PNNL

As the strains of that famous graduation march echo around the country, a new group of scientists are joining the ranks of institutions around the country. In honor of them, the latest issue of Transformations offers advice to early career scientists and their mentors. A vital part of success is professional societies. Janet Bryant, who's served as an ambassador and volunteer with the American Chemical Society for more than 20 years, highlights the benefits of joining professional societies.

Because being part of a society is just one aspect of your career, we offer three steps to catalyze your success. For each step, we asked a diverse group of people to share their thoughts. We asked researchers with a few years of experience as well as those with a few decades. We asked the editor-in-chief of a popular catalysis journal. And we asked our newest administrator. See what they advise to manage cliques and to better communicate with sponsors.

In addition to our latest news items, we also offer a fast read on the fundamental work that upended the long-held view of how oxygen atoms bind on metal-supported graphene sheets. Understanding oxygen binding with unprecedented detail provides vital information for the bottom-up design of catalysts, as the oxygen atoms serve as the anchor points for reaction centers on graphene.