Predoctoral fellow

In the physical sciences and natural science a predoctoral fellow (pre-doc) refers to a researcher who has a bachelor's degree, but not a doctorate. As the name implies, predoctoral fellows often use their time as a fellow to develop their skills and résumé before applying to graduate school. They differ from lab managers or technicians in that they primarily pursue research, rather than maintain the day-to-day function of a lab, and may have external funding to support their research or educational activities, but typically are also reliant on the support of a research mentor whose lab they work in.

In Mathematics and some Science disciplines, typically a pre-doc is somebody already registered in a Ph.D. program at a host university to work together with a professor in a different topic with respect to his/her topic.