Ben Ueland, Chair-Elect

Dear FECS Members,

As program committee chair for the 2020 APS March and April Meetings, I am excited to inform you about the meetings’ FECS sponsored sessions. FECS executive committee members contributing to organizing the program include Chair Jason Gardner, Past-Chair Maria Longobardi, Secretary and Treasurer Kevin Ludwick, and Member-at-Large Adam Iaizzi.

The 2020 March Meeting will feature the first solely FECS-sponsored invited session which will cover topics in diversity, inclusion, and wellness for early-career scientists. Subjects that will be covered include issues facing minority groups in science, creating an inclusive and welcoming atmosphere, and mental-health wellness challenges facing young researchers. In addition to this session, we are once again cosponsoring sessions with the Forum on International Physics and the Forum on Industrial & Applied Physics. The former session will feature talks by early-career scientists from Europe who have been recognized for their cutting-edge work. The latter session will have a selection of speakers highlighting research careers in industry, national laboratories, and academia, as well as the return of a great presentation from last year about pursuing a career in science communication. At the 2020 April meeting, FECS is solely sponsoring an invited session featuring talks about careers in academia, in science policy, and at government-sponsored laboratories.

Finally, for the 2020 March Meeting, FECS chair Jason Gardner has created a post-doctoral poster competition that features a 500 best poster prize as well as several 100 runner-up prizes. The competition will give young researchers an opportunity to show off their work while networking with their peers. We hope that this will become an annual event, and, depending on interest, we may host a similar contest at the April Meeting in subsequent years.

We are excited for the upcoming meetings and hope that you will find the time to attend the FECS sponsored sessions. Please look for members of the executive committee while traversing the convention center and feel free to stop us to offer feedback, ideas, or just to say hi. See you in March and April!