ACS Technical Divisions Woo Young Chemists

By Rochelle F. H. Bohaty

Participants attending the Graduate Student and Postdoc Reception at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center during the fall 2009 ACS National Meeting, held in Washington, DC, found more than free food, beverages, and drawings to win iPhones. Representatives from several of the 34 ACS technical divisions were on hand to share their insight into the opportunities their respective divisions offer to young chemists.

“It is our goal to connect you with the [technical] divisions,” Peter K. Dorout, Chair of the ACS Graduate Education Advisory Board and chemistry professor at Colorado State University, told the standing-room-only crowd. “It is important for your professional and technical growth,” he added.

The ACS Graduate Education Advisory Board and the ACS Office of Graduate Education co-sponsored the reception, along with 12 ACS technical divisions. During the reception, graduate students and postdoctoral scholars learned that, although the benefits vary significantly from one division to another, they include fellowships, travel awards, networking socials, and professional development tools.

Discover Research Fellowships

Several technical divisions provide research fellowships for graduate students that cover all or part of their annual stipend. For example, each year the Division of Analytical Chemistry offers several nine-month and summer research fellowships to graduate students, as explained by Vivian E. Fernand, a member of the Division and a postdoctoral researcher at Pennington Biomedical Research.

Charles N. Arden, a member of the Division of Organic Chemistry and a second-year graduate student at the University of Southern California, was excited to learn that the Division of Organic Chemistry also offers research fellowships for graduate students. “I am definitely going to apply for the graduate student research fellowship,” he said after meeting with a division representative.

Look into Travel Awards

In addition to research fellowships, the Division of Organic Chemistry provides travel awards to help graduate students attend and present at ACS meetings. “Help with travel to meetings is absolutely a benefit to students,” says Cynthia A. Maryanoff, a member of the Division of Organic Chemistry and a distinguished research fellow at the Cordis Corporation. Travel awards are particularly important at this time, when there is so little funding available from other sources to help with travel expenses. This year, the division provided 22 graduate students with $600 each to help cover travel expenses.

Travel awards not only provide students with the invaluable opportunity to present their research in a high-profile setting; they also serve as a tool to recognize talented young researchers. “The Division of Inorganic Chemistry provides travel grants for students to attend both spring and fall ACS national meetings, and it also hosts a half-day symposium dedicated to young investigators—graduate students and postdoctoral researchers who have received their Ph.D.s a year or less before being nominated for the award—at the fall ACS national meetings,” said Ziling (Ben) Xue, a member of the Inorganic Division and a professor of chemistry at the University of Tennessee. Travel awards do not exceed $800, while the Young Investigator Symposium speakers receive an honorarium of $1,000.

Benefit from Networking and Professional Development

Graduate students and postdocs can also take advantage of the networking opportunities the travel grants provide. For instance, the Division of Organic Chemistry invites all its travel grant awardees to a special lunch during the national meeting. This is a great venue for students to talk with professional chemists, Maryanoff noted. She added that interacting at such social events will help them develop key contacts who will assist in their own professional careers.

Technical divisions also offer an avenue for young chemists to become involved in a number of activities including organizing meeting symposia, representing the division at various social functions, and serving on executive committees. In addition to Fernand, Melissa R. Landon, Secretary for the Division of Computers in Chemistry and a postdoctoral fellow at Brandeis University, was another young chemist fielding questions on behalf of her division at the reception.

The Division of Computers in Chemistry is dedicated to engaging young scientists, according to Landon. “We are really trying to provide lots of opportunities for younger generations to become involved,” she noted. For example, “all the national meeting session chairs [for the division] are either graduate students or postdocs.”

Participating in division activities not only gets young chemists involved with ACS, it also helps them develop interpersonal and leadership skills that extend beyond the laboratory—something Landon believes future employers will notice.

The Division of Chemical Education also provides graduate students with the opportunity to engage in the administrative aspects of planning meeting symposia through their Graduate Student Symposium Planning Committee Project. This is just one way that the division supports the professional development of young chemists. At the Grad Student and Postdoc reception, Anna M. Wilson, a member of the Division of Chemical Education and a retired staff member from the Biochemistry Department at Purdue University, hyped the division’s access to teaching materials and online discussion forums. Both are resources available to help graduate students and postdocs learn how to teach—an important skill for chemists to have no matter what their career aspirations, Wilson explained.

Take Advantage of Opportunities

Despite the resources that ACS Technical Divisions offer, most young chemists are missing out. Less than 12% of graduate students responding to a Graduate Education Advisory Board Survey administered last fall indicated that they had used or participated in an ACS Technical Division program or activity. While membership is not always a requirement to take advantage of technical division resources, there are many more opportunities available to division members.

Learn more about all the ACS Technical Divisions

Contact the ACS Office of Graduate Education at GradEd@acs.org