LBNL Earth and Environmental Sciences Area (EESA)
Early Career Outstanding Scientist Seminar Series (ECOSSS)
Early Career Outstanding Scientist Seminar Series (ECOSSS) is a lecture series open for worldwide early-career scientists (Ph.D. students, Postdocs, and early-career scholars), aimed at advocating for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accountability (IDEA) missions. The seminar series was initiated by LBNL Earth and Environmental Sciences Area (EESA) early-career scientists and will showcase selected outstanding early-career scientists who advance the research frontiers in their disciplines and invest in IDEA goals in their communities. The ECOSSS program endeavors to serve as an internationally recognized platform for highlighting early-career scholars' contributions in scientific fields relevant to EESA's research scopes.
ECOSSS Goals: 1) Nurture a diverse and inclusive environment across LBNL and the scientific community. 2) Advance inclusion and highlight accomplishments of underrepresented early career scientists in the community, including underrepresented minorities. 3) Build a pipeline for hiring and diversifying the workforce.
Eligibility: Early-career researchers, including Ph.D. students, Postdocs, and early-career scholars who are within 10 years of receiving their Ph.D.
Recognizing that IDEA must be integrated into our culture, practices, and processes, we launched the EESA IDEA framework in early 2020. (Read more)
LBNL IDEA Highlights
LBNL EESA IDEA Highlights
The URGE Working Groups merged with the newly formed EESA IDEA Executive Committee in late 2022. The URGE pod will focus on learning in 2023, while the IDEA committee focuses on implementation (e.g., the "diversity in speakers").
In July 2023, the EESA IDEA Subcommittee on "diversity in speakers" established the ECOSSS program to advance diversity and inclusion for worldwide early-career scientists in the fields relevant to EESA's research scopes.
Selection Criteria
1. Academic excellence: The candidate should demonstrate exceptional academic achievements, including high-impact publications, presentations at international conferences, and awards or honors received.
2. Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accountability (IDEA) contributions: The candidate should demonstrate a commitment to IDEA either in their scientific work or in their interactions with colleagues, students, and the broader community. This commitment can be demonstrated through their past and planned contributions to promoting IDEA goals in their field.
3. Leadership potential: The candidate should demonstrate leadership potential through their involvement in activities such as mentoring, teaching, and service to their scientific community.
Application Process
We are particularly interested in receiving applications from candidates from historically underrepresented groups in STEM. Applications will be evaluated based on the candidate's scientific merits and contributions to promoting IDEA goals. Selected candidates will be invited to Berkeley Lab or online (hybrid mode) to give a seminar. This program is hosted by the Earth and Environmental Science Area (EESA) at Berkeley Lab, and it provides research exposure and networking opportunities with our EESA scientists.
The application package includes:
Curriculum vitae (CV), which includes your academic background, research experience, publications, awards and honors, and any other relevant professional experience. (Required)
Brief IDEA statement: A half-page statement describing your background, career goals, your commitment to IDEA, and how you plan to contribute to advancing IDEA in your scientific work. (Required)
Presentation title and abstract: A tentative presentation title and abstract including both your scientific work and IDEA-related content. Once selected, we will contact you for your finalized title and abstract. (Required)
Other words to the ECOSSS committee that you believe would strengthen your application. (Optional)
To apply or to nominate someone, please use the link below to fill out the application form:
(ECOSSS hosts seminars quarterly, and our next scheduled review date is Feb. 9th, 2024.)
EESA-ECOSSS News
Nov. 13th, 2023. ECOSSS committee chair Dr. Jing Tao was invited to give an overview talk about ECOSSS at the CESD Division Council Meeting. The overview slides can be found here.
The ECOSSS committee has reviewed all the applications we received by Sep. 1, 2023 and cast our votes. After careful consideration, we are delighted to announce that Dr. Shersingh Joseph Tumber-Dávila has been selected as our inaugural ECOSSS speaker. Dr. Tumber-Dávila received his Ph.D. in Environmental Earth System Science from Stanford University; Currently, he is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University and will be joining Dartmouth College in January 2024 as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Tumber-Dávila's remarkable research achievements in the fields of plant root systems and terrestrial carbon cycles, coupled with his outstanding dedication to IDEA and empowering Latino and Indigenous communities, set him apart as the ideal candidate for this honor. We are thrilled that Dr. Tumber-Dávila will deliver the ECOSSS inaugural seminar on Dec. 5th. Please join us to explore Dr. Tumber-Dávila's research and insights into IDEA missions!
Dec. 5th, 2023. We successfully organized the inaugural ECOSSS seminar, which was delivered by Dr. Shersingh Joseph Tumber-Dávila! This milestone event drew an impressive audience of approximately 50 attendees, comprising both in-person and online participants. Dr. Tumber-Dávila's captivating presentation sparked engaging discussions on forest root systems and his involvement in pivotal IDEA projects. You can access the recorded video of this inaugural seminar below in the "Spotlight" section!
The ECOSSS committee reviewed all the applications collectively received by Feb. 9th and selected Ajinkya Desai, a Ph.D. candidate at UC Irvine, as our second ECOSSS speaker! Ajinkya has a unique, diverse, and interdisciplinary background. His research efforts focus on applying fluid mechanics principles to decipher wildfire behavior and develop enhanced physics-based fire-behavior models. Ajinkya’s interests extend beyond academia, aiming to foster a multicultural and empathic scientific community via arts while contributing to developing predictive models for fire-spread behavior. Join us for this engaging seminar, titled "Investigating fire-atmosphere interaction using experimental burn data", from 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm (PST), Tuesday, April, 9th, 2024, at LBNL Bldg. 74-324, or Join the Zoom Meeting.
Spotlight for Past EESA-ECOSSS Speakers
The ECOSSS inaugural seminar was delivered by Dr. Shersingh Joseph Tumber-Dávila successfully on Dec. 5th, 2023. Dr. Tumber-Dávila received his Ph.D. in Environmental Earth System Science from Stanford University; Currently, he is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University and will be joining Dartmouth College in January 2024 as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Tumber-Dávila's remarkable research achievements in the fields of plant root systems and terrestrial carbon cycles, coupled with his outstanding dedication to IDEA and empowering Latino and Indigenous communities, set him apart as the ideal candidate for this honor.
Check the recorded ECOSSS inaugural seminar below.
Questions can be directed to Dr. Jing Tao (jingtao@lbl.gov)