Chemical Education Today
Association Reports: ACS Division of Chemical Education
Graduate Student Symposium Planning Committee Experiences by Justin D. Fair, Ashley L. Bartelson, Besnik Bajrami, Christine M. Cardillo, Michelle L. Dean, Sadagopan Krishnan, Naimish Sardesai, and Tyson A. Miller* photo by Michelle L. Dean
The Graduate Student Symposium Planning Committee (GSSPC) is a DivCHED-sponsored initiative designed to promote graduate-student-led programming at ACS national meetings and provide an opportunity for graduate students to network with professionals inside and outside the ACS on a topic of interest to them. Its goals are to provide a forum to make known the views of ACS graduate student members, provide an opportunity for graduate students to develop leadership and professional networking skills, develop a sustainable source of quality programming for DivCHED, and encourage membership in the ACS among the newest professional chemists. Graduate student programming at ACS national meetings was first offered in fall 2004 in Philadelphia by students from the University of Wisconsin–Madison; subsequent programs involved graduate student from Boston University (fall 2005 with UW–Madison), University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign (spring 2006), The Ohio State University (spring 2007), Purdue University (fall 2007), and UCLA (spring 2008). ACS returned to Philadelphia in fall 2008 where the University of Connecticut GSSPC held “Transitioning into Green Chemistry”. The morning session, featuring keynote speaker Mary M. Kirchhoff (ACS Education Division Director), focused on green chemistry in academia; she relayed the progress and success of the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge. The afternoon session concentrated on green chemistry advances in industry; keynote speaker Berkeley W. Cue Jr. told of the pharmaceutical industry’s commitment to improving health, which is not complete without a commitment to a healthy environment. The closing event was a poster session and exposition featuring Thomas H. Lane (ACS President-Elect) who discussed the importance of sustainability and green chemistry, things the entire ACS community should take an interest in. Planning, organizing, fundraising, and executing a GSSPC symposium is a complex and intense affair, requiring the energy and commitment of many people. A GSSPC group selects its desired topic, proposes a list of speakers that reflect the topic, and recruits speakers for the symposium. GSSPC raises its own funds, coordinates efforts with the CHED program chair, and selects and mentors a new committee of graduate students from a new institution to execute a symposium for each ACS national meeting. These questions illustrate the complexity and integrated logistics of planning a successful symposium. They must be answered early in the process.
ACS President-Elect Thomas H. Lane (center) comments on graduate student Lauren Stencel’s poster as another student looks on.
divisional forum for academic and industrial chemists to discuss new ideas and implementing new practices. 4. Who will the speakers be? Once the topic was chosen, it was important to determine whether speakers were obtained through a general call for papers or a personal invitation. 5. What is the proposed budget? Budget items should be summarized in a sponsorship packet that informs potential sponsors of the estimated funds needed to accomplish the vision of the symposium, including details on where money is to be spent. 6. How should the program be promoted and advertised? 7. What is the timeline for completing each stage of planning? To plan a well-developed symposium, 18 months is recommended. 8. How should a GSSPC select a successor? This can be one of the more difficult responsibilities to fulfill as the GSSPC initiative is not yet well known among graduate programs and there is a perception that service-oriented professional development consumes time needed for progress in graduate research careers.
How Can We Become the Next GSSPC Group? Graduate students who have served on GSSPC committees have benefited greatly—by networking with professionals and by having planned, organized, and executed a symposium at an ACS national meeting. Graduate students interested in becoming the next GSSPC should note questions above, then contact either the George Washington University GSSPC (spring 2009: http://www.gwu.edu/~gsspc/ (accessed Sep 2008)) or DivCHED program chair Julie Smist (
[email protected]). Supporting JCE Online Material
1. How will the group define a successful symposium?
http://www.jce.divched.org/Journal/Issues/2008/Dec/abs1609.html
2. What type and size audience should the symposium attract? The UConn GSSPC wanted to create a symposium that would attract a large audience and bring together ACS members from different divisions to discuss a prominent issue (green chemistry). The symposium design, budget, and committee time were scaled accordingly to meet this goal.
Abstract and keywords
3. What current topic(s) would an audience be interested in? The UConn GSSPC identified green chemistry as a cross-
Full text (PDF) with links to cited URLs
Justin D. Fair, Ashley L. Bartelson, Besnik Bajrami, Christine M. Cardillo, Michelle L. Dean, Sadagopan Krishnan, and Naimish Sardesai are graduate students and Tyson A. Miller is a faculty member in the Department of Chemistry, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269-3060;
[email protected].
© Division of Chemical Education • www.JCE.DivCHED.org • Vol. 85 No. 12 December 2008 • Journal of Chemical Education
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