Early Career Chemistry Education Scholars Committee Operations Manual

Updated July 2022

  • Purpose

    Early Career Chemistry Education Scholars (ECCES) are a committee dedicated to the recruitment and networking of graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and early faculty members in chemistry education research. This population is vital to the long-term goals of chemistry education research and we hope will be the future leaders and contributors to DivCHED.

  • Vision

    We want to get the word out about chemistry education research to all chemists. We understand that without recruiting and networking new students in chemistry education research, the field will not be sustainable. Therefore, ECCES is dedicated to making sure that students find their way into chemistry education research graduate programs and stay in the field.

  • Composition

    Graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and pre-tenure (1st – 5th year) faculty compose this committee. This committee is ideally composed of a chair for a three-year term and a co-chair during the final year of the chair.

  • Responsibilities

    ECCES has a long history of re-occurring events held at National Spring ACS and Biennial Conference of Chemical Education meetings. These include: 

    • Graduate Student Research Symposium: A special symposium at conferences that features only graduate student presenters. Being a symposium full of graduate students, many of which are presenting at a national conference for the first time, the audience members are typically directed to provide constructive feedback for presenters so that they can carry out their presentations in a low-stakes environment. This also gives graduate student organizers an opportunity to preside and organize a symposium by themselves. 
    • Professional workshops and events: Several workshops are commonly held that help graduate students, postdocs, and faculty apply for jobs, navigate grad school and faculty positions, review materials, provide networking tips, and other professional developments. 
    • Networking events: These events typically include inviting grad students, postdocs and faculty out to a nearby restaurant at conferences for an evening (or morning) of networking. Specific activities like human bingo and other icebreakers help newcomers meet other people and mix up connections. These are typically offer light appetizers. 

    In general, the chair is responsible for the organization of and management of all activities. The chair is expected to delegate all tasks fairly across members and see their completion through. The chair also manages the budget, drafts all reports, and sets the agenda for the meetings.