Students & Young Professionals

The Student and Young Professionals (SYP) Committee exists to advocate for, support, and provide academic and social networking opportunities for SYP within SRA.

The objectives of the committee are to:

1. To promote and encourage the participation of students and young professionals in SRA and the science of risk analysis
2. Represent the perspective and interests of students and young professionals to the SRA council and its subcommittees
3. Support students and young professionals within SRA.

Membership:

1. The term “SYP” refers to all members of SRA who are currently students or have graduated within three years
2. Inclusion in SYP events is free beyond the annual dues of SRA.

Register for Student Membership

Representation:

1. Any SYP member of SRA in good standing may participate in the Committee.
2. The SYP chair represents SYP interests at SRA Council meetings as an ex-officio, non-voting member of the SRA Council.

Ways to Get Involved:

We welcome and want your feedback and ideas on SYP events and wider conferences so we can better meet the needs of all students and young professionals. Below are current SYP Initiatives:

Mentoring: The goal of the mentoring initiative is to connect students and young professionals with like-minded peers and mentors in a specific area of interest. We are pursuing this goal by creating opportunities at the annual meeting to make and nurture connections that persist past the annual meeting. We are always looking for input on how we can create new experiences or improve existing practices for mentees and mentors.

Sustainability: A focus of the sustainability initiative is to investigate, promote, and initiate strategies to reduce the environmental footprint of the Society including the journal and meetings. We started this initiative by focusing on this year’s annual meeting. Our goal is to reduce the cost and environmental burdens of our annual meeting and, at the same time, improve the quality. We encourage you to send us your ideas about ways the Society could further improve sustainability.

Professional Development: The SYP committee aims to promote connections between newer members of SRA and foster professional development. Toward this goal, the SYP committee will be hosting a fall writing workshop. The approximately bi-weekly events will be focused on developing productive writing practices in all areas of academic and professional life. Participants are encouraged to bring any sort of writing they are working on and will be grouped based on their career stage and writing topics. SYP will have sessions on improving writing and editing quality, as well as sessions developing writing accountability. All are welcome to attend any or all of the sessions which will be held via zoom.

Schedule:

• September 16
• September 30
• October 14
• October 28
• November 4
• November 18

All sessions will be hosted at 8AM PST. SYP is looking to add additional times to accommodate more time zones and schedules. If you would like to participate but these times are unworkable, please send a note to rachunok@stanford.edu.

Join the Conversation: If you have any questions, have an idea for a new SYP initiative, or would just like to get involved with the SYP Committee, please reach out to the SYP Committee Chair or leave a comment on the SYP thread in the Forum.

2020 – 2021 SYP Committee Officers:

• Chair: Ben Rachunok, Stanford University
• Secretary: Nickolas Gray, University of Liverpool, UK
• Mentoring: Sanja Mrkšić Kovačević, University of Stavanger
• Social Media: Matthias Klaus, King’s College London and Maria-Diandra Opre, King’s College London
• Workshop: Brennan Chapman, University of Guelph, CA; Julia Coxen, University of Michigan, USA; Burhan Mamajiwala, Shizouka University, JP; Ben Rachunok, Purdue University, USA; and Tim Williams, University of Michigan, USA
• Past Chair: Mariana Cains, Indiana University