To Columbus, Ohio, as a CAS Future Leader
Olivia Wilkins
I’m writing this blog post on my phone from seat 29C—all the way in the second-to-last row—on a Southwest flight from BWI to Columbus, Ohio. About an hour-and-a-half ago (at the time of writing this around 17:45 ET), I shared a tearful goodbye as I left my husband and son for a 12-day trip, my longest without them. Now, I’m waiting for the plane to pull away from the gate. My stomach starts to growl as I realize the other folks in my cohort are already gathered for dinner. I am thankful that I am wearing a KN95 mask because the brief moments when I slip it off to sip my caramel macchiato, my nostrils are filled with a stench of perfume that churns my stomach.
Even with these feelings, I am excited for the plane to depart and transport me to Columbus, where I will join 28 other early-career chemists from around the world. In March, we were named CAS Future Leaders, an award granted to about 30 graduate and postdoctoral scholars every year by CAS, a division of the American Chemical Society (ACS).
An expenses-paid trip to Columbus, home of CAS headquarters, followed by lodging and registration for the fall ACS meeting (this year, in Chicago), is one of the perks of the award. Other perks include three years of ACS membership, $1000, and seeing your name printed in Chemical & Engineering News a couple times. You can also forge lasting relationships with other chemists with whom you might not have otherwise interacted.
I was surprised when I got the email offering me a place in the 2022 CAS Future Leaders program. I almost didn’t apply because I don’t see myself as a leader, even a future one, in chemistry most of the time. Most days, I don’t even see myself as a chemist, not because I don’t do chemistry (I do), but because astrochemists like me—whether using radio telescopes or wrenching a vacuum chamber in the lab—generally don’t look like the typical representation of a chemist (think white lab coat, safety glasses, lots of glassware). I didn’t even do experiments during the 6 years preceding the application deadline and was housed in physics and planetary sciences departments rather than among my fellow chemists.
Credit: Future Leaders 2022 Gallery, CAS
Nevertheless, I applied because, as my graduate advisor likes to say, “If you don’t ask, you don’t get.” So, I asked.
And what I got is what looks to be a week of awesome (and likely exhausting, especially for my introvert self) leadership training and discussion with really cool people, all while staying in the fanciest hotel I will probably ever sleep in. Throughout the week, we’ll learn about storytelling in science, social media as a communication tool, and working as an effective collaborator.
Finally, after a 30-minute delay, the plane pulls away from the gate. As we prepare for takeoff, I feel a rush of excitement. I can’t wait to meet my fellow Future Leaders.