ACS on Campus Virtually Visits The Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD)

ACS on Campus, the American Chemical Society’s premier student outreach initiative, recently held its first-ever digital event at The Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). The university has a design-centric, multidisciplinary curriculum designed to nurture technically grounded leaders and innovators. During the 2-hour event, SUTD students got to hear from engaging speakers, including an ACS Editor, and ask questions about their tips for writing and publishing.

ACS Materials Letters Associate Editor Prof. Xiaodong Chen of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, spoke first. He is also is a member of the editorial advisory boards of more than 10 international journals, including ACS Nano. Prof. Chen’s talk was on ‘Cultivating Your Scientific Presentation Skills.’ He discussed the professional benefits of being a skilled presented and shared his public speaking advice.

The next speaker was 2014 ACS Noteworthy Chemistry honoree Prof. Xiaogang Liu of SUTD, who discussed his advice on ‘Effective Scientific Writing Skills.’ As a non-native English speaker, he shared the benefits of keeping his writing style simple. He also shared how an attractive piece of writing can draw in more readers.

“ACS on Campus provides a fantastic platform for researchers to interact with each other, exchange views, share experiences. The impact of ACS on Campus goes beyond chemistry and benefit many people – not only chemists but also researchers from other fields. I enjoyed this event very much, especially the interactions with students. We welcome ACS on Campus to visit SUTD again in the near future,” said Prof. Liu.

The event concluded with a presentation from the SUTD library highlighting how the ACS Guide to Scholarly Communication can aid students on their academic journey. This digital publication provides students, researchers, educators, and librarians with the instruction and advice they need to master the art of scholarly communication.

Students who attended the event also got to bring home prizes and a participation certificate.

Here’s what people are saying about this ACS on Campus event with SUTD.

“The speakers and modules presented during ACS on Campus SUTD were really engaging and insightful for our students. Being our first collaboration with ACS Publications, the turnout was better than expected. Looking forward to more of such events from ACS Publications and the team.” – Ridzwan Hussain, SUTD Library Senior Associate for User Engagement and Outreach

“The ACS on Campus SUTD was highly engaging and the knowledgeable speakers gave amazing presentations and answered our burning questions with good advice. Overall, the session is thought-provoking and one that I would definitely encourage others who have an interest in research to attend.” – Kelly Lim, SUTD Alumni

“The session was informative and engaging! I learned from the sharing by different presenters and benefitted from the thought-provoking questions asked by fellow students.” – Lin Huiqing, SUTD student

“I am glad to have the opportunity to participate in this event. Although my major is computer science and not chemistry, I learned a lot about academic presentation and academic writing from the presentation, which will help me a lot in my future research. Thank you to all the organizers for their hard work! I hope I can attend again next time! Thank you so much!” Rui Liu, SUTD student

“The sharing on Scientific Presentation and Writing by Prof Chen and Prof Liu, respectively, are extremely insightful for researchers. The sharing was delivered in a very systematic approach to engender confidence for novice and intermediate researchers to partake in our future scientific writing and presentations.” – Lim Sze Li Harry, SUTD student