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tion, and Careers. It is developing into a program aimed at helping the society’s “core demographic—graduate students and postdocs, who are at the beginning of their careers trying to get tenure or jobs,” Rouhi says. Through this program, “we want to give back to the people who are in our author and reviewer pools, as well as those who are reading and submitting to our journals,” Rouhi adds. One goal is to augment the information they receive from their advisers and academic programs. ACS on Campus also aims to introduce ACS as a membership and professional advancement organization, Rouhi says. And the society runs focus groups during the events so students, faculty members, and librarians can provide feedback on ACS products, services, and policies. At each location, students, faculty, and librarians from nearby campuses, as well as representatives from local businesses, are invited to participate in ACS on Campus events, which are open to the public. HANDS-ON DiCiccio
(left) studies the liquid crystals in a calculator with two other attendees at the ACS on Campus event at Cornell. The exercise was part of a session about the National Science Foundation’s “broader impacts” criterion, used in evaluating funding proposals.
ACS ON CAMPUS OUTREACH PROGRAM highlights society’s
resources at universities worldwide SUSAN J. AINSWORTH, C&EN DALLAS
MOST CHEMISTRY students, especially
graduate students and postdocs, would jump at the chance to get sage advice on publishing their research or launching their careers—particularly if that information is offered for free on campus in a oneday event. The American Chemical Society has developed the ACS on Campus program to meet these needs. The program, which launched in January 2010 and has since expanded, showcases the society’s resources and delivers additional information to students as well as faculty members, librarians, and others at universities in the U.S. and around the world. Attendees benefit from networking opportunities while participating in seminars on topics such as the basics of peer review, ethics in scholarly publishing, career building and development, and the effective use of tools such as SciFinder, the ACS Network, and ACS online journals. The program is modular and tailored to fit the needs and goals of the hosting campus, notes Sara Rouhi, manager for library relations within ACS Publications Sales. “ACS on Campus is a fabulous way for the society to engage and help students across the nation and in other countries,” says ACS President-Elect Marinda Li Wu, who has participated in two of these events.
Jennifer Novotney, a chemistry graduate student at Cornell University, says she benefited from the topics covered at the ACS on Campus event at her school last month, which she helped plan. “The publishing sessions were beneficial to my success as a chemist,” she says, “while other sessions such as one on résumé writing will help me in my job search.” The ACS on Campus program began as a Publications Division initiative aimed at helping communicate the value of the chemistry library and librarian to patrons who no longer visit the physical library, says Rouhi, who came up with the concept. “People tend to forget that many of their online resources come to them courtesy of their librarian,” she explains. “We wanted to make the librarian the hero by bringing resources to campus to demonstrate what librarians and ACS can do together for students and faculty members.” ACS on Campus has since evolved into a cross-divisional society outreach program supported by several ACS units, including Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), Membership & Scientific Advancement, Educa-
SINCE ITS INCEPTION, ACS on Cam-
pus has visited numerous sites including Vanderbilt University; the University of Southern California (USC); Purdue University; Texas A&M University; Shandong University in Jinan, China; and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. This year, the program made its first stops in Europe, at Sapienza University of Rome and the University of Münster in Germany. The University of Münster event in March drew more than 160 people, Rouhi says. Attendees seemed eager to gather information on how to get their articles published, according to Heike Seidel, a University of Münster librarian who helped coordinate the event. Many were also interested in Rouhi’s talk, “Ethics and Copyright in Scholarly Communication: What You Need To Know.” And students appreciated the presenta-
“I benefited most from the firsthand career experiences shared by the speakers.”
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LIKEWISE, at Shanghai Institute
JEAN-FRANÇOIS TR EM BL AY/C& EN
tions and discussions on career options, Seidel says. Panelists, who included a patent attorney, a librarian, and an industrial R&D chemist, shared their work experiences. C&EN Senior Editor Sarah Everts, who is based in Berlin, contributed her perspective as a science journalist. In the midst of a “very positive and vivid atmosphere, attendees also enjoyed talking to journal editors and ACS staff—something they rarely have the chance to do,” Seidel says. of Organic Chemistry (SIOC), students welcomed the opportunity to network with ACS employees and officials during the ACS on Campus visit last month, according to Kui ling Ding, the institute’s director. Students spoke with Wu, who gave a presentation about her career path. She preceded that talk by making brief remarks in Chinese about her family history, relating that her parents had left China in the 1940s to pursue graduate studies in the U.S. Helping students and faculty members on campus “has been a gratifying experience,” says Wu, who also participated in the ACS on Campus event at USC in 2010. Attendees of the SIOC event, who totaled roughly 100, also interacted with ACS representatives including Denise Creech, director of the Division of Membership & Scientific Advancement, and Susan King, senior vice president of ACS Publications’ Journals Publishing Group. SIOC students, like those in Germany, seemed eager to attend talks that provided “the inside story on how papers are selected for publication,” observes Hong Kongbased C&EN Senior Correspondent JeanFrançois Tremblay, who attended the event. Many were actively engaged in talks given in Chinese about publishing, he says, such as “Publishing in English: Tips for Non-native Speakers,” which was presented by Norah Xiao, science and engineering librarian at USC. She helped organize the ACS on Campus event at USC and participated in the events in China. The publishing-related sessions were equally valuable to Ang Zhou, a chemical biology student at China’s Peking University, who attended the ACS on Campus event at his school last month. He says he was intrigued with Xiao’s talk and with a presentation by Miguel A. Garcia-Garibay, associate editor of the Journal of the Ameri-
can Chemical Society. His talk, “Basics of Scholarly Publishing and Peer Review,” provided advice on how to choose meaningful research topics and publish papers, Zhou says. “Although the day’s presentations about ACS and the SciFinder software were authoritative and helpful, I benefited most from the firsthand career experiences shared by the speakers,” Zhou says. “They provided an overall view of the academic
session on the National Science Foundation’s “broader impacts” criterion in evaluating funding proposals, which requires researchers not only to address the intellectual merit of their work but also demonstrate how it could benefit society. In addition to covering a broad range of topics, the event provided a valuable opportunity to network, says DiCiccio. She enjoyed talking with Baum as well as William D. Jones, associate editor of JACS, and Richard Eisenberg, editor-in-chief of Inorganic Chemistry, to learn more about their roles as editors, she says. “It was awesome to meet students with similar interests from nearby universities,” with whom she plans to collaborate on future service projects or networking events, she adds. Plans for more ACS on Campus events are in the works, including one scheduled for June 5 at Pennsylvania State University. As the program grows, Rouhi is now working alongside Jennifer Taylor Howell, a program manager career path that was in- SUPPORTIVE Garciain Membership & Scientific Advaluable to me,” he adds. Garibay (center) and vancement, and Jamie Weiner, (in blue shirt) speak He also gained a better Xiao product promotions manager at with attendees at the understanding of the re- ACS on Campus event CAS. They are developing a vision sources ACS can provide at Shanghai Institute of for how they can build on the and now has a “stronger Organic Chemistry. successes of the program as they desire to become an ACS move forward, according to Taylor member in the future,” Howell. he says. “I want to be able to get guidance The program is undergoing a period of and support from ACS throughout my transition during which it will draw in adacademic research career,” says Zhou, who ditional content and resources from across plans to pursue graduate studies at the UniACS, so dates for future events beyond the versity of Minnesota, Twin Cities. one at Penn State have not yet been set. Still, Like Zhou, Angela DiCiccio, a chemisTaylor Howell anticipates scheduling events try graduate student at Cornell, says she in the fall at universities in Germany, India, “greatly benefited from learning about the Japan, South Korea, the U.K., and the U.S. resources that ACS has to offer” during the As the ACS on Campus team goes to variACS on Campus event she helped plan on ous communities, it will continue to work to her campus. meet specific needs and share insights and experiences that will support students in THE EVENT DREW more than 100 gradutheir professional growth, says USC’s Xiao. ate students and postdocs from Cornell, “At the same time, we hope to inspire stuSyracuse University, the University of Rochdents to develop a passion for chemistry.” ester, and a few other universities in upstate The program seems to be achieving New York, according to C&EN Editor-inthose goals. “Overall, I think the event on Chief Rudy Baum, who gave a talk entitled our campus was a good reminder of the “What Is It You Do Again? Why Effectively public impact of our work as chemists,” Communicating Your Science Matters.” Cornell’s DiCiccio says. “At the end of the Those who attended the Cornell event day, I returned to my lab feeling energized also heard presentations on the ethics and enlightened,” she says. “It made me of scientific publishing, résumé writing, want to go back to the lab and make a work/life balance, and mastering the use major discovery that will be of benefit to of SciFinder. The event included a new society.” ◾
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