ACerS President's Council of Student Advisors (PCSA) is the student-led committee of ACerS responsible for representing student interests to ACerS and its subsidiary committees, divisions, sections, and classes. The PCSA is the primary face of ACerS to ceramics and materials science students. The role of the PCSA delegate is to represent their collegiate institution to PCSA, as well as representing the PCSA and ACerS to their academic department.
PCSA Mission
The mission of PCSA is to engage students as active and long-term leaders in the ceramics community and to increase participation in ACerS at the local, national, and international levels.
PCSA Goals
- To coordinate student-focused ceramic programming at technical meetings.
- To develop and implement ceramics-focused outreach activities.
- To facilitate industry-student relations.
- To promote ceramic science and engineering at the university and local levels.
- To provide a way for students and young professionals to become and remain
actively engaged as leaders in the ceramic materials community.
PCSA Programs
- Creativity Competition
- Humanitarian Pitch Competition
- ACerS Student Mentor Program
- Lab Blooper Competition
- Shot Glass Competition at ICACC
- Student and Industry Failure Trials (SIFT) Competition at ICACC
ACerS PCSA Day in the Life (DITL) video compilation
Delegates from the ACerS President’s Council of Student Advisors (PCSA) worked to put together Day in the Life (DITL) videos to give some insight into the life of students in higher education. The video shown above is a compilation of the 10+ DITL videos created by the PCSA. To view the individual videos, go to www.instagram.com/acerspcsa and check out their stories.
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Become a part of PCSA
The 2023-24 PCSA application period is now closed.
Check back for future application openings.
PCSA Committees
The PCSA also has five committees which are shown below.
Organize official PCSA sponsored conference programs and competitions
Coordinate advertisement and social media managing for the PCSA
Inspire and assist young researchers to become part of the PCSA
Facilitate STEM outreach for the next generation of materials scientists and engineers, with a focus on ceramics
Professional development and community engagement group within the PCSA
2022-23 PCSA Officers
PCSA Chair
Fox Thorpe, University of California, Davis
Conference Programming and Competitions Committee Chair
Stuart Ness, University of California, Davis
Communications Committee Chair
Elia Zancan, University of Birmingham (United Kingdom)
Recruitment and retention Committee Chair
Ruth Adam, University of Cologne
PCSA VICE Chair
Michael Thuis, Northwestern University
education Committee Chair
Nathan McIlwaine, The Pennsylvania State University
professional development Committee Chair
Kartik Nemani, Indiana University
PCSA Mentor-at-large
Victoria Blair, US Army Research Laboratory
Meet the 2022-23 PCSA
The 2022-23 class of PCSA delegates consists of 46 students from 28 universities, representing 8 countries.
Left: A portion of the 2022-2023 class of delegates along with the 2021-2022 ACerS President, Elizabeth Dickey (center-right, front row) at the PCSA Annual Business Meeting.
2022-2023 PCSA delegates represent the following universities:
Alfred University
California Institute of Technology
Clemson University
Coe College
Colorado School of Mines
Friedrich Schiller University Jena (Germany)
Indiana University
Instituto Tecnológico de Saltillo (Mexico)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) (Pakistan)
Northwestern University
Purdue University
South Dakota School of Mines and Technology
Technical University of Munich (Germany)
The Pennsylvania State University
The University of Sydney (Australia)
University of Birmingham (United Kingdom)
University of California, Davis
University of California, Irvine
University of Cologne (Germany)
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
University of Leoben (Austria)
University of Minnesota Twin Cities
University of North Texas
University of Rennes 1 (France)
University of Virginia
Virginia Tech
Washington State University