Vice President Candidate: Joseph Orgel 

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It is with great humility and enthusiasm that I accept the nomination to stand for election as Vice President of the Structural Science Society, the ACA. The ACA has been my scientific home for most of my career, and the opportunity to serve this community in such a leadership capacity is a profound honor.

My commitment to the ACA is rooted in a deep belief in the power of service and stewardship. Over a decade ago, when the Fiber Diffraction SIG faced the possibility of closure, I stepped forward to ensure its survival. I have been honored to serve the SIG ever since, regularly stepping into leadership roles as its chair and as a co-chair of its sessions, working to keep our discipline vibrant and represented within the broader society. This experience solidified my core belief: the strength of the ACA lies in the diversity of its disciplines and the passion of its members. If elected, I will be a dedicated advocate for all SIGs, ensuring that every voice, from the largest fields to the most specialized, is heard, valued, and supported.

My career has been defined by building bridges between disciplines. It began by integrating single-crystal analytical methods into the context of fiber diffraction to solve novel problems—work that helped define the in-situ structure of fibrillar collagen—and it continues today as I build large-scale mentorship systems, connecting the structural science of neurology with the applied behavioral sciences of leadership and cognitive development. I believe this multidisciplinary perspective is exactly what the ACA needs as we fully embrace our identity as "The Structural Science Society." My vision is for an ACA that actively fosters collaboration across all of structural science, creating new opportunities for innovation by connecting chemists, physicists, biologists, and materials scientists in novel ways. We are first and foremost professionals and culturally diverse humans of multiple generational groups, and our disciplinary lines can sometimes prevent us from seeing or engaging with our society's deep experience, wisdom, imagination, and energy. I hope to help build bridges and opportunities with you, to unlock more of our potential together.

Finally, effective leadership requires the ability to translate vision into action. Through more than 20 years of significant leadership—as an NIH-funded resource associate director, a university vice provost, and a consultant to private industry from the manufacturing floor to the C-suite—I have honed the ability to deconstruct complex organizational challenges, listen to the pragmatic and emotional needs of the community, and build consensus around actionable plans. I am prepared to bring this experience to the ACA Council, not just fulfilling the role of the vice president in fostering mentorship, but with a firm view to the future, working collaboratively to manage our society's resources, enhance our meetings, and expand our impact.

The ACA is more than a professional society; it is a community that nurtures discovery and builds careers. I would be honored to have your vote and to dedicate my energy to serving you as Vice President through the full three-year leadership term.

Biography

Dr. Joseph Orgel is a recognized and prominent research leader in his field, an executive leader, and a multidisciplinary scientist with over two decades of experience driving innovation at the intersection of structural science, academic administration, and organizational leadership. He is currently a tenured Full Professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology, holding appointments in Biology, Biomedical Engineering, and the Stuart School of Business.

For more than 20 years, Dr. Orgel has served in significant leadership roles. As an Associate Director of the NIH-funded BioCAT research center at the Advanced Photon Source, he led the fiber crystallography program. His pioneering work established new analytical and experimental methodologies, leading to foundational discoveries in the material properties of and pathological mechanisms affecting collagen-based tissues (including interactions in cellular development and proliferation), muscle, and in neurodegenerative diseases and Traumatic Brain Injury. Within Illinois Tech, he has provided university-wide leadership as Chair of the University Faculty Council, Deputy Vice Provost, and most recently as Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, where he architected transformative initiatives that significantly enhanced student success, drove revenue growth, and forged city-wide educational partnerships.

A dedicated member of the ACA, Dr. Orgel has been a constant leader within the Fiber Diffraction SIG for over a decade, serving as its chair and ensuring the vitality of the discipline within the society. His own research integrates structural biology with applied behavioral science. As the Founding Director of the endowed Empowerment, Leadership, and Mentorship (ELM) program, he built a nationally recognized student success ecosystem from a small pilot into a large-scale operation that has fostered thousands of mentorship relationships, improved grades, and professional placements. These efforts have earned national press and validation through peer-reviewed research and sponsored research awards. He is a Fellow of the ACA (2024) and an NSF CAREER Awardee.