February 10, 2021
From the helm of a one-of-a-kind organization that brings nuclear fusion and fission expertise together to pave the way to expanding carbon-free energy, Kathy McCarthy can trace the first step of her engineering career back to a childhood fishing trip.
“When I was around 9 or 10 years old, I was fishing with my father, using grasshoppers we had caught as bait. I became frustrated when a bunch of grasshoppers jumped out of the container each time I opened the lid to put one on my hook,” she said. “My dad said, ‘Why don’t we design a device we could build to get out a grasshopper without letting the others escape?’ The realization that I could design and build something to solve a problem planted a seed that later helped lead me into engineering.”
Prof. Ludger Overmeyer assumes presidency of German Scientific Laser Society
Date Announced: 20 Jan 2021
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Overmeyer, Member of the Board of Directors of the LZH and Chairman of the Scientific Directorate, assumed the WLT presidency as of January 1st, 2021. (Photo: LUH).
Hannover, Germany Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ludger Overmeyer, member of the Board of Directors of the Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V. (LZH) and Chairman of the Scientific Directorate, has assumed the presidency of the German Scientific Laser Society (WLT) as of January 1st, 2021. The WLT is a strong community of scientific institutions, says Prof. Dr.-Ing. Overmeyer, describing the goals as follows: We want to continue to use our expertise in laser technology and photonics to advance research in the field and make the results available to other disciplines.
January 15, 2021
As a mid-career scientist or engineer (at the associate professor rank or equivalent), you are familiar with the pressure to remain productive in the lab, yet also obligated to teaching, institutional service and professional development. Being pulled in so many different directions constrains your time and creates inequities in workload, which could hinder research productivity and career advancement in the long term. To address this, the U.S. National Science Foundation created the new Mid-Career Advancement program to help mid-career researchers re-balance and prioritize their time.
Much like NSF’s Faculty Early Career Development Program known as CAREER, the Mid-Career program helps ensure the health and vitality of science at a sensitive career stage. It also aims to lift some of these constraints to support your scientific research career and help build and retain a more diverse science and engineering workforce.