Ben Ueland, Chair

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the FECS Executive Committee, I thank you for your continued commitment to our forum and the greater APS community. FECS remained busy and productive over the past year and we look forward to expanding our engagement this year.

FECS organized its first solo sponsored sessions for the 2020 APS March and April Meetings and cosponsored two sessions at the March Meeting, one with the Forum for International Physics (FIP) and one with the Forum for Industrial and Applied Physics (FIAP). Despite the cancellation of the in-person meetings, the March and April FECS sessions still took place virtually and can be found online at https://virtualmarchmeeting.com/sessions/topics-in-diversity-wellness-and-inclusion-for-early-career-scientists and https://aps-april.onlineeventpro.freeman.com/sessions/15336077/B08-Invited-Session-A-Sampling-of-Career-Paths-Available-for-Early-Career-Scientists. I thank Treasurer Kevin Ludwick, Member-at-large Adam Iaizzi, Past-Chair Jason Gardner, former Past-Chair Maria Longobardi, and FIAP Chair Matthew Thompson for their efforts towards organizing these sessions. I also greatly appreciate all of those that agreed to present. FECS additionally sponsored a highly successful panel session on applying to postdoc and faculty positions at the November 2019 Division of Fluid Dynamics (DFD) meeting, with Members-at-Large Mark Owkes and Sara Clements taking the leads. Details may be found at https://aps.org/units/fecs/newsletters/201912/splash.cfm.

In addition to the oral scientific sessions at the 2020 March Meeting, Jason Gardner organized the inaugural post-doctoral poster competition sponsored by FECS. The competition would have awarded a $500 prize to the best poster and several 100 runner-up prizes. We hope to expand interest for this session for the 2021 meeting. FECS also continued to support the Distinguished Student Awards with FIP. These awards offer some travel support for students travelling to the meeting to present. Maria Longobardi took the lead for FECS, with support from Sara Clements.

The elections for the 2020-21 FECS executive committee occurred last fall, and I welcome our new Chair-Elect Shaowei Li and new Members-at-Large Wennie Wang and Daniel Borrero-Echeverry. I also thank LaNell Williams for being the FECS representative to the APS council. The 2021-22 election cycle is also getting underway, and Jason Gardner is actively searching for candidates. If you would like to become directly involved as a member of the FECS executive committee, please think about the role you would like to play, and be on the lookout for emails regarding the upcoming election.

Finally, these are challenging time, and as scientists in what can be especially stressful points in their careers, it is important to remember that you are not alone. FECS has been working with the APS and others to provide resources for our community, and the executive committee would appreciate hearing your ideas concerning ways FECS can assist (Facebook page: APS Forum for Early Career Scientists). Early-career scientists face significant challenges during these unique times, and as someone who was in the middle of his first postdoc when the Great Recession hit, I can assure you that the challenges will be overcome. Do not lose hope and continue pushing forward with your careers.