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
- Humanitarian Pitch Competition
- ACerS Student Mentor Program
- #MaterialsLife Challenge
- 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.
Want more information on ACerS PCSA?
Become a part of PCSA
The 2021-22 PCSA application period is closed. The deadline has now passed.
Check back for the 2022-2023 PCSA application period opening.
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
2021-22 PCSA Officers
PCSA Chair
Olivia Brandt, Purdue University
Programming Committee Chair
Fox Thorpe, University of California, Davis
Communications Committee Chair
Celia Chari, California Institute of Technology
Recruitment Committee Chair
John Bussey, Washington State University
Outreach Committee Chair
Nathan McIlwaine, The Pennsylvania State University
External Partnerships Committee Chair
Michael Thuis, Northwestern University
PCSA Mentor-at-large
Victoria Blair, US Army Research Laboratory
Meet the 2021-22 PCSA
The 2021-22 class of PCSA delegates consists of 44 students from 28 universities, representing 8 countries.
Left: A portion of the 2021-2022 class of delegates along with the 2020-2021 ACerS President, Dana Goski (center, front row) at the PCSA Annual Business Meeting.
2021-2022 PCSA delegates represent the following universities:
Alfred University
Bangor University (United Kingdom)
California Institute of Technology
Case Western Reserve University
Coe College
Colorado School of Mines
Friedrich Schiller University Jena (Germany)
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (India)
Indiana University
Instituto Tecnológico de Saltillo (Mexico)
Iowa State University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) (Pakistan)
Northwestern University
Purdue University
The Pennsylvania State University
Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France (UPHF) (France)
University of Birmingham (United Kingdom)
University of California, Davis
University of California, Irvine
University of Central Florida
University of Cologne (Germany)
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
University of Padua (Italy)
University of Utah
University of Virginia
Vanderbilt University
Washington State University
Wright State University