Career Mentoring Fellows Program

The Career Mentoring (CM) Fellows program seeks physicists working in industry or academia, who are interested in mentoring undergraduate students, learning and teaching about diverse career paths of physics degree holders, and establishing a stronger connection with the physics community. The CM Fellows program is a one year commitment with program activities taking place over a full calendar year.

Applications for 2021 Career Mentoring Fellows are now closed.

Please note: In addition to the application, a statement of support must be submitted by a student or early career physicist who you have worked with as a mentor, teacher, or volunteer. These must be emailed directly to Midhat Farooq, APS Careers Program Manager, at farooq@aps.org.

Program Components

All Career Mentoring Fellows will:

  • Gain expertise as a career mentor by learning about various APS Career resources, such as our online professional development guidebook, the APS Careers 2020 guide, and the APS Job Board,
  • Receive implicit bias and mentoring training, and
  • Receive partial travel funding and compensated registration for the March or April meeting.

Each CM Fellow will also be expected to:

  • Provide feedback on presentations in the undergraduate research sessions (oral and poster) at a March or April meeting, and
  • Give a talk at an institution near them to raise awareness about diverse physics careers using APS resources.

Who should apply

Physicists working in industry as well as those in academia, including graduate students, postdocs, or faculty, are encouraged to apply.

Ideal applicants will have:

  • An interest in learning about diverse physics careers and mentoring students,
  • Previous volunteer or mentoring experience with students/early career scientists,
  • Leadership skills, preferably related to activities benefiting students, and
  • An interest in diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Application

Applications are no longer being accepted.

To qualify, you will need to submit an application answering questions about

  • Your interest in physics careers,
  • Past volunteer work with APS or other organizations,
  • Past experience with mentoring,
  • A short statement listing your interest in, and any past experience with diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.

You will also need to provide a half page statement of support from a student or early career physicist detailing your investment in mentoring or supporting students and early career physicists.

2020 Career Mentoring Fellows

  • Jenna Walrath, Senior Staff Engineer, Intel
  • Jan Kleinert, Research Manager / Member of the Office of Chief Technology Officers, MKS|ESI
  • Brian Beckford, Physicist / Program Manager, Department of Energy, Office of Science
  • Marciano Bagnoli, Quality Manager, Georgia-Pacific
  • Dawn King, Geodetic Earth Scientist, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
  • Wennie Wang, Postdoctoral Scholar, University of Chicago
  • Matthew Wright, Chair/Professor, Adelphi University
  • Todd Brintlinger, Research Physicist, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
  • Shannon Swilley Greco, Senior Program Leader, Science Education, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
  • Heide Doss, Adjunct Professor, Point Loma Nazarene University
  • Jenna Smith, Assistant Professor of Physics, Pierce College - Puyallup
  • Joseph Haley, Associate Professor, Oklahoma State University
  • Xuan Chen, Graduate Student, University of Illinois at Chicago
  • Alexa Rakoski, Graduate Student, University of Michigan
  • Taylor Juran, Physics PhD Candidate, Binghamton University
  • Samina Masood, Professor of Physics, University of Houston Clear Lake
  • Alexis Knaub, External Evaluator / Consultant
  • Chrisy Xiyu Du, Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University
  • Erin Teich, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Pennsylvania
  • Maria Longobardi, Chief International Relations Officer, BAQIS
  • Jack Simonson, Assistant Professor of Physics, Farmingdale State College
  • Susan Blessing, Professor, Florida State University
  • Heather Lewandowski, Fellow of JILA/Professor and Associate Chair of Physics, University of Colorado
  • Christine Nattrass, Associate Professor, University of Tennessee, Knoxville