NICK RUHS

AN Interview with Nick Ruhs, the incoming CINF division chair for 2025

Svetlana Korolev, interviewer

Bio: Nick Ruhs is the Research Data Management Librarian at Florida State University (FSU). He leads the development of data services for STEM scholars and provides support on topics related to research data management and data information literacy. He is also the subject librarian for the chemistry, statistics, computer science, and scientific computing departments. Prior to joining FSU Libraries, Nick earned a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in chemistry from Washington University in St. Louis and a Bachelor of Science in chemistry with a minor in mathematics from Quincy University. His current research interests include research data services, open science, and data information literacy for undergraduate and graduate students. He is a member of the American Library Association (ALA), the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), Research Data Access and Preservation (RDAP), and the American Chemical Society (ACS).

Svetlana Korolev: Greetings, Nick! We took identical paths for professional service to CINF. After serving four years as secretary, you are now division chair-elect. I am wondering how your personal involvement in ACS and CINF started. Has anyone influenced your run for secretary in 2019? Which membership benefits were attractive to you at that stage of your career?

Nick Ruhs: Thank you, Svetlana! I first joined ACS full-time as a graduate student and was a member of the Division of Inorganic Chemistry in 2016 and 2017. After I joined Florida State University Libraries in 2018, I attended the fall ACS meeting in Boston, MA and presented at a CINF symposium titled “Chemistry Librarians of the Future.” In my talk, I discussed my journey from obtaining my Ph.D. in chemistry to starting a career in chemical librarianship. After my presentation, I met and networked with many members of CINF and discovered that many of them had similar backgrounds to me. These conversations inspired me to learn more about CINF. At that stage of my career, I was very interested in building a professional network, seeking out resources to learn more about librarianship, and participating in discussions about current work in the field. CINF provided me an opportunity to do all of those things, which is why I eventually joined the division in late 2018. 

Jeremy Garritano, the 2019 chair-elect of CINF, reached out to me in mid-2019 and asked if I would be interested in running for secretary of the division. At the time, I was involved in the Program and Membership Committees, but was interested in getting more involved in CINF governance. The role of secretary seemed like an ideal first executive committee position, as it would (and did) allow me to learn more about the division, its members, and contribute.

SK: At the last 2023 fall ACS national meeting you co-authored a presentation titled “Aerobically induced base-free C–H bond activation at a Pd center.” Please talk about your contributing role in it. Was that paper connected to your dissertation in any way? Would you mind sharing any memorable moments from your chemistry research?

NR: This paper relates to research I worked on as part of my dissertation and that was continued a few years after I graduated. The work focuses on the novel activation of a C-H bond in a pyridinophane ligand via aerobic (oxygen/air) oxidation of the palladium center. I completed some reactivity studies on this system as part of my dissertation work, and this presentation built upon that work.

While in graduate school, I remember having the opportunity to present my work at an ACS meeting in San Diego in 2016. It was my first time presenting my work at a national conference. It was an exciting albeit very nerve-wracking experience and was my first exposure to the larger ACS community.

SK: Please describe your transition from the chemist into the science librarian, and, subsequently, into the research data management librarian for the STEM disciplines.

NR: Once I finished my Ph.D. work and began to consider my short and long-term future in the field, I discovered that I wanted a career distinct from synthetic lab work and/or the pressures of running my own lab. When [I was] considering careers where I could still use my chemistry expertise, a career coach at my alma mater mentioned chemistry librarianship as a possible option. I discovered that many of the “soft skills” I had gained as a graduate student, along with the research and data skills I amassed, would translate well into librarianship. I also enjoyed working with small groups of students and faculty to assist them in their research journey, which as we know is one of the key roles of the academic librarian! I was fortunate to land my first professional position in academic libraries at Florida State University, where I have been since 2018.

I was initially hired as a liaison librarian to a few STEM disciplines at FSU, which included chemistry and biological sciences. Over my first 1.5 years, I eventually took on more liaison responsibilities. My main focus was on developing relationships with faculty and students in my liaison areas, along with collection development, research consultations, and instruction sessions. During this time, I also dabbled in research data management and provided a small amount of instruction on data analysis and visualization tools. Eventually, due to the increasing importance of data in the STEM disciplines and the increase in consultations and instruction requests I was receiving related to research data management support, my responsibilities shifted to reflect that, and I became the STEM Data & Research Librarian. That role evolved further in 2023 when I became the Research Data Management Librarian to reflect my current responsibilities. However, although much of my work is now related to data, I am still the liaison librarian to chemistry, statistics, and the computational sciences (computer science and scientific computing).

SK: How have your job activities evolved during the past three years? Specifically, please share your outreach strategies for making connections with chemistry students and faculty at Florida State University.

NR: During the past three years, my job activities have evolved to focus significantly on providing support to FSU scholars working with research data. As a result of the new NIH Data Management & Sharing policy that took effect in January 2023, along with the Office of Science and Technology Policy memo from August 2022, there has been an increased demand for research data management support at FSU. This portion of my work involves assisting scholars with creating their data management plans, providing instruction on funder mandates and other aspects of research data management, and collaborating with campus offices to enhance support in this area.

I also created, developed, and launched a data fellowship program at FSU Libraries in fall 2021. The data fellowship program uses a peer-to-peer teaching, research support, and outreach model for data, wherein undergraduate data fellows provide direct support to students working on data-related projects or class assignments. This program not only provides students the opportunity to integrate into our research data services program, but also allows FSU Libraries to enhance its own data services to students, particularly the undergraduate population. I currently manage three students who are part of the program.

Although a significant portion of my role is focused on data, I still serve as a liaison to four departments at FSU, including the Chemistry & Biochemistry Department. There are a few strategies that I use to engage with students and faculty in the department. Every August, I speak to new and incoming graduate students at the Chemistry New Graduate student orientation about FSU Library services. I also try to engage with new faculty in the department by inviting them to coffee to chat about their research needs and how the library can assist. Furthermore, I collaborate with my colleagues on the FSU Libraries STEM team on quarterly newsletters that we send out to our liaison departments by contributing content relevant to chemistry researchers.

SK: In collaboration with Renaine Julian, you wrote a paper titled "Advancing Open Science at Florida State University Libraries" for the 2022 Annual International Association of Scientific and Technological University Libraries (IATUL) conference proceedings. Can you highlight some of the recent activities the STEM team is doing to advance open science?

NR: The STEM team is working on projects in several areas to advance open science. The data fellowship program that I mentioned previously is one specific example. The data fellows provide instruction on open-source data tools such as Python and R. They also engage with students at FSU about the importance of open data and good data stewardship. In addition to the instruction sessions provided by the data fellows, the STEM team provides instruction and consultation support for several other openly available data tools, such as QGIS, Jupyter Notebooks, and Tableau Public. We also hired FSU Libraries’ first Open Science Librarian in summer 2022. The Open Science Librarian collaborates with the Scholarly Communications Librarian, the STEM team, and campus partners to advance open science principles at FSU. They are currently working on a summer workshop series targeting graduate students in research labs. This multi-part series will cover the entire research lifecycle and how to make your work more open across the research process.

SK: How does attending ACS national meetings help your professional development? Do you usually focus on technical programs organized by CINF or explore keynote events, thematic sessions, and other events in a wide spectrum? Which symposia during the ACS spring meeting in New Orleans did you enjoy?

NR: By attending ACS national meetings, I am able to keep up to date with the latest research and professional activities in the chemistry field. I also enjoy the opportunity to network with colleagues old and new and visit the exposition hall. Typically, I focus on technical symposia organized by CINF, as I am particularly interested in new developments in the areas of chemical information and data.

During the spring meeting in New Orleans, I co-chaired a symposium called “Incorporating Data Literacy into the Science Classroom” with my CINF colleague Sue Cardinal. During the symposium, we heard several speakers describe how they are using data literacy as part of library instructions and workshops at their institutions. It was a very informative session, especially for those of us in chemical and/or data librarianship who are navigating how to incorporate this topic into our lessons. I also enjoyed attending the "Cross-Sector Partnerships for Innovation and Talent" symposium, which featured chemists from academia, industry, and government discussing collaborative projects across different sectors. One other thought-provoking and timely session was the “Coping with Misleading Information” session co-organized by Judith Currano and Joseph Sabol on Thursday.

SK: Please share your thoughts on the ACS Leadership Institute in Atlanta, Georgia, January 26-28, 2024? Which exciting developments are on the horizon for national meetings or other venues at ACS?

NR: The ACS Leadership Institute was a very informative and exciting experience. I had the opportunity to meet colleagues from other ACS divisions and to connect with ACS staff across different parts of the organization. I was part of the “Division Leader” track and learned about the different resources that ACS has available to support divisions, members, and leaders. There were also ample opportunities to network with other attendees and members of the ACS board. I think that the ACS Leadership Institute is something new ACS leaders (in any capacity) should try to attend, at least once.

Major topics of discussion at this year’s Leadership Institute included proposed changes to the structure of ACS meetings (particularly technical symposia) and collaboration between divisions both during and outside of national meetings. ACS is also hoping to increase opportunities for meeting attendees to network and engage. I believe there will be more announcements from ACS soon on what these changes will look like.

SK: Your stepping up in the division chair-elect position is much appreciated! What are your goals for CINF from 2024 to 2026?

NR: Two of my major goals are to increase engagement with CINF membership and to reimagine our communications strategy. I would like to focus on creating new opportunities for our student members and early-career members to become involved in CINF and engage in divisional activities throughout the year. As part of those efforts, I believe that a robust communication plan is crucial. I am working with a few students right now on enhancing CINF’s social media presence, including a newly launched Instagram account (www.instagram.com/acscinf). I would also like to look at our current communication platforms and come up with a plan for how we can amplify and more effectively use them to reach our membership.

Furthermore, I hope to work with CINF members to create a formalized mentorship program which would provide students with the opportunity to be paired with a CINF mentor. This would help students prepare for a future career in chemical information and allow mentors to pass on their knowledge to the next generation of chemical information professionals. As part of this program, I would like to explore pairing it with a technical symposium where students could present on their experiences in the program. This would provide students with presentation experience and allow CINF to celebrate their accomplishments.

Finally, I plan to continue the excellent work that previous CINF leadership has carried out in creating exciting programs at national meetings and working with academic and industry sponsors to support CINF events.

SK: Let me finish our interview by asking a couple of personal questions. What are your favorite activities beyond the professional life? Do you have hobbies?

NR: I am a huge fan of anime (Japanese animated shows), manga, and video games. I really appreciate the art style, music, characters, and the stories. I also attend several anime and video game conventions every year and enjoy cosplaying from my favorite shows and games. When I am not immersed in anime or a video game, I like reading, being in nature, and hanging out with my 5-year-old cat, Ethan.

SK: Nick, thank you for carrying the expertise in the divisional activities for many years! Best wishes for your leadership as the CINF chair in 2025.

Nick Ruhs’ recent publications and presentations: