On 9 April, 2014, the Science Library welcomed several distinguished speakers from the American Chemical Society (ACS) to the NUS Campus and co-organized the event, “ACS on Campus” with ACS. Comprising a resume writing workshop and a series of talks tailored to scholarly publishing for all fields of science, the event brought together the scientific research community – undergraduates, graduates and research staff alike – to learn, share and benefit from one another.

Dr. David Harwell, the Assistant Director of Industry Member Programs (ACS), provided the 34 participants with insightful advice and tips on crafting effective resumes, while offering an overview of the landscape of industrial hiring trends. Close to 80% of the participants found the workshop very positive.

Kicking off the series of talks on scholarly publishing was none other than Dr. Andrew Wee, the previous Dean of Faculty of Science, who is also the Associate Editor of ACS Nano. He was most enthusiastic in sharing with the audience his many valuable tips on getting started in writing a scholarly manuscript.

Dr. Lyndon Emsley from Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon took the microphone next. The Associate Editor of Journal of the American Chemical Society impressed upon the audience the importance of peer review and its advantages and limitations. Together with Ms Norah Xiao’s talk on copyright and ethics in scholarly communication, the participants certainly gained much knowledge in navigating the world of scholarly publishing.

The last speaker, Dr. Burtrand Lee, Program Manager of ACS Petroleum Research Fund, shed much light on writing competitive research grants and proposals. Many critical questions were asked of Dr. Lee, based on his experience as a fund program manager; similarly, several questions and issues were discussed during the other speakers’ Q&A.

Tea breaks were also offered for the students, staff and speakers to interact and network professionally. The delicious food certainly was a boon to this beneficial event, as was the lucky draw held at the end of the day! One winner was drawn out of the 186 participants and he won a mall voucher.

If you had missed this exciting slew of workshop and talks by ACS, do not worry! You can view the speakers’ content presentations at the following links:

1)          Introduction to ACS: http://libapps.nus.edu.sg/pdf/knowledge_creation/ACS/Introduction_to_ACS.pdf

2)          Basics in Scholarly Publishing: Getting Started: http://libapps.nus.edu.sg/pdf/knowledge_creation/ACS/Getting_Started.pdf

3)          Basics in Scholarly Publishing: Peer Review: http://libapps.nus.edu.sg/pdf/knowledge_creation/ACS/Peer_Review.pdf

4)          Copyright and Ethics in Scholarly Publishing: http://libapps.nus.edu.sg/pdf/knowledge_creation/ACS/Copyright_and_Ethics.pdf

5)          Writing Competitive Research Grant Proposals: http://libapps.nus.edu.sg/pdf/knowledge_creation/ACS/Research_Grant_Proposals.pdf

6)          Working in Industry: Preparing a Resume Workshop: http://libapps.nus.edu.sg/pdf/knowledge_creation/ACS/Working_in_Industry.pdf

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