ACES Professional Development activities

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Professional Development Activities

The ACES Project includes a strong focus on professional development, beyond training in research. This effort involves both formal and informal activities. Below is a sample of these activities.

Career Panel Discussion

In November, 2005, the Chemistry, Math, and History Departments at Stony Brook cosponsored a panel discussion on career options for Ph.D. students. These three departments are all participants in the Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate. Huanyan Cao and Kathy Parker organized the panel, and the Dreyfus Foundation and the Stony Brook Graduate School supported the chemistry effort. The panel included alumni who discussed careers in academia, at both research universities and primarily undergraduate institutions, as well as national labs, government agencies, and industry. Alfreda James of the Stony Brook Career Center moderated the discussion. Approximately 50 graduate students attended.

Mentoring Workshop

Troy Wolfskill and Nancy Goroff have created a workshop for graduate students and postdocs who are actively mentoring high school and undergraduate researchers. This workshop examines the goals of introductory research experiences, time management issues, methods to help new students develop research skill, and other aspects of mentoring. As an outgrowth of this annual workshop, we have prepared a list of expectations for students and mentors in summer research programs. This set of Pointers for Success is now distributed to all Chemistry REU students and their mentors.

Provost's Lecture: Elga Wasserman

Elga Wasserman is the author of The Door in the Dream: Conversations with Eminent Women in Science a book based on interviews with women members of the National Academy of Science. Dr. Wasserman holds a degree in organic chemistry from Harvard/Radcliffe. In October, 2003, ACES and the Provost's Lecture Series cosponsored Dr. Wasserman's lecture, Women in Science and Engineering – The Unfinished Agenda.

As a bonus event, the day before Dr. Wasserman's lecture, the Chemistry Department screened the PBS special Stop Forward Movement?, a documentary that in part describes the contributions of Nobel prize winner R. B. Woodward. Afterwards, Dr. Wasserman participated in a discussion session based on her time as a Ph.D. student in the Woodward lab.

Chemistry Research Day

Since 1999, our department has held an annual public celebration of the research underway in our labs. Chemistry Research Day includes lunch, a department-wide poster session, and a public lecture by a member of the department. The event generally includes over 100 posters, and draws as many as 200 attendees. Chemistry Research Day gives undergraduates, graduate students and postdocs a natural occasion for discussing their research with their peers and with the public, helping students to develop their communication skills at many levels. Collaborations have developed directly from many of these conversations. The enthusiasm of the day carries over into the rest of the year, supporting student feelings of community and pride in the department.

Interaction with Seminar Speakers

One outcome of the ACES/CID Graduate Program Assessment was a request by students to have increased interaction with visitors to the department. As a result, we have instituted a series of informal brown-bag lunches for graduate students with visiting seminar and colloquium speakers. In addition, the department's seminar program now includes visitors invited by the graduate students. The first of these speakers was Prof. Ron Breslow of Columbia University, former president of the American Chemical Society. Two student-invited speakers are planned for 2006-2007, Dr. Robert Tycko of the National Institutes of Health and Prof. Michael Duncan of the Unversity of Georgia.