photo of professional opportunities poster session
MRSEC grad, Yan Cheng, shares her research with visiting reps from 3M. Now an alum, Yan works for PPG in Pittsburgh.

Monday MRSEC Seminar Series

Each Monday at 12:20 - 1:10PM during the academic year, the Center comes together as a whole for a weekly lunchtime talk.  These include technical presentations by both internal and externals speakers from academia and industry, updates on Center activities from the Director, professional development sessions, and other topics of important timely need or interest.  Each year, the members of the Graduate and Postdoc Advisory Committee select, invite, and host at least one external speaker nominated by the Center's students and postdocs.

Career Development Info Sessions & Workshops

Programs are also scheduled outside of the weekly seminar timeslot when more appropriate.  Topics include career talks by MRSEC alumni, networking sessions, professional skill building workshops, and more.   External speakers for the Monday seminar also meet with current graduate students to share their career journey since grad school and offer their wisdom.

MRSEC Alumni Network

Due to growing interest, Center staff are working with past graduates and postdocs to create a more structured opportunity for current researchers to network with Penn State MRSEC alumni for informal mentoring, job search advice, exploration of resources, potential collaboration opportunities, etc.  The "Penn State MRSEC - Center for Nanoscale Science" group on LinkedIn has been established to assist with this process. 

Materials Day - hosted by the Materials Research Institute (MRI)

MRSEC graduate students are encouraged to participate actively in the opportunities available to them at the annual "Materials Days" conference hosted by MRI.  Members of the Materials Ambassador Team also serve as the organizers and hosts of a career information and networking session with industry representatives.