Category Archives: fecs

Nominate yourself or someone else for the APS/FIAP Career Lectureship Award (FCLA)

APS and the APS Forum for Industrial and Applied Physics (FIAP) just reworked their distinguished lectureship award to focus more clearly on careers. It’s now called the FIAP Career Lectureship Award (FCLA). The goal of this award is to find physicists with fascinating careers outside of physics and support them in giving talks on their career to physics students. Does someone you know have a cool non-academic career? Do you? If so, considering nominating them (or yourself)! Applications are due June 1.

More information here.

And a little humblebrag: I did help redesign this award as part of my work on the APS Committee on Careers and Professional Development (CCPD).

FECS Event at the 2023 March Meeting

If you’re interested in *my* talk, that information is here.

I’m really excited about the slate of events that FECS has put together for the 2023 March Meeting in Las Vegas. This includes Monday’s talk by Dr. Savannah Garmon “A trans perspective on building supportive and inclusive physics communities” and Tuesday’s FECS reception which will, for the first time since 2019, include complementary BEER. Hope to see you there!

Come visit us at the FECS table (location TBD) where we will be giving out FECS-branded merch (luggage tags, totes and webcam covers).

Please join us for FECS (Forum for Early Career Scientists) sponsored sessions at the upcoming APS March Meeting in Las Vegas:

FECS Sponsored Sessions

31.00.00 FECS Symposium Invited Speaker
B51: The Early Career Scientist Experience in Times of Crisis and Struggle
Monday March 6, 11:30 am-2:30 pm PST, Location: Room 321
In addition to the pressures of working towards an established career, early career scientists also face numerous other hurdles that are shaped by both external and internal forces. In this session, we hear from the experiences and perspectives of various early career researchers who have been impacted by tumultuous events: past and present, global and personal. This FECS-sponsored session is a continuation in the series of FECS sponsored sessions on highlighting resources and advice relevant to the early career demographic of APS.

31.03.00 FECS Postdoctoral Poster Competition (G00)
Tuesday, March 7, 2:00-5:00 pm, Location: Exhibit Hall (Forum Ballroom)
An award for the “Best Poster” will consist of a $500 prize and a certificate; runners-up will receive a certificate and $100.

31.02.00 FECS/FIAP Early Career Physics
M51: What Do Early Career Physicists Do?
Wednesday March 8, 8:00-11:00 am PST, Location: Room 321
Not all scientists work in labs! Join FECS and FIAP (the Forum on Industrial and Applied Physics) as we learn about various non-traditional careers from early-career scientists working directly in those fields.

30.00.00 FIP/FECS Symposium Invited Speaker
Q50: International Perspective for Young Physicists from Particle to Materials
Wednesday March 8, 3:00-6:00 pm PST, Location: Room 320
Come learn about the research of various young and promising physicists from international backgrounds whose work spans length scales ranging from microscopic to macroscopic phenomena.

L70 FECS Reception
Tuesday, March 7, 6:15 – 7:00 pm PST, Location: Room 409
Join the FECS Exec committee for refreshments (** beer + snacks **) to meet other early career scientists and provide your thoughts and suggestions for future FECS events and efforts.

We hope to see you there!

Full details on FECS website here.

Come check out these excellent early career scientist-focused sessions at the APS March Meeting

We’re super excited for the 2022 March Meeting and we at FECS have prepared a program of some excellent events focusing on the unique interests of early career scientists. Also keep an eye out for our table somewhere in the hallways. I hope to see you there!

Monday

B13. (Invited) Policies and Postdocs: Early-Career Perspectives on How Public Policy Affects Scientists and How Scientists Can Affect Public Policy
11:30am – 2:30pm CT
McCormick Place W-183A (and live stream)
Early career scientists don’t live in a vacuum; we interact with policies made everywhere from APS to universities to federal agencies and even Congress. These interactions go both ways: we can influence these policies and even become the policymakers. Join us to hear from an NSF program director, the recent chair of the APS Ethics Committee, an author of the APS TEAM-UP report, APS government affairs and the acting Chief of Staff for the Dept. of Energy Office of Science. 

FECS Postdoctoral Poster Prize Competition
2:00pm – 5:00 pm 
McCormick Place Exhibit Hall F1 (abstracts G71-107)
Every March Meeting, FECS hosts a competition for the best postdoc prize with cash prizes of up to $500 (more info here). Come check out the competitors and their excellent work! The poster session is in the main exhibit hall abstracts G71-107. 

Tuesday

K13. (Invited) What Do Early-Career Physicists Do?    (Cosponsored with FIAP)
3:00pm – 6:00pm CT
McCormick Place W-183A (and live stream)
   Not all scientists work in labs! Join FECS and FIAP (the Forum on Industrial and Applied Physics) as we learn about careers in scientific publishing, data science, entrepreneurship and public engagement from early-career scientists working directly in those fields. 

FECS Reception
6:15pm CT – ???
McCormick Place W-185BC 
    Now that we are finally back to in-person meetings, we can enjoy the magic of free snacks and chatting with fellow physicists without screens or breakout rooms or mute buttons. Join FECS for an informal meetup of scientists from all career stages. Individually packaged refreshments will be provided. All March Meeting attendees are welcome, but unfortunately for our virtual colleagues, this is an in-person only event. 

Wednesday

N32. (Invited) Distinguished International Early Career Scientists in Quantum Physics (Cosponsored with FIP) 
11:30am – 2:30pm CT 
McCormick Place W-192B (and live stream)
    FECS and FIP (the Forum on International Physics) come together to sponsor an invited session highlighting the work of international early career scientists in quantum physics. 


All this information is available on our public facing website if you want to share.

Check out these FECS sessions at the March Meeting!

The APS virtual March meeting is just around the corner! Although we are not meeting in person, FECS will spare no effort on ensuring a meeting that is as successful as before. We are hosting the following three invited sessions to highlight the contributions from early career scientists in science, industry, and international collaboration: 

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FECS election results and new Executive Committee members

One January 1, I started my term as Chair-Elect for the APS Forum for Early Career Scientists (FECS). This is a three-year position; I will serve as Chair-Elect, Chair and then Past Chair in 2021, 2022 and 2023 respectively. I have already served on the Executive Committee for the past two years as a Member-at-Large, and I am excited to continue serving this community. On behalf of FECS, I will also be serving as an Ex-Officio member of the APS Committee on Careers and Professional Development (CCPD) and I’m looking forward to shaping the crucial career programming that APS offers its members.

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APS FECS Elections: vote for me!

I’m thrilled to tell you all that I’m a candidate for the Chair line of the APS Forum for Early Career Scientists! This is a three year position consisting of one year each as chair elect, chair and past chair. I’ve serving as a member of the FECS Executive Committee for the past two years and I’m excited to be able to continue my service with FECS. If you’re a member of FECS, please vote for me! Polls close on November 20; you should have an email in your inbox now with the subject line “APS FECS Election”. I’ve included my bio and candidate statement below.

If you’re a member of APS and not a member of FECS, you should sign up! I don’t know if you would be able to vote, but it’s free and it’s a way to encourage APS to support postdocs other early career scientists (and to get support yourself)!

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Call for nominations: APS Forum for Early Career Scientists (FECS) Executive Committee

The Forum for Early Career Scientists (FECS) is an APS forum dedicated to addressing the unique challenges of early career scientists, which include postdocs, recent PhDs in industry, junior faculty, research associates and so on. FECS is one of the newest and fastest-growing APS fora and we’re looking for nominations of new people to join our executive board. Nominations are due Monday 8/31.

We are seeking nominations from people in all career stages, but since this is a group dedicated to early career scientists, we need early career scientists on our executive board. More information on how to get involved after the break.

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APS Congressional Visit Day 2020

APS Congressional Visit Day 2020

This week, I am in Washington DC for the APS Congressional Visit Day and Annual Leadership Meeting. We started on Wednesday with the Congressional Visit. APS broke us up into teams by region. I’m a Massachusetts voter, so I joined a team of people from Massachusetts and Connecticut. We had six meetings with the offices of Massachusetts Senators Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren, Connecticut Senators Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal along with House Representatives James Himes and Rosa DeLauro.

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