CIC Executive Director Dr. Josephine Tsang giving opening remarks. From L to R: Rachel Shum, Jennifer McLeod, Josephine Tsang. Photo by Tim Forbes.
On November 18th, 2022, the CIC Kingston local section hosted its 2nd annual Chemical Career Fair. Co-organized by Rachel Shum and Jennifer McLeod, the career fair drew in 21 companies and 200+ attendees to Kingston’s iconic City Hall. With over 60 company representatives present, attendees had ample opportunity to network, apply for open positions, and learn more about the strong chemical industries in their communities. The CIC Kingston Local Section team was delighted to welcome CIC Executive Director Dr. Josephine Tsang, who graciously opened the event and hosted the booth for the Chemical Institute of Canada.
Our annual Chemical Career Fair was designed to connect both new and established chemical industries with the next generation of
Co-Lead of Open Plastic, Dr. David Zechel, showing off specimens depolymerizing plastics to excited attendees.
chemical professionals. As investments in Kingston’s clean technology and chemical sectors continues to grow, CIC Kingston is thrilled to be the largest local platform connecting members of the chemical community together.
Although our event primarily catered to Kingston and the surrounding area, we pulled in companies and attendees from across the province! We were delighted to host: 3M, Afiya Beauty, Chemical Institute of Canada, Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, CO2L Technologies, DuPont, Eurofins CDMO Alphora, Goodyear, GreenCentre Canada, INVISTA Canada, Intellectual Property Institute of Canada (IPIC), KEYS Job Centre, Kingston Process Metallurgy (KPM), Mitacs, Novelis, National Research Council Canada (NRC), Open Plastic, PepsiCo, Rillea Technologies, RXN HUB, and Solvay.
Attendees line up to speak with the Principal of KPM, Alain Roy.
The Career Fair featured eight Company Spotlight presentations hosted by our generous sponsors, professional development workshops, and complimentary professional headshots. Workshops included: Pitch Perfect: a quick guide to creating the perfet networking pitch (KEYS Job Centre), Finding Your Next Job (Mitacs), How to use patent information to do a techonology landscape analysis (Queen’s University), and An Overview of Chemical Commercialization: Roles & Processes (RXN HUB).
At the networking mixer following the open booth session, company representatives mingled with colleagues both new and old.
CIC Kingston’s Chemical Career Fair team from L to R: Yu Pei, Lizzie Bygott, Julia McPhail, Steacy Coombs, Rachel Shum, Jennifer McLeod, Dianne Lee, Kathleen Ross, Kailey Browne, Parimah Aminfar, Brandon Becher Nienhaus, Raymond Lai, Sho Fujita.
Attendees and company representatives alike found the career fair beneficial for building strong connections between all members of our local chemical community.
“I think you found a winner – keep the venue and format. The pub mixer afterwards was great. Your event was helpful for recruitment, creating awareness, and building connections. We met a promising new hire!”
- David Zechel, Open Plastic
Volunteers, Brandon Becher Nienhaus and Kailey Browne, welcoming attendees with name tags and CIC Kingston merchandise.
“The team did a fantastic job managing and making sure everyone was happy. It was a very positive experience. It was great to be able to speak directly to engaging supervisors, technicians, and management about both careers and chemistry.”
- Dan Barker, Ph.D. Candidate
The Career Fair would not have been possible without the generous support of our dedicated sponsors! Platinum Sponsors: KPM, RXN
Michael Lacasse from Mitacs giving a professional development workshop, Finding Your Next Job, to eager attendees.
HUB, Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, Open Plastic, and X-Chem. Gold Sponsor: Eurofins CDMO Alphora. Silver Sponsor: Rillea Technologies. Bronze Sponsor: Afiya Beauty.
We would also like to thank our organizing committee: Dianne Lee, Marketing Director; Parimah Aminfar, Partnerships Coordinator; and Julia McPhail, Social Media Coordinator, and our wonderful volunteer team for all their hard work!
Thank you all once again, and we are looking forward to welcoming you all back for our 3rd annual Chemical Career Fair in the Fall of 2023!
Meet the Organizers
Rachel Shum is a Ph.D. Candidate in Polymer Chemistry at Queen’s University. As a CIC Kingston Executive, Rachel is the Student Chair overseeing the programs and initiatives run by the local section. When Rachel is not in the lab, she enjoys being in the city and exploring hiking trails.
Jennifer McLeod is a Ph.D. Candidate in Electroanalytical Chemistry at Queen’s University. As a CIC Kingston Executive, Jennifer is the EDII Coordinator and Coordinator of the invited speaker series, Chats by the Fumehood. Outside of academia and CIC, Jennifer can be found rock climbing around Kingston or mountain biking at “The Farm”.