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Nontraditional Careers

Transition State

by Pat N. Confalone, Chair, ACS Board Of Directors
May 18, 2015 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 93, Issue 20

Confalone
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Credit: Peter Cutts Photography
Pat N. Confalone, Chair, ACS Board of Directors.
Credit: Peter Cutts Photography

One of the many definitions of a transition state is “the point along the reaction coordinate corresponding to the highest potential energy.” The American Chemical Society is currently in a transition state, which began with the Feb. 17 start of our new executive director and CEO, Thomas M. Connelly Jr. In addition, there is a new chair of the board of directors and a new society president. Concurrently, the world that surrounds ACS continues to change rapidly as evidenced in our planning committee’s recent environmental scan, which monitors all aspects of the external landscape.

In fact, the only constant is change. We’ve seen the transition in the corporate sector from national companies to international organizations to globally based entities, not tethered to any country or region. The transition from print to digital, photos to JPEGs, landlines to cell phones, hard copy to e-mails, travel for face-to-face meetings to videoconferences, the Great Recession to a sluggish economic recovery—the list of transitions is practically endless, and the pace continues to be very dynamic.

ACS has realized for some time that our two information publishing operations—ACS Publications and Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS)—face many challenges in this changing world.

ACS Publications is reworking its business models in the face of open access requirements and the rise of so-called megajournals, moving toward innovative pricing and offerings that go well beyond a subscription-based business. The division has successfully transitioned from print to digital journals, which now account for nearly all of our journal revenue.

In addition, we launched ACS Central Science, an open access journal billed as “the primary venue for reporting the most important advances in chemistry and allied fields.” We continue to identify new journals that meet the demand of chemistry-related science publications while maintaining our stature as the most-read, most-cited, and most-respected scientific publisher.

ACS’s website, C&EN, and other offerings were ported to smartphones and tablets soon after the introduction of such mobile technology, and ACS continues to be at the forefront of social media, including our ACS Network, Reactions YouTube channel, Chemistry in Pictures Tumblr blog, and presence on social networks such as Twitter and Reddit.

CAS, long the gold standard in database, content, and search, competes in a space that continues to see significant new competition from alternative commercial enterprises and Google. Under new leadership at CAS, we not only are enhancing our best-in-class database SciFinder and STN offerings but also have introduced three exciting products in the first quarter of 2015.

Our flagship magazine, C&EN, struggles against the decline in print advertising that is affecting most publishers while it strives to provide impactful content that meets the high journalistic standards our members continue to expect.

Let’s examine some additional changes along various axes. First, the national-to-global transition. We’ve all been dealing with the threats and opportunities that globalization affords, well stated in Thomas L. Friedman’s eloquent book “The World Is Flat”: “Lightning-swift changes in technology and communications are challenging us to run even faster just to stay in place.”

ACS is continuing to expand its presence on the global stage, articulated by our strategic plan and executed by many initiatives such as alliances with other chemistry societies in other nations, creation of international chapters, and the ACS on Campus outreach program to students, postdocs, and faculty. Our success is evidenced by the growth in membership outside the U.S. However, expanding our global presence and impact demands that we constantly improve the value proposition for international members and organizations.

For decades, the society has largely focused on the biggest employers and the traditional career paths. We are resetting the dials to better serve intermediate-sized and start-up companies. In addition, we are helping our members explore nontraditional career paths for chemists and chemical engineers. The launch of the American Association of Chemistry Teachers moves the dial to include the community of high school chemistry teachers, widening our more traditional focus beyond undergraduate and graduate students.

Yet another axis of change is the continuing and expanding role of chemistry in multidisciplinary research, a transition from the historical subdivisions exemplified by the segmentation of chemistry departments in our universities. Thus, ACS now publishes 47 scientific journals, and the majority of newly introduced titles appeal to practitioners in broad-based, multidisciplinary fields. Indeed, our claim that chemistry is the central science is in line with our strategic directive to demonstrate to scientists in these allied fields that they should see ACS as their professional home.

However, in this time of intense change, we note that not all change moves in a positive direction. Hence, we see employment among our members at a less-than-ideal level. This is particularly true among new graduates, a trend driven by a sluggish economic recovery and the seemingly never-ending implosion in the pharmaceutical industry. ACS has for some time offered resources to our members that provide assistance in getting that first or next job opportunity. Career fairs, mock interviews, résumé assistance, career-focused courses, and leadership training coupled with our Entrepreneurial Resources Center are just some of the benefits offered.

Although a transition state is a very exciting time of high energy, it ultimately resolves into products. The ACS Board of Directors, the senior leadership team and their world-class staff, our legion of dedicated volunteers, and our members are working to ensure that the products of our transition state are of the highest value, improving people’s lives through the transforming power of chemistry!

Views expressed on this page are those of the author and not necessarily those of ACS.

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