Yesterday, C-GEM hosted a “career chat” discussion with two faculty members at primarily undergraduate institutions (PUIs): Lou Charkoudian (Haverford College) and Leah Witus (Macalester College). There is great diversity among PUIs – Dr. Charkoudian and Dr. Witus both work at institutions with a strong focus on research as well as teaching. Both spoke to the joy that they find in mentoring undergraduate students in research, and the different scope and pace of research at a PUI compared to an R1 institution. The conversation was inspiring and informative. We put together the list below to help disseminate the large number of resources that were shared in the discussion.
Finding a job:
ChemJobber 2023 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (filter “category” by PUI)
Funding for research at PUIs:
NSF Facilitating Research at Primarily Undergraduate Institutions (RUI)
NSF Launching Early-Career Academic Pathways in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences (LEAPS)*
NIH Research Enhancement Award (R15)
Research Corporation for Science Advancement Cottrell Scholars
Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award
*LEAPS was not mentioned in the session, but is a relatively new program shared with C-GEM by the NSF Chemistry Directorate.
Postdocs that support research and teaching:
NIH Institutional Research and Academic Career Development Awards (IRACDA) (K12)
Gettysburg Consortium for Faculty Diversity
* Note: for many PUI positions, extensive teaching experience is not a requirement.
Workshops to prepare faculty applications:
ACS Postdoc to Faculty Workshop (applications open in January)
List of Building Future Faculty programs
A huge thank you to Professors Charkoudian and Witus for taking the time to speak with the C-GEM community – we appreciate your time and insights!