Composition
Nozomi Ando (Cornell University)
Branton Campbell (Brigham Young University)
Cathy Drennan (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Joe Ferrara (Rigaku Americas Corp.)
Ally Fry-Petit (California State University, Fullerton) (CHAIR)
Cora Lind-Kovacs (University of Toledo)
Krystle McLaughlin (Vassar College)
Description
The Education and Workforce subcommittee of the USNC/Cr is made up of members on the committee interested in promoting crystallographic education and training, broadly defined, with the goal of bolstering the pipeline of individuals trained in crystallographic techniques across the entire spectrum from those who desire to understand and/or employ structural science in their teaching or research to professional crystallographers. We consider education and training in all areas of structural science including but not limited to small and macromolecular crystallography, powder diffraction, micro ED, and NMR crystallography, as well as relevant mathematics, physics, computing, and software. The subcommittee keeps track of and reports on crystallography schools in North America, undertakes initiatives to bolster education and training such as organizing and participating in symposia and workshops at conferences, and when funding is available, helps manage support of outreach and educational activities in crystallography.
Ongoing activities and initiatives
- NIST-funded Database Workshop for Early Career Scientists in 2022.
- Annual funding support for the ACA Summer School (https://acasummercourse.net).
- Support for crystallographic-education sessions at international schools and conferences.
- IUCr Congress in Prague in 2021 (MS-6).
- American Crystallographic Association meeting in 2021.
- Executive summary of the Education and Workforce report for general public
Past initiatives
- Conducted the study and framed the recommendations in the 2006 USNC/Cr report, “Crystallography Education Policies for the Physical and Life Sciences – Sustaining the Science of Molecular Structure in the 21st Century”.
- https://sites.nationalacademies.org/cs/groups/pgasite/documents/webpage/pga_049002.pdf
- Hosted a NSF funded Young Observers Program at IUCr Congress in Montreal in 2014.
- Organized and hosted the “International Year of Crystallography” reception for young scientists at the IUCr Congress in Montreal, 2014.
- Conducted a survey on preferred US congress locations during the 2014 IUCr Congress in Montreal.
- Annual funding support for the ACA Summer School (https://acasummercourse.net).