President's Letter - February 2021
Written by Dr Susan Northfield, MRACI
Published 5 February 2021
Dear RACI Victorian Branch community,
I’d like to start my message to you this month with a question: How do you choose to engage with the RACI? I suspect there will be a wide variety of answers, simply because there are so many opportunities to select from!
Let’s start with perhaps the most obvious choice: events. The Victorian Branch are excited to be running events again in person this year, as well as virtually, and sometimes even a combination of the two. You’ll notice some changes to the in person events this year as we adapt our practices to ensure we are COVID safe. Just keep an eye on the signage at the events, and bring along your phones to ‘check in’ for contact tracing purposes.
The Branch runs many events throughout the year, engaging with school children, industry, university students, graduate researchers, all the way through to our retired chemists. However, our Groups also offer an excellent range of events throughout the year that are specific to their niche of the chemistry community. If you haven’t already, I highly recommend that you take the time to look at the
Groups in the Victorian Branch and keep any eye on our
Events page on the website to follow their activities and engage with them where you can.
I would like to particularly note that there are Career Development events and activities happening throughout the year. I cannot stress enough how valuable these opportunities are, especially for early career and mid-career researchers. There are also opportunities for networking and mentoring (as mentors and mentees) that are open to RACI members of all career stages. Check out what is on offer on our
website – just look for ‘Careers Development’ in the description.
One event that we hope to be able to advertise soon is our “Welcome Back” event. After the lack of in-person events in 2020, the Branch has wanted to organise an in-person gathering for our state members. As I’m sure you can all appreciate, it has been difficult to schedule. However, we hope to be able to run this event in mid-late April. It will be an opportunity to meet the members of the Victorian Branch Committee, and other key active members of our Branch Groups and key office members. Full details will be advertised in the coming weeks.
You may also be choosing to engage with us using social media. The national office has accounts on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and more! And now the Victorian Branch are establishing our own profiles on
Twitter and
LinkedIn, with more to come. If you’re a social media enthusiast, please take the time to follow our accounts. We’ll be posting about our events, opportunities for members and more.
Here’s a new exciting option – RACI have just launched their very own podcast! “Chemically Speaking” is hosted by Dr Matt Griffith, who will be joined by guests each month that have a vast array of chemistry experience and expertise. If you want to understand how Chemistry is solving the biggest problems facing humanity, then this is the podcast for you!
We look forward to engaging with our Victorian members, and those in the local chemistry community throughout the year. Please take a moment to consider the ways you would like to engage with the Branch, and we hope to meet you in-person or virtually soon!
Finally, I am saddened to report that one of our Victorian members, Dr William Wells MRACI CChem, passed away in February. We send our best wishes to his family at this time.
Best wishes to you all!
Dr Susan Northfield
RACI VIC Branch President
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