Part of our job as scientists is sharing our research findings in conferences and other venues. To be able to present their work clearly and effectively, scientists need opportunities to practice. The exposure that comes with giving presentations also helps build networks and careers. Two early-career groups that especially benefit from communicating their science are students and postdoctoral researchers. However, opportunities for these researchers to share their work are generally few and far between, and can involve prohibitively high conference fees and costly travel. This problem is exacerbated for scientists outside of the United States, Canada, and parts of Europe.<br/>JAWSChem (Just Another (Chemistry) Webinar Series) is an online chemistry seminar series created at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic when numerous conferences were cancelled. Our goal is to provide a free global platform for early-career chemists to share their work, with an emphasis on highlighting the work of students and postdoctoral researchers. We work to reflect the diversity of the chemistry community around the world by featuring chemists of various ethnicities, localities, sub-disciplines, career status, etc. in our seminars. Our mission is for JAWSChem to serve as a platform where chemists can present their research and practice these important communication skills. In particular, we work to support researchers who have fewer opportunities to give presentations early in their career.<br/>Since JAWSChem started in November of 2020, we have held more than 45 sessions, hosted more than 120 presenters, and have had hundreds of attendees from all over the world. In this presentation, we reflect on the first 18 months of our seminar series: we describe the demographics of our presenters and discuss strategies to reach a broader, more diverse pool of speakers in the future.

Take the bait! JAWSChem is a global platform for early-career chemists

Fall 2022 abstracts, posters, and presentations will launch in mid-September.

ACS Fall 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.