Dear Cottrell Scholar colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the launch of the “Cottrell Emerging Scholars Program: Enhancing the Successful Transition of Underrepresented Postdoctoral Scholars into the Professoriate” — supported for the next two years as a pilot initiative by a Cottrell Scholars Collaborative grant. With this email, we invite you to nominate postdoctoral scholars at your institutions who are or will soon be on the academic job market, and/or to propose your institution as a host for these postdoctoral scholars.

The purpose of this new pilot program is to leverage the uniqueness of the Cottrell Scholars network to enhance faculty diversity in the physical sciences at both research-intensive universities and primarily undergraduate institutions. The program provides funds for current postdocs (especially those from demographic groups underrepresented in the physical sciences) to visit another institution for a mock faculty job interview — including meetings with faculty, a seminar, etc — followed by structured feedback. Postdocs and hosts are matched according to areas of interest, institutional type, and likelihood of a faculty job opening within the next 1-2 years for which the postdoc may be a strong recruit.

We have funds to be able to partially or fully support about a dozen Emerging Scholar visits each year for the next two years. Funds cover travel, a stipend for the postdoc, and childcare if needed. We are opening this opportunity at first to Cottrell Scholars who are involved in other Cottrell Scholar Collaboratives; please nominate postdocs from your institutions and/or propose to serve as a host.