ACS COMMENT
My Exit Interview WILLIAM F. CARROLL JR., CHAIR, ACS BOARD OF DIRECTORS
to the largest and most diverse scientific as chair of the ACS Board of Directors, and society in the world. I guess this ACS Comment qualifies as my Our Career Pathways Workshops do a exit interview. So I wanted to take a look great job of teaching members, and parback at where we’ve been in that time and ticularly students, what the world is like maybe where we’re going out there and how to break and some of the challenges into it. I know these tools we’ll see on the way. are useful because as an Members always tell us ACS Career Consultant, that communicating scienI’ve helped people launch tific knowledge—through themselves. There is nothmeetings, journals, and ing more gratifying than particularly C&EN—is most when one of your students important to them. On the gets a job. other hand, our ability to The chemistry enterhelp with career mainteprise getting more diverse nance and advancement has in the U.S.; that diversity been working its way up the is spreading into ACS, parimportance ladder. I think ticularly now that students we’ve made good progress join the society as memon both counts. bers rather than affiliates. We have so many We’re doing a better job I’m always struck by the dedicated staff of linking the three pillars of members and energy and enthusiasm of the American Chemical Sochemistry students and by volunteers ... it’s ciety—Chemical Abstracts the fact that there are now Service (CAS), ACS Publica- no wonder we’re more women than men gettions (Pubs), and the mem- the largest society ting chemistry degrees and bership organization—into and the best. also leading our student a cohesive member- and chapters. You all rock. customer-facing unit. There Additionally, we inare now basic benefits in augurated the American Pubs and CAS that come Association of Chemistry with membership, including free article Teachers—an organization designed to downloads and SciFinder tasks. There are link people in what can be the world’s loneopportunities for purchasing additional liest profession. We will provide content articles and subscriptions at low prices. and context, and the members themselves For the retired, self-employed, or unemwill provide community. ployed chemist this provides substantial value. LOOKING TOWARD THE FUTURE, alongWe’re thinking more globally in all three side those achievements lie two important units. Most of our revenue as a society challenges: how to increase membership in comes from outside the U.S., and a growcountries where it is uncommon to belong ing number of authors and editors for our to any membership organization, includpublications are based around the world. A ing a professional society, and how to keep substantial portion of the articles and patrecent graduates in the U.S. engaged with ents that CAS indexes comes from other us as they move into and through their cacountries. And as people the world over bereers—especially if those careers are not in come more familiar with our products, we traditional chemistry jobs. can credibly make the case that memberI expect developments in our core ship is a benefit that draws them yet closer competency of information generation, HOLLY KUPER
I’M COMING TO THE END of three years
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DECEMBER 22, 2014
classification, and retrieval. It seems to me that Pubs and CAS are not two separate things but part of a continuum. Scientific information is the only business I know with a circular supply chain: The output of Pubs is the input for CAS; authors use CAS in generating discoveries that will appear in Pubs. We are hot on the trail of processes that will integrate these two indispensable resources into even more powerful tools. And of course, my friend and colleague Madeleine Jacobs, executive director and chief executive officer for the past 11 years, is retiring early next year. I and the other members of the board realized when she announced her retirement that the single most important action we would take as board members was finding her successor. Our goal was to find someone who could provide the same solid management that Madeleine has and bring other skills that might help us meet our future challenges. We think we’ve found an outstanding person in Thomas M. Connelly Jr., who starts Feb. 17, 2015 (C&EN, Dec. 8, page 5). He has a wonderful record and a winning personality, and while he will be a marvelous successor to Madeleine, we will never forget her or the contributions she’s made. And a final, personal note. I have the privilege of being one of three living ACS members who has been both ACS president and chair of the board. The other two are Mary L. Good and Paul H. L. Walter, two legendary figures in the society. It is the honor of my life to have been entrusted with those offices. I want to thank Madeleine and the ACS staff, my colleagues on the ACS council and the board, and all of you for making my time as ACS Board chair challenging, fulfilling, and fun. I wouldn’t trade these three years for anything. We spend a lot of time worrying about our flaws and how we might improve ACS, and well we should. But we have so many dedicated staff members and volunteers who contribute their time and talent, it’s no wonder we’re the largest single-discipline scientific society and the best. You all rock.
