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.
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)!
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.
As you’ve probably heard, the 2020 APS March Meeting was cancelled due to concerns over coronavirus. It was cancelled only 36 hours before it was scheduled to begin. Myself and many other scientists were already in Denver when we heard.
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.
I’m about to set off to Boston for the APS March Meeting 2019 (March 4-8). I’ll be presenting my newest work on using infinite boundary conditions are current reservoirs for measuring steady-state currents in quantum wires using tensor network methods. My talk is at Wednesday 6 March at 8:48am in room 156C. If you want to chat with me at the March Meeting drop me a line.
After the March Meeting I’ll be visiting the Sandvik group at Boston University 11-20 March. I’m really looking forward to seeing all my old friends and colleagues at BU.
Established just three years ago, FECS is is dedicated to helping APS meet the unique needs of early career scientists (i.e. postdocs). Early career scientists face a number of unique challenges. They often move great distances, isolating themselves from their support networks. They have neither the protection of tenure nor the comradeship of classmates, and they often occupy temporary positions with low pay, meager benefits, and few labor protections. They must balance the pressure to publish with the constant search for their next position. All of these factors put them at an elevated risk for exploitation and harassment, the worst of which often falls upon women and minorities.
I am looking forward to working to make life better for early career scientists like myself. I want to focus especially on the problems faced by underrepresented minorities as well as mental health. In addition to my own ideas, I want to hear from you, my friends and colleagues, about issues that are facing early career scientists and ideas for how FECS might be able to address them. Please contact me or comment below with your thoughts and suggestions.
If you’re an APS member who is interested in joining FECS, you can do so for free by logging into your account on aps.org. You can also join the FECS Facebook group, even if you’re not an APS member.
