During the week of September 7-10th 2019, I was blessed to be selected and participate in a National Science Foundation for new and young principal investigators across the country! The workshop was held at the National Science Foundation headquarters in Alexandria, VA.
Per the website:
The goal of the workshop is to provide young investigators who have just received their first award or who are attempting to obtain funding from a program within MPS with valuable information and advice on the policies, procedures, and opportunities available at the National Science Foundation.
During the workshop, we completed the following:
- • Panel review practice – Part 1: reviews and panel discussion
- • Panel review practice – Part 2: ranking and panel summaries
- • Individual Investigator Programs at NSF/MPS
- • Centers and Facilities by the National Science Foundation
- • Special programs at the National Science Foundation
- • NSF Policies and Procedures
- • The Merit Review Process
- • What makes a review effective and helpful research proposal
Proposal Sections:
- • Preparing highlights
- • Preparing Broader Impacts sections
- • Preparing successful proposals
The workshop was fun, learning-filled as I was blessed to meet and network with a ton of academic teaching and research professors from all across the country!
I was able to witness speeches by the Assistant Director of the National Science Foundation, Ann Kinney and several other program directors at NSF.
Specifically, Dr. Sylvester Gates, a theoretical physicist professor at Brown University and former science advisor to Barack Obama (holding a position at Barack Obama‘s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology)!
He has been an educator for over 40 years! He really harped on “us being educators and giving back to society.”
He said to create a great science background full of research that will allow us to broaden our participation not only in science but in our communities and in society. He spoke about diversity and broadening participation in STEM. He spoke about his experience and past in being an African-American physicist. His talk was incredible!