Hi Matthew,
I am the Chair of the Senior Chemists Group of the Central North Carolina (CNC) local section of the ACS.
I believe the Indiana LS has an active Senior Chemists Group. Thus, your greatest resource (asset) will be the availability of willing and enthusiastic Senior Chemists to mentor graduate students. As a former graduate student, I am sure learning about the careers and experiences of older/retired chemists would have been very beneficial.
I note that you crossed out resources from Eli Lilly and Dow. Is that because they no longer provide funding to your LS? If so, that appears to be a universal trend. The CNC LS used to receive considerable funding from Syngenta, RJReynolds, Stockhausen, et al but these financial resources are no longer available. However, the request for past funding did not include the specific goal of “mentoring local graduate students”. Maybe it would be useful for you to approach Eli Lilly and Dow with this specific goal in mind and perhaps I should do the same for the companies located in my LS. Even a fraction of former funding levels would help with your program. You can probably obtain some funding, at least enough to start, through your LS. In addition, it is likely that IUPUI will provide meeting space. I think your program is very worthwhile and I wish you much success.
