RCSA Fellows Initiative Selects 2025 Cohort
Top row: George Agbeworvi, Kaley Brauer, Conrad Fihn. 2nd row: Guadalupe Garcia Arellano, Tanveer Karim, Arturo Leon Sandoval, Justin Myles, Sanaea Rose, Melissa Quinnan. 3rd row: Jenna Samuel, Kunyu Wang, Eric Yang. (Alex Malz not pictured.)
Research Corporation for Science Advancement has selected 13 outstanding postdoctoral scholars to participate in the second year of its RCSA Fellows Initiative, which aims to increase faculty excellence in the physical sciences through a multiyear program of job search preparation, professional development, and community building.
The program includes a mock interview at a host institution, structured feedback and guidance throughout the job search process, as well as participation in a network of other Fellows and program advisers at various stages in their careers.
“Success as an academic scientist is more than securing a position,” said RCSA President & CEO Daniel Linzer. “While this initiative helps Fellows prepare for interviews and the hiring process, the addition of a new cohort each year will create a growing community of early career faculty who can help each other thrive as they balance the competing demands of academic citizenship, teaching, research, and mentoring.”
At the time of this announcement, four of the eight 2024 RCSA Fellows are scheduled to begin tenure-track faculty appointments in summer or autumn 2025, while the others continue their search process.
The inaugural class was enthusiastic about the first year of the program.
“RCSA and my host went out of their way to get me ready” for the mock interview, said RCSA Fellow Will Ndugire. He added that the rest of the visit, including the pre-interview dinner, meeting with the department chair, and conversations with recently hired faculty, was informative in helping him think about being a group leader, including how to set up a lab, recruit students, and create budgets.
“I left feeling motivated, challenged, and ready for the faculty job search process,” he said.
“The mock interview was fantastic!” said 2024 RCSA Fellow Sarah Blunt. “It was great to meet the astronomers at my host institution and to get their feedback on my application materials. I learned a lot about making requests for startup packages; that isn’t something I’ve thought a lot about in the course of writing applications, but it is of course a critical part of the job process! I got feedback on what was usual and unusual, and more importantly, how to properly justify what I was asking for.”
The second RCSA Fellows conference, on the theme of “Navigating Your Academic Career in Fast-Changing Times,” will be held June 3-4, 2025, in Tucson, Arizona. Cottrell Scholar 2015 Jen Heemstra, Washington University in St. Louis, will deliver the keynote talk, “Maintaining Your Footing and Focus in the Midst of Uncertainty.”
Serving as Facilitators for the conference will be: Scialog SLU Facilitator Daniel Apai, University of Arizona; CS 2009 Penny Beuning, Northeastern University; CS 2009 Maura McLaughlin, West Virginia University; and Megan Nuñez, Wellesley College.
Facilitators will lead sessions tailored to the needs of both the 2024 and 2025 cohorts, ranging from help for new Fellows in creating competitive job-search materials to advice for those who are soon starting faculty positions, including time management, hiring and mentoring, and how to manage startup funds.
In another session, last year’s Fellows will also share their experiences from the first year of the initiative.
“As this program matures, Fellows at different stages of the transition from postdoc to faculty can learn from each other,” said RCSA Program Director Eileen Spain, who leads the initiative. “Over time, we expect that having a network of other faculty from other institutions and disciplines will be an important source of support and ideas as Fellows advance in their careers.”
Members of the RCSA Board of Directors and RCSA Fellows Advisory Committee will also attend the conference.
The 2025 RCSA Fellows are:
George Agbeworvi, Chemistry, Texas A&M University
Kaley Brauer, Astronomy, Harvard University
Conrad Fihn, Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Santa Cruz
Guadalupe Garcia Arellano, Physics, Research Foundation of the City University of New York
Tanveer Karim, Astronomy, University of Toronto
Arturo Leon Sandoval, Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of San Diego
Alex Malz, Physics, Carnegie Mellon University
Justin Myles, Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University
Sanaea Rose, Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA), Northwestern University
Melissa Quinnan, Physics, University of California, San Diego
Jenna Samuel, Astronomy, University of Texas at Austin
Kunyu Wang, Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania
Eric Yang, Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, San Diego
Research Corporation for Science Advancement is a private foundation that funds basic research in the physical sciences (astronomy, chemistry, physics, and related fields) at colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. It creates and supports engaged communities of early career researchers through the Cottrell Scholar Program, Scialog, and the RCSA Fellows Initiative.
