Chemistry and Food Fridays
175 minutes for chemistry
Hasina Saraha at Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, spent her #Time4Chem helping graduate students improve their science communication skills
The nature of doctoral research often causes students to become isolated and focus almost exclusively on their own projects. However, our department is actively striving to overcome this isolation by encouraging students to become comfortable talking about their research with chemists across all of the traditional divisions of chemistry. This ability to communicate research to a diverse audience is an important skill to acquire during graduate school; consequently, the department started a new program, and I, Hasina Saraha, a Ph.D. student in the laboratory of Professor Jennifer Stockdill, was selected to lead this exciting new initiative.
This is the first semester that the event, called Chemistry and Food Fridays (CFF), is being held. Currently, we have ten CFF sessions scheduled for Fridays this semester from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. Lunch is offered to attendees, and participation and attendance are voluntary. At the moment, the event is geared toward chemistry graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. However, attendance from undergraduate students is also encouraged from Wayne State University and surrounding colleges and universities who might be interested in pursuing graduate school in chemistry.
The event was designed to help graduate students develop both professionally and personally. Therefore, CFF is meant to be a low-stress environment where graduate students improve their communication skills (including talking about science and asking questions), practice networking, broaden their scientific knowledge, and strengthen the camaraderie within the department. Honing science and professional skills during graduate school is crucial to producing well-rounded chemists who will thrive in the scientific world of tomorrow.
We have had a mix of topics so far. Some weeks student speakers share their current research or present on a topic of interest in the field of chemistry. Other times, outside speakers discuss their experiences related to job searching or other aspects of professional development.
There is a tentative calendar that I email to students on a month-to-month basis. The schedule is sent with this relatively short-term notice to maximize flexibility and our use of time with respect to who is presenting and what is being presented. For the remainder of this semester, we have an exciting slate of both students and alumni coming to visit and present.
So far, the turnout has been outstanding and students have been actively participating. It is not easy to have people commit to a weekly event, but my fellow students have shown interest in the event. The potential for what CFF can become is exciting. Because this is a new program in our department, I look forward to receiving feedback from my colleagues to guide the program into the future.
175 minutes for chemistry
As the oldest chemical society in the world, we celebrated our 175th anniversary in 2016. We wanted to mark this milestone by recognising the important contributions our community makes to the chemical sciences. We asked our members and supporters to dedicate 175 minutes to chemistry in 2016 and share their stories with us. We featured these stories throughout the year on our website, in print in RSC News, and on social media using #time4chem.
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