computational tools to analyze biological data including the machine learning algorithms and statistics analysis. How did Albert Einstein as the only author came up with some great ideas at his early stage which was still a mystery, his supervisor Alfre Kleiner did not co-author any papers, which suggested Alberta Einstein owned amazing independent thinking at age of 21-26.
<Last updated by Xi Zhang on Jul 21th,2025>