Message from the Newsletter Editor

Greetings, FECS members! We are excited to present to you our newsletter for Spring 2020. We hope you find it informative and interesting during these interesting times. During the pandemic, I have been “working” from home with my toddler, whose daycare is closed, while my wife works at the hospital. I know many others are in similar or much harder circumstances. (I’m thankful I still have my job.) And although my work productivity may have decreased, more importantly, I have been able to spend much more time with my son than normal, and that has been great! I hope and pray that you all have been able to cope well with all the struggles and blockades the have accompanied the pandemic.

In these newsletters, in general, we aim to provide you with useful information about basic research in different fields of physics, information about our activities at conferences and elsewhere, opportunities to actively participate in FECS, and helpful guidelines toward furthering your career. This issue includes a summary of the FECS virtual activities for the March and April Meetings, an update on the FECS postdoctoral poster competition, a report on the expansion of FECS and its executive committee to better serve the physics community, a list of career and mental health resources in light of the pandemic, and an article outlining the seminars that the APS is offering to benefit early career scientists.

I offer my sincere gratitude to all the contributors for this issue of the FECS newsletter, who worked hard to provide useful and engaging content, and many thanks to all the FECS members for reading. Suggestions, comments about the newsletter, and article contributions are always very welcome, and you can reach me with these at kludwick@lagrange.edu or on our Facebook group (called “APS Forum for Early Career Scientists”). I hope to connect with you on our Facebook group and at upcoming APS meetings!

Sincerely,

Kevin