This week, The Scientist ranks readers' picks for the top 40 places to work in industry in 2011. Notably, the top three firms overall are each staffed by no more than 100 employees. This year, Epizyme — the Cambridge, Mass.-based drug-development company, which has fewer than 50 employees — takes top honors. The Scientist notes the firm's "integrity" and "communications" as its greatest strengths. Another small biotech, Conversant Bio — the Huntsville, Ala., company, headquartered on the Hudson-Alpha Institute for Biotechnology's campus — ranked second this year, and is honored for its "job satisfaction" and "management," according to The Scientist. Rounding out the top three is the Fargo, N.D.-based Aldevron — the plasmid, protein, and antibody services provider, with 50 to 100 staffers — which is noted for its strengths in "communication," as well as its "remuneration and benefits," according to The Scientist.
Full disclosure: The Scientist's Hannah Waters, who authored the articles that accompany the survey data, is a minority investor in GenomeWeb, though has no editorial input in our publications.