Where academic candidates met faculty recruiters

Stephanie Prosack - Education Assistant, ACS Office of Graduate Education

The Office of Graduate Education hosted a variety of events at the ACS national meeting in Boston last month. Having recently joined the office, I was happy to learn a lot of interesting and fun facts about these occasions. One of my favorites was the Academic Employment Initiative (AEI) poster session. Held on Monday evening as part of SciMix, the AEI once again successfully fulfilled its objective of allowing senior graduate students and postdoctoral scholars to showcase teaching and research goals for university recruiters. At the same time, it provided presenters with an opportunity to network with faculty and fellow candidates.

Throughout the poster session, I could see many of the 77 academic candidates enthusiastically conversing with faculty recruiters. Some candidates spoke passionately about their research goals, while others described their teaching philosophies and experiences. In between speaking with faculty recruiters, many of the candidates were mingling with each other to talk about their posters and goals, and even to make social plans for later in the evening.

Speaking with the faculty recruiters and many of the academic candidates confirmed that the event was very successful. I spoke to one very enthusiastic professor who has been attending the gathering for years and who said, “The AEI poster session is a great idea! Out of the four newest additions to my department, I hired three as a direct result of first meeting, and then speaking with them at the AEI poster session!”

The next AEI event will be held at the 242nd ACS National Meeting, to be held in the fall of 2011 in Boulder, CO. I am positive it will be just as successful, as this one—maybe even more so!

Stephanie Prosack is the education assistant in the Office of Graduate Education at ACS. In 2009, she obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree in communications from Hollins University.