Conference: Future Faculty Workshop: Preparing Diverse Leaders for the Future, Summers of 2022-2025

这个跨学科的未来教师研讨会(FFW)旨在通过一个以支持研究生和博士后在全国范围内过渡到教师职位为中心的活动，支持美国民众全面参与科学和工程事业。增加在学术企业中属于历史上代表性不足的群体的教职员工比例，是提高未来科学和工程劳动力整体多样性的重要途径。这在人才开发和研究创造力方面可能是变革性的，能够更快地开发出满足紧迫社会需求的变革性解决方案。FFW的使命是为有抱负的学术领袖提供访问关键信息的途径，这些信息对于申请、确保和成功获得美国学术机构的教师职位至关重要。FFW的愿景是培养一种包容的学术氛围，支持美国人在科学和工程企业的终身职业生涯中拥有不同的人才和人力资源。材料研究本质上支持跨传统孤立学科(即化学、物理、生物学、地质学、数学、工程学等)的跨学科、协作和集体研究努力。因此，该领域是加强学术界经济、社会、种族、性别和残疾多样性以及支持非传统职业道路(例如，在服兵役后追求STEM学术生涯)的理想场所。FFW是一个亲身实践的、为期数天的互动研讨会。通过该项目，从2022年至2025年，每年将举办四次为期两天的研讨会，将目前担任高级研究生和博士后职位的学员和来自美国各大学的知名教师汇集在一起，其中许多人来自学术STEM领域代表性不足的群体，他们作为学员和/或导师参与了过去的FFW。讲习班的议程建立在从以前的讲习班获得的最佳做法和知识的基础上，并根据以前的评估进行了有针对性的改进。小组讨论将包括如何在研究生或博士后期间为独立的学术生涯做准备；如何确定、申请、面试和谈判职位；以及作为助理教授的最佳实践。学员还将有机会进行简短的建议研究演讲，并获得对内容和演示风格的反馈。将使用能够随时适应和评估的动态逻辑模型框架来促进成功，并为最佳做法提供信息。评估将包括形成性和总结性评估部分，这些部分将传达给私营部门和主要合作者，并用来通知后续FFW的变化。将建立一个讲习班后社区，以支持参与者的持续专业发展，并将举行虚拟申请前网络研讨会，以便潜在申请者能够更多地了解申请过程，降低申请门槛。该项目的短期成果将包括加强妇女和任职人数不足的候选人在学术道路上的准备，增强对类似人群追求学术事业的信心，以及增加有效追求并在学术生涯中取得成功的类似人群的数量。较长期的结果是女性教员和/或来自在科学和工程领域历来代表性不足的群体的人数增加，以及类似人口更多地参与国家社会/团体/网络。最终，教授职称的提升将带来更多的创新和包容性卓越，它将为提高整个美国科学和工程企业的多样性和包容性提供可持续的催化剂。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This interdisciplinary future faculty workshop (FFW) aims to support full engagement of the American population in the science and engineering enterprise through an event centered on supporting graduate students and postdocs in their transition into faculty positions across the nation. Increasing the fraction of faculty who belong to groups historically underrepresented in the academic enterprise is a prominent route to improving overall diversity in the up-and-coming science and engineering workforce. This can be transformational with respect to talent development and research creativity, enabling more rapid development of transformative solutions to pressing societal needs. The mission of the FFW is to provide aspiring academic leaders access to the key information critical to apply for, secure, and succeed in faculty positions across academic institutions in the United States. The vision of the FFW is to foster an inclusive academic climate that supports the diverse talent and human resources of the American population in lifelong careers in the scientific and engineering enterprise. Materials research inherently supports interdisciplinary, collaborative, and collective research endeavors across traditionally siloed disciplines (i.e., chemistry, physics, biology, geology, mathematics, engineering, etc.). Thus, this field is an ideal venue to enhance economic, social, racial, gender, and disability diversity in academia, as well as support non-traditional career paths (e.g., pursuit of a STEM academic career after military service). The FFW is a hands-on multi-day interactive workshop. Through this project, four two-day workshops will be held annually from 2022-2025, and will bring together mentees who will have current positions as senior graduate students and postdocs, and mentors who will be established faculty from across US universities, many of whom are from groups underrepresented in academic STEM fields and who participated in past FFWs as mentees and/or mentors. The agenda for the workshop is built upon best practices and knowledge gained from prior workshops, with targeted improvements based on previous assessments. Panel discussions will cover how to prepare for an independent academic career during time as a graduate student or postdoc; how to identify, apply to, interview at, and negotiate for positions; and best practices as an assistant professor. Mentees will also have the opportunity to give a short proposed research talk and get feedback on content and presentation style. A dynamic logic model framework that permits ready adaptation and assessment will be used to facilitate success and inform best practices. The assessment will include both formative and summative evaluation components, which will be relayed to the PI and key collaborators and used to inform changes to subsequent FFWs. A post-workshop community will be developed to support the participates in their continued professional development and virtual pre-application webinars will be held so that potential applicants can learn more about the process and the barrier for application is lowered. Shorter-term outcomes of this project will include enhanced preparation of women and underrepresented candidates for the academic pathway, increased confidence in similar populations in the pursuit of academic careers, and increased number of similar populations who effectively pursue and succeed in academic careers. Longer-term outcomes are increased numbers of faculty who are women and/or from groups historically underrepresented in science and engineering, as well as increased participation of similar populations in national societies/groups/networks. Ultimately, this enhancement of the professoriate will lead to increased innovation and inclusive excellence, and it will provide a sustainable catalyst for improving diversity and inclusion across the American science and engineering enterprise.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.