Message from Roger Falcone

APS President

Dear Colleagues,

As President of the APS, I am pleased to communicate my enormous enthusiasm for FECS’ efforts to provide mechanisms to enhance opportunities for early career scientists, and in particular to thank you for your recent input regarding APS’ Strategic Planning.

As an academic, a participant at national laboratories, a founder of a small company, and an advisor to international institutions, I see enormous opportunities for early career scientists in all of these venues; that is the good news. However, I think there are also concerns, in that it is often not clear to everyone what those opportunities are, how to make the right choices, how to get the best job, and how to advance one’s career. Mentoring is not always available or optimal for everyone.

Of course there are also general and continuing challenges in developing a career; these range from dealing with bias, to limited resources, to geographical and family constraints, to limited positions at the top. Having FECS as a place to shares stories, ideas, and advice about careers, especially near the beginning, is one of the most important things that APS can facilitate.

Since this is the year of Strategic Planning for APS, your input on what our society should be doing with its resources has been welcome, and in fact, necessary if APS is going to have a healthy future and serve its members well. This is especially important as APS develops programs to serve its members who are early in their careers. Your recent input was forwarded to the appropriate subcommittees. For further input, please visit our Strategic Planning website, and share your ideas for the future: https:// www.aps.org/about/strategicplan/index.cfm

Thank you,

Roger