Not surprisingly, people who share a passion for something tend to band together with like-minded others to swap views and ideas. Think political parties, think fan clubs, think Real Ale Society. So if you are fascinated by your subject, then you may be interested in finding out
about the ‘Learned Societies’. I was, so I went over to a
conference in Lancaster last week to get more information.
It turns out that many academic subjects have a Learned Society. Their
role is to promote the subject and provide services for the students,
researchers and academics who study it. There are quite a lot of LSocs (as I’ve
decided to call them) and a list of them appears at the end of this blog.
So why join an LSoc? Well, if you join you can expect access to things
like careers advice such as mentoring, student grants, work experience,
conferences, and free training courses. These kinds of benefits can definitely
be of benefit to you. LSocs also have member databases that are useful for
networking with specialists in your subject. There’s usually a membership fee
unfortunately but with some societies your initial membership period could be
free.
Getting involved like this can add to your network, and you can also add
to your reputation by volunteering on a committee or helping run one of their
events. Meanwhile some students win LSoc awards, meaning you can get noticed by
some big names in your field.
LSocs are especially useful if you want to have a career in your
subject. Many members are working as researchers in their discipline, either in
universities, research institutes, industry or charities. Indeed, if you want
to do a PhD or are already doing one, and hoping to eventually become a
university lecturer, then I’d say make sure you get the most out of your
Learned Society. Only a fraction of PhD researchers ultimately get a full-time
academic career so you’ll need all the help and professional exposure you can
get.
As well as the LSocs, there are many other subject and professional
associations, so if you can’t find something that is relevant to you on the
list below, there may well be another body that shares your career or academic
interests. Just ask the Careers Service if you want help finding them.
The conference I attended was called ‘Learning from the Learned
Societies in the Biosciences’, and included advice about working as a lecturer,
plus careers information for Bioscience students. So if you’re studying in that
field read my full report here.
Meanwhile here’s that list of the different LSocs that I was talking
about….just google 'em for details.
SUBJECT
|
LEARNED SOCIETY
|
PHYSICS
|
Institute of Physics
|
CHEMISTRY
|
Royal Society of Chemistry
|
GEOSCIENCES
|
Royal Geographical Society
European Geosciences Union
|
MATHS
|
Royal Mathematical Society
|
STATISTICS
|
Royal Statistical Society
|
HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCES
|
British Academy
|
PSYCHOLOGY
|
British Psychological Society
|
BIOLOGY
|
Society of Biology
|
ECOLOGY
|
British Ecological Society
|
BIOCHEMISTRY
|
Biochemical Society
|
NON-MEDICAL PLANT, ANIMAL, CELL BIOLOGY
|
Society for Experimental Biology
|
PHYSIOLOGY
|
Physiological Society
|
PHARMACOLOGY
|
British Pharmacological Society
|
MICROBIOLOGY
|
Society for General Microbiology
Society for Applied Microbiology
|
ENTOMOLOGY
|
Royal Entomological Society
|
PLANT PATHOLOGY
|
British Society for Plant Pathology
|
MYCOLOGY
|
British Mycological Society
|
NUTRITION
|
Nutrition Society
|
HORMONES
|
Society for Endocrinology
|
IMMUNOLOGY
|
British Immunology Society
|
LICHEN
|
British Lichen Society
|
MARINE BIOLOGY
|
Marine Biological Association
|
Marcus (Careers Adviser)
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