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. The PCSA developed the first version of the Materials Science Classroom Kits in fall 2013.
- 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.
Become a part of PCSA
The PCSA application period for the 2020-21 year is now open! The deadline to apply has been extended to April 13, 2020.
PCSA Committees
The PCSA also has five committees which are shown below.
Organize official PCSA sponsored programs: contests and activities
Increase the visibility of ceramic and glass materials science
PCSA delegate recruitment
Organize ways to communicate the concepts of ceramic and glass to K-12 and the general public
Connect and collaborate with materials science related organizations, both domestic and international
2019-20 PCSA Officers
PCSA Chair
Victoria Christensen, University of California, Santa Barbara
Programming Committee Chair
Michael Walden, Colorado School of Mines
Communications Committee Chair
Erin Valenzuela, University of Birmingham
Recruitment Committee Chair
Katelyn Kirchner, The Pennsylvania State University
Outreach Committee Chair
Andrew Ericks, University of California, Santa Barbara
External Partnerships Committee Chair
Andrew Jacobs, University of Dayton
PCSA Mentor-at-large
Victoria Blair, US Army Research Laboratory
Meet the 2019-20 PCSA
The 2019-20 class of PCSA delegates consists of 42 students from 28 universities, representing 5 countries.
2019-2020 PCSA delegates represent the following universities:
Alfred University
Boise State University
Case Western Reserve University
Colorado School of Mines
Cornell University
Florida International University
Gazi University (Turkey)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Northwestern University
Purdue University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Texas A&M University
The Pennsylvania State University
University of Birmingham (United Kingdom)
University of California, Davis
University of California, Irvine
University of California, Santa Barbara
University of Central Florida
University of Dayton
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
University of Michigan
University of New South Wales (Australia)
University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa)
University of Utah
University of Virginia
University of Washington
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Washington State University