ECE Events at ESA 2024!

Whether you want to show your appreciation for being awarded travel funds, love the resources in the monthly newsletter, have ideas for how the ECE Section can better serve you, or just want to meet others in this transitional phase of our careers, come hang out with the ECE Section at our events in Long Beach!

We are sponsoring and/or highlighting the following events – click the title to go to the conference program for more info.

Sunday (August 4, 2024), 4:00 – 5:00 PM, Grand Ballroom B

Welcome, First-Timers! – event co-hosted with ESA and ESA Student section

Is this your first ESA Annual Meeting? Or maybe just the first one in a while? Or maybe you’re just really curious to see what we talk about at these events? Either way, join us for the hour before the Opening Plenary to meet some ESA leaders and pepper us with your questions about how to navigate the week and make the most of your experience.

DAILY Monday-Wednesday (5-9 August, 2024), 9:30 AM – 5:30 PM Pacific

Our table in the exhibition hall will include the following:

• “Meet-Greet-&-Eat” Sign-Ups: Make new friends by signing up to meet for meals with a group! (Also, check Slack to find where the Early Career bunch headed that day and not have to eat alone).
• Prizes: Participate in our conference experience “checklist” to be entered in a drawing to win prizes.
• Swag and suggestion boards: Pick up section stickers or business cards, suggest section activities, sign up to write a post on this blog, and more!

Monday (August 5, 2024)

Early Career Ecologists Mixer & Business Meeting, 6:30-8:00 PM Pacific

Hyatt link – Hyatt Pool Bar 

Find out who is organizing the section, including who won the elections, who received awards, what events are planned for the next year, and share how the section can better serve you. The section will provide appetizers, and you are welcome to purchase drinks. Given our amazing turnout last year, we selected this location so that folks can enjoy the warm SoCal evening sunshine. Come meet the Chair, Vice-Chair and many past Chairs and learn about cool opportunities with the active section. 

Tuesday (August 6, 2024)

Workshop 06 – Data Science by Design: Integrating DS Skills into the Ecological Classroom 8 – 9:30 AM Pacific

Organized by a former ECE chair, Nate Emery. Data Science is a growing interdisciplinary field with many applications in ecology. When teaching life science courses, especially ecology, it is valuable for instructors to know how to incorporate data science skills into the course learning objectives. However, this process can be complex and challenging for a number of reasons. This workshop will review research results conducted by the NSF-RCN: Biological and Environmental Data Education Network (BEDE) and guide instructors through equity-focused practices associated with integrating data science into their courses. In this workshop, we will explore student and instructor barriers to teaching and learning data science in a higher education setting.

Career Central 13 – Roundtable with the ESA Early Career Ecologists Section & Journal Editors in Chief, 10:30  – 11:30 AM Pacific

Early career ecologists are invited to this casual networking opportunity to connect with the editors in chief of ESA’s journals.

(PRIVATE/PRE-REGISTERED) Mentoring Coffee Social, 11:45 AM – 1:15 PM Pacific

This event is a chance to meet your mentorship groups if you are part of the Early Career Ecologists mentoring program. If you are not part of this event, please get in touch with our section leadership to learn more!

Career Central 15 – Thriving in Graduate School (and Beyond), 12:00 – 1:00 PM Pacific

Congratulations on getting into your graduate program (or maybe you are just applying). Now how do you make sure you succeed? ESA Early Career Ecologists Section Past-Chair Kathleen Carroll has been guiding grad students to successful outcomes for years.Kathleen finished her Ph.D. in 2019 at Montana State University and will share insights and answer questions about the graduate school experience. For the past two years this was the most highly attended presentation at Career Central, so make sure you catch it! 

Career Central 18 – Bootcamp: How to Get a Faculty Job, 1:30 PM – 3:45 PM Pacific

Ready for your first faculty job? This bootcamp is for you! Tailored for those ready to pursue their debut faculty positions, this session provides crucial insights on crafting strong applications, excelling in interviews, and negotiating offers. Whether you’re a recent graduate or transitioning from industry, join us to strengthen your candidacy for that coveted first faculty role. Presented by University of Rhode Island’s Kathleen Carroll.

Wednesday (August 7, 2024)

Special Session 25 – Developing a Model of Ecological Professional Development 12 – 1:30 PM Pacific

Moderated by your own ECE past chair and member, Nate Emery, join us for this Special Session! When we look critically at ecology as a career path, we are faced with many challenges and opportunities for training the next generation of ecologists. The current students and future ecologists will face a different world than their mentors and advisors and students will need skills, tools, and supportive mentoring networks to thrive and address ongoing ecological and societal challenges. This session will explore how we currently educate and train early career ecologists and how we can shift our approaches and academic systems to be more equitable, inclusive, and empowering for our students, mentees, and colleagues. 

Speakers will explore ideas, structures, and systems related to undergraduate and graduate training and beyond. After each speaker has presented, there will be a general discussion with the audience. Through this special session, we hope to develop a model of ecological professional development; mapping out important systemic changes needed to imbue the skills and training that ecologists need as part of their journey to being an ecologist.

Ecological Trivia (Hosted by the Early Career Ecologists Section), 6:30-8:00 PM Pacific

Join hosts Nate Emery and Kathleen Carroll for the 2nd annual Ecological Trivia! All are welcome to compete at this event hosted by the Early Career Ecologists Section! There will be small prizes for trivia winners!

Thursday (August 8, 2024)

Special Session 34 – The Robots are Friendly: The Future of Ecology and AI, 8 – 9:30 AM Pacific

Join past chair and organizer Nate Emery with another past chair, Kathleen Carroll as moderator for this Special Session. In recent years there have been tremendous changes to how we conduct science, teach students, and communicate with each other and the public. Many of these changes have been brought on by developments in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Large Language Models (LLMs). This session will explore how AI is currently being used by ecological researchers and how LLMs are changing how we approach education and research practices. In this rapidly shifting landscape, it is important to share approaches and best practices of how we can effectively and ethically engage with AI and LLM tools. 

Invited panelists will give short presentations on their interactions with AI and answer the following common questions:

• What are the challenges that you face in leveraging AI for your research/teaching practices?
• How do you envision future interactions with AI systems with respect to your work?

This session will be valuable to those who are interested in learning about AI usage in ecological research or LLMs in teaching and research practices. These computational tools can be our friends, we just have to learn how to leverage them in equitable and efficient ways.

Organized Oral Session 44 – Building Agency for Environmental Action: Transforming Ecology for Justice at all Career Stages, 1:30 – 3:00 PM Pacific

Join past chair Kathleen Carroll as they speak about Retaining early career ecologists in the field and leadership starting at 2:45 PM.

 Session description: Environmental professionals are tasked with developing nature-based solutions in response to today’s crises of climate change impacts on socio-ecological systems including youth anxiety/climate grief and land degradation. Environmental justice issues are increasing with more food deserts, water shortages, pollution and health impacts on the disadvantaged and vulnerable, especially women and people of color. This session contributes to Ecological Society of America’s role of providing expertise and guidance to build capacity to address today’s challenges including: assessing the skills needed, gathering expertise from multiple ecological knowledge bases, considering interdisciplinary connections, developing community-engagement partnerships, and enhancing communication and pedagogical approaches to effectively respond to the environmental crises. From young students to emeritus, our speakers convey best practices. successes, challenges and a vision for the future of ecology. They showcase experiences from diverse settings including  non-profit environmental centers, justice organizations, government agencies, faith-based and academia.  They share how building resilient local communities of peer scientists with others throughout their careers and integrating supportive multi-generational linkages among ecologists can counteract tendencies of individualism, competitiveness and isolation sometimes found in the science community.  Together, ecologists can be empowered leaders who transform our discipline and more effectively act on global climate crises and environmental injustice.