Chemical Education Today
Meeting Report
The ACS Academic Employment Initiative A New Avenue for Faculty Job Searching and Recruiting by Charles P. Casey and Jerry A. Bell
The Poster Session The poster session for prospective faculty job candidates and recruiters is the heart of the AEI. Given the scene at the Sci-Mix in Philadelphia that is described above, it appears that both candidates and recruiters welcome this opportunity. An interesting comment by job candidates was that they had learned about institutions they had not heard of or previously considered, so the information flow goes both ways in this forum. Graduate students or postdocs who will be seeking an academic position during the 2005–06 academic year should plan now to participate in the next AEI poster session at the ACS national meeting in Washington, DC, August 29, 2005; faculty should plan to use this venue as part of their recruiting efforts. Be sure to check issues of Chemical & Engineering News or contact the ACS Office of Graduate Education for abstract submission and other information. Interactive Panel Session Experienced faculty and recently hired faculty (whose memory of the job search process is still fresh) comprise the panel. Most of the three-hour session is devoted to responding to questions from the audience. In 2004–2005 the focus is on recruitment to university and four-year college positions. If the AEI matures as desired, these sessions will expand to include two-year colleges as well. Watch for the AEI symposium at the San Diego meeting in March 2005. Career Services Workshops As preparation for the AEI poster session and the recruiting process, consider attending the AEI symposium held in www.JCE.DivCHED.org
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Malikah N. Jenkins (in white dress), a graduate student at Purdue University, decided to use AEI to “test the waters”. She plans serious job hunting at the end of her upcoming postdoc.
photo C & E News; used with permission.
There was a lot of activity at the Academic Employment Initiative posters during the entire two hours of Sci-Mix.
photo Morton Z. Hoffman
More than 120 graduate student and postdoctoral candidates for faculty positions presented research posters as part of the ACS Academic Employment Initiative (AEI) during the Sci-Mix poster session at the ACS national meeting in Philadelphia. Faculty from many colleges and universities took advantage of this opportunity to get acquainted with several candidates they might consider for positions in their departments. The aisles were full of activity for the entire two hours of Sci-Mix, were still full at the session-ending signal, and only reluctantly did the AEI candidates and recruiters finally leave when the lights were turned out. The AEI was initiated as a 2004 ACS Presidential Event, supported by a grant from NSF during 2004–05 to underwrite start-up costs. The aim is to make it easier for faculty recruiters to meet and interact with several job candidates (and vice versa) in a short time and in a relatively informal setting, thus broadening the academic hiring process. The program has three parts: an interactive panel session at ACS spring meetings, a poster session at ACS fall meetings, and workshops by the ACS Office of Career Services at both meetings.
San Diego and participating in Career Services (free) workshops, which include topics such as how to find the best environment for your first position, writing your CV, presenting your research, and navigating the academic interview. Workshops are announced in Chemical & Engineering News as part of the national meeting program. Future Plans: Feedback Needed Although an experiment, the positive response to AEI’s first year is a hopeful sign that it meets a need and should be continued as a permanent feature of ACS meeting programming. Because it is a work in progress, comments on its present structure and suggestions for improvements, changes, and additional features are important and welcomed. Since decisions about the future of AEI need to be made even before the experiment has run its two-year course, your feedback is needed as soon as possible. Respond by email:
[email protected]; phone: 202/872-4588; mail: Office of Graduate Education, Education Division, American Chemical Society, 1155 Sixteenth Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036. Thank you, in advance, for your input. Charles P. Casey, President of the American Chemical Society, is in the Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison WI 53706;
[email protected]. Jerry A. Bell is Senior Scientist in the ACS Education Division, 1155 16th Street NW, Washington, DC 20036;
[email protected].
Vol. 81 No. 12 December 2004
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Journal of Chemical Education
1697
