The Early Career Chemistry Education Scholars (ECCES) are a committee dedicated to the recruitment and networking of graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and early faculty members (pre-tenure if on tenure track) 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.
Since our last report, our committee met in October 2025. At this meeting:
We reflected on the three-day virtual conference held in July that included nearly 40 grad students and postdocs. The sessions focused on professional development in crafting job application materials, navigating academic responsibilities, sharing CER research amongst participants in a poster session, and networking with conference attendees. In addition to the sessions run by leaders in our field, the participants had the opportunity to engage with a panel of mentors in different CER career paths and beyond academia. The event was held on July 28-July 30 on Zoom. We were invited to present a short summary of this event at the Aug 16 ExComm meeting.
We reviewed our approved 2026 budget. (See below)
We planned for Spring 2026 ACS National Meeting.
- ECCES coordinated the graduate student symposia and coordinated with undergraduates
- Planned a social event, hosted by two members of the committee
We planned for BCCE 2026 in Madison.
- Graduate student symposia for each stream of the conference
- BoaF networking events for graduate students and postdocs (two events)
- Two workshops for professional development
- Networking event for an evening
- Planning to help people connect prior to conference: Grad student discord
We elected to for the chair position.
- Michelle Herridge will be chair for 2026 & 2027
In addition, at Fall 2025 ACS hosted the following activities:
- Organized the Chemistry Education Research Graduate & Undergraduate Student Symposia. The symposia hosted 19 graduate speakers, 7 undergraduate speakers, and allowed 3 first time presiders to gain experience presiding over a symposium session.
Our committee was originally planning to organize and host the Chemistry Education Research Graduate Student Symposia at the Spring 2026 ACS meeting.
At BCCE in July, ECCES is hosting two separate workshops: one on job hunting and one on peer reviews and the article writing process. ECCES is also coordinating the CER Graduate Student Symposia in each main stream of the conference.
$300 - Networking Event for ACS Spring Meeting
$1500 - Travel budget for ECCES members to go to ACS Spring Meeting
$200 - BoaF Social event at BCCE
$500 - Networking Event for BCCE
$200 - Subsidizing workshop costs for graduate students at BCCE
$1500 - Travel budget for ECCES members to go to BCCE
Total: $4200
See above
We used this funding to support attendance of ECCES members at meetings. Further money has been granted but not yet spent.