Research Corporation for Science Advancement

Introducing the Team Science Accelerator: RCSA's new program funding interdisciplinary teams up to $1M to tackle high-risk, high-reward science — plus coaching & mentoring to build effective teaming skills. Letters of interest due Nov 9, 2026. More: wp.me/pgj04D-aPK

Congratulations to 2020 Cottrell Scholar Song Lin, newly named a 2026 MacArthur Fellow! Lin uses electricity in place of costly, toxic reagents to build complex organic molecules, and makes electrochemistry more accessible to other labs. Watch him discuss his work: youtu.be/PeHAUfcCQPo?...

Congratulations to the five researchers receiving 2026 Cottrell Scholars Collaborative Awards! 🎉 Each will receive $20,000 to lead team projects on mentoring, STEM culture, AI in higher ed, speaker sharing, and science advocacy. More: tinyurl.com/mtebs8fc

Applying to the Team Science Accelerator? Join Andrew Feig for Letter of Intent Office Hours on Fri., Sept. 25 (9-10:30 a.m. AZ time). Get your questions answered before the Nov. 9 deadline. Register: tinyurl.com/mr36v4p8

Congrats to the RCSA community members named 2027 ACS National Award winners: Michael Hill, Paul Chirik, Chi-Huey Wong, David MacMillan, Clifford Kubiak, Garret Miyake, Kieron Burke & Yang Yang. Proud of this group! Full list: cen.acs.org/acs-news/acs...

Reminder: If you're thinking about applying to Scialog: Neurobiology and Changing Ecosystems, applications for the 2027 cohort are due September 1. Info: wp.me/Pgj04D-9PX

Reminder: If you've been thinking about applying to Scialog: Neurobiology and Changing Ecosystems, applications for the 2027 cohort are due Sept. 1. Info: wp.me/Pgj04D-9PX Thanks to our sponsors: @allenphilanthro.bsky.social, @kavlifoundation.org, and Frederick Gardner Cottrell Foundation.

What happens when you put AI alongside the telescope, the microscope, and the computer as tools that have transformed discovery? We talked about AI, welcomed our new #CottrellScholars, and more at the 2026 Cottrell Scholars Conference. Recap: wp.me/pgj04D-aO5

Leadership doesn't wait for a title. RCSA's new free guide "Lead Better: Disrupt Barriers, and Have an Impact," written by 17 Cottrell Scholars, shows faculty how to lead from anywhere in the institution. Free PDF download: bit.ly/4xcQwEw

RCSA is building on our cornerstone programming while adapting thoughtfully to emerging challenges and opportunities. Read our 2025 Annual Report. wp.me/Pgj04D-9ne

Philanthropic partnerships like the ones that power our #Scialog initiatives get a shout-out in this article by Cynthia Friend, president of The Kavli Foundation.

1996 #CottrellScholar & 2021 SEED Awardee Ziqiang Wang has a paper in Nature Communications offering new insights into charge density wave manipulation and a platform for developing a spin-mediated multistate spin-charge coupling memory and programmable quantum devices.

Congratulations to 2021 #CottrellScholar Joel Destino, Creighton University, who was named 2026 recipient of the Council on Undergraduate Research’s Silvia Ronco Innovative Mentor Award! The award was established in 2022 by a gift from RCSA.

RCSA’s new grants management system is open! Thanks for your patience during this transition. Click for details. wp.me/pgj04D-aBk

RCSA welcomes the newest members of its Board of Directors: Mahooya Dinda, Senior Vice President of Finance at MNTN, and Vicky Kalogera, Daniel I. Linzer Distinguished University Professor and Director of CIERA at Northwestern University. wp.me/Pgj04D-9qZ

Congratulations to #Scialog SM3 Fellow Austin Evans, Scialog AUT Fellow Grant Rotskoff, Scialog MND Fellow Karthik Shekhar, #CottrellScholar 2025 Marissa Weichman, Scialog NES Fellow Anna Wuttig, and Cottrell Scholar 2024 & Scialog QMI Fellow Timothy Su!

Congratulations to two members of RCSA’s community who were elected members of the National Academy of Sciences: #Scialog CMC Fellow Clifford Brangwynne and #CottrellScholar 2005 Chuan He.

Potential #CottrellScholar Award applicants! Register by May 6 to attend one of RCSA's virtual Cottrell Scholar Office Hours sessions on May 14 or 15 for tips on preparing your proposal for the upcoming July 1, 2026, deadline.

Congratulations, @angelahagen.bsky.social, and thank you for all that you have done for RCSA and its community. We wish you the best as you begin your next chapter!

The Cottrell Comic Challenge Project, an RCSA-funded 2012 #CottrellScholars Collaborative led by CS 2009 Snezana Stanimirovic, has produced a 3rd comic book & activity book. This one is inspired by the work of CS 2010 Sarbajit Banerjee on regolith modification for lunar landings. bit.ly/4sOZrcI

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As the final meeting of #Scialog: Automating Chemical Laboratories comes to a close, many thanks to our participants & cosponsors for a fun and fruitful initiative! – with the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, Frederick Gardner Cottrell Foundation, Walder Foundation

#Scialog: Automating Chemical Laboratories continues! Thanks to Christopher Welch, Indiana Consortium for Science and Engineering, for kicking off discussions with a great talk, “Advancing the Automation of Chemical Laboratories through Industry-Academia Research Collaborations.”

The 3rd meeting of #Scialog: Automating Chemical Laboratories -- cosponsored by RCSA, the Beckman Foundation, and the Frederick Gardner Cottrell Foundation, with additional support from Walder Foundation – has begun in Tucson. Special welcome to our new Fellows!

We're hiring! RCSA seeks a strategic and creative Communications Director to lead the development of a modern communications program that elevates the Foundation’s position as a leader in science philanthropy.

Congrats to 13 members of RCSA’s community: Duncan Brown, Erin Carlson, David DeMille, Stephen Hill, Michael Laub, M. Lisa Manning, James McCusker, Michael Meyer, Jill Millstone, Kelly Sheppard, Alexander Spokoyny, Amy Cheng Vollmer, & Yadong Yin! #CottrellScholar #Scialog #CottrellCollege

Congratulations to #CottrellScholar 2004 Seth Cohen, who has been appointed Dean of the School of Physical Sciences at the University of California, Irvine! Cohen is a Cottrell STAR and IMPACT awardee who has excelled in his own research, science policy, and science administration.

Chemists! If you're attending #ACSSpring2026 in Atlanta, bring colleagues & students and join us at the RCSA/PRF Reception 5:30-7:30 p.m. Monday, March 23, in International Ballroom F, Omni at Centennial Park. Meet RCSA program directors, learn more about #Scialog, #CottrellScholar & #RCSAFellows.

Congratulations to #CottrellScholar 2017 Michelle Kovarik, who will receive the 2026 J. Calvin Giddings Award for Excellence in Education from the American Chemical Society Division of Analytical Chemistry!

The 2nd meeting of #Scialog: Neurobiology and Changing Ecosystems ends today with pitches for team research projects to explore how neural systems adapt to today’s rapid environmental changes. - with @allenphilanthro.bsky.social, the Frederick Gardner Cottrell Foundation, @kavlifoundation.org.

Many thanks to Joellen Russell, University of Arizona Geosciences, for an inspirational & engaging keynote talk, “Climate and the Deep Blue Sea,” to kick off discussions at #Scialog: Neurobiology and Changing Ecosystems.

The 2nd meeting of #Scialog: Neurobiology and Changing Ecosystems has begun in Tucson! Special welcome to all our new Fellows. Cosponsored with @allenphilanthro.bsky.social, the Frederick Gardner Cottrell Foundation, and @kavlifoundation.org.

Three experienced researchers, leaders & mentors join the #CottrellScholar community as recipients of RCSA’s 2026 Robert Holland Jr. Award. Congratulations and welcome to Jorge Colón, University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras; Amy Mainzer, UCLA; and Davita Watkins, Ohio State University!

RCSA is moving to a new grants management system. Details and instructions will be updated at this link on our homepage during the transition.

Congratulations to RCSA President & CEO Eric Isaacs, who has been chosen as President-Elect of the @aaas.org!

Congratulations to #CottrellScholar 2020 Song Lin, Cornell University, who has received the 2025 Snapdragon Prize for Innovation in Chemistry Technology.

Visit the Funding Opportunities Posters (LBB122-LB126) Presentation today from 1:45pm to 3:45pm featuring funding opportunities from @NIH #NIGMS @TheNCI @NINDSFunding @BurroughsWellcomeFund and @RCSA1. Find us on the exhibit floor in the Late Posters section.

#CottrellScholar 2012 & #Scialog AUT Facilitator Sarah Reisman has been awarded Caltech’s Richard P. Feynman Prize for Excellence in Teaching. Reisman, whose research focuses on the chemical synthesis of organic molecules produced in nature, also received RCSA’s Cottrell FRED Award in 2019.