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Features - Year 2003
Regional Industrial Innovation Awards ProgramBecause the innovations of industry are essential to a healthy economy, the ACS Industry Member Programs (IMP) has instituted the Regional Industrial Innovation Awards Program.. You are now being invited to nominate one or more candidates for the 2003 awards cycle. The IMP will be hosting the program during all nine Regional Meetings. Information or phone 800-227-5558 ext. 4273. Chemagination
Essay and Poster Contest
Chemagination is a science essay and poster contest for 9-12 grade chemistry students that had its beginnings three years ago as part of the "Chemistry in the 21st Century" campaign of Dr. Daryle Busch. It was designed with the National Science Teaching Standards in mind and has successfully been used as an alternative to science fair projects and as an in- or out-of-class assignment by participating teachers. The contest has been run for the past three years at select regional and national meetings of the Society. Students and teachers who participated were always eager to participate in future contests, and this has not always been feasible. In order to increase the scope and reach of the contest, it was offered as a possibility to local sections, and was successfully piloted in the Western Michigan and Louisiana Sections. ACS is now launching this wonderful program nationwide as an outreach tool to high school students and their teachers. In the contest, students are asked to write an article that could appear in the October 2025 edition of ChemMatters magazine and to design the cover of that issue. The article describes an innovation or breakthrough in chemistry that is important in the lives of teenagers in the year 2025. Students are encouraged to base their ideas in sound chemistry and go with their creativity from there. They are also encouraged to provide a history of the changes that took place in the years between today and 2025 that allowed this innovation to develop. Students choose from one of four categories to focus their article: biotechnology, medicine/healthcare, new materials, and transportation/environment. Each ACS local section is encouraged to participate and to find a Chemagination Coordinator for the contest. Each coordinator will select the date for the section's contest, but they will be encouraged to hold the contests between February and April. Sections will be asked to sponsor their finalists' participation at the geographically closest regional meeting offering a contest, and regions will be asked to send their finalists to a national competition next December in Washington, DC. To find out more about Chemagination, visit http://chemistry.org/oca. If you are interested in becoming the local section Chemagination Coordinator, please contact the Section Chair or call 800-227-5558 ext. 4458. Minority AffairsThe Committee on Minority Affairs (CMA) maintains a database of minority scientists, which only ACS staff can access. The database serves as a resource directory to identify candidates for appointments to ACS governance positions, symposium chairs, awards and honors, and other activities. The datavbase includers information on underrepresented minority ACS members (i.e., Azfrican-Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, and American Indians). If you are interested in being included in the database, contact the Department of Diversity Programs at 800-227-5558, ext. 6243 or e-mail diversity@acs.org. your local section, request a Minority Affairs kit from the Department of Diversity Programs at 800-227-5558, ext. 6243 or e-mail diversity@acs.org. Partnerships with Minority Advocacy OrganizationsThe following organizations invite you to join them at their upcoming conferences during 2003:
Students with DisabilitiesThe ACS Committee on Chemists with Disabilities (CCD) announces Teaching Chemistry to Students with Disabilities, is a resource book that is available for teachers at the high school to post graduate levels, and parents and councelors. Call 800-227-5558, ext. 4600 for your complimentary copy. Travel Grants AvaialbleThe CCD announces a new travel grant program for all individuals that are graduate, undergraduate, or postdoctoral researchers who wish to make presentations at scientific meetings. The internt of the grant is to help defray some of the costs associated with travel and lodging. The deadline for applications is March 15, 2003 for meetings scheduled between July 1 and December 31, 2003. Further information is available at http://membership.acs.org/C/CWD/ or contact Kathleen Thompson at 800-227-5558, ext. 8072 200 Years Ago In London in 1803, Smithson Tennant and William Hyde Wollaston were working on the nature of crude platina ore, smuggled from South America. Their eventual goal was to isolate and fabricate malleable platinum. In the process they isolated four of the noble metals - iridium, osmium, palladium and rhodium. Wollaston's first name for palladium was ceresium, after the asteroid Ceres. But he decided to call the element after another asteroid, Pallas, since it produced a more euphonious name. Revised Career Services Publications Four popular, free ACS Department of Career Services publications have been updated recently and are now available. They include:
All four publications can be downloaded from http://chemistry.org/careers or by requesting them from ACS Office of Society Services at help@acs.org. Continuing Education Courses Online Two New Offerings from ACS Instructor-Led - ACS Webcast Short Courses Now you can take an ACS Short Course at your desktop. Make your plans now to attend an ACS Webcast Short Course from the convenience of your office or home. These courses meet during scheduled times and are directly guided by expert instructors. Webcast Short Courses scheduled for 2003:
For more information visit http://chemistry.org/elearning.
Self-Paced - ACS Internet Courses Register in and start a course anytime. These courses are completely self-paced. Help from an instructor is available by e-mail. ACS Internet Courses include:
An Introduction for the Academic Chemistry Laboratory To review a complete on-line catalog, visit the ACS Virtual Campus at http://www.vcampus.com/acs. Candidates for OfficeBallots are being sent to all members under seperate cover. The ballots must be in the hands of the secretary no later than 7:00 PM, May 9, 2003 to be counted at the May meeting. Ballots may be hand delivered at that time.
Scott Reid received a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from Union University (Jackson, TN) in 1985, and a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Illinois (Urbana) in 1990, where he worked with Prof. Douglas McDonald in the study of intramolecular vibrational energy redistribution. After a postdoctoral position at the University of Southern California with Prof. Hanna Reisler, Reid accepted a tenure-track position at Marquette University, where he currently holds the rank of Associate Professor. Dr. Reid has been an ACS member since 1994, and faculty advisor to the MU SAACS chapter since 1996.
Kevin W. Glaeske (b.1966) is an assistant professor of chemistry at Wisconsin Lutheran College. He received bachelor's degrees from Beloit College (1988) in both Chemistry and Classics and was elected into Phi Beta Kappa. Upon graduation, he studied synthetic organic chemistry at the University of Utah under F.G. West. He received his Ph.D. in 1995 (Thesis title: The Synthesis of a-Amino Acid Derivatives and Study of Transfer of Chirality in the Stevens Rearrangement) and was called to teach chemistry at Wisconsin Lutheran College the same year. While at WLC he has been published in such journals as Organic Letters and The American Biology Teacher and currently serves as chairman of the faculty.
Holger Försterling is a NMR specialist in the Department of Chemistry at UW-Milwaukee. He received his Diplom in Chemistry at the Philipps Universität Marburg, Germany in 1991. Subsequently he studied Organometallic Chemistry in the group of Dr. Craig Barnes at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, TN, where he graduated with a PhD in chemistry in 1996. He was then working on biomolecular NMR as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Christian Griesinger at the Goethe Universität Frankfurt, Germany before moving to Milwaukee in 1998. He is a member of the American Chemical Society since 1992. ACS Constitution Changes Membership Needs to Ratify At the New Orleans National Meeting, the councilors approved changes in the rules by which the local sections and divisions are funded. These changes will require a temporary assessment to the membership. The membership has to ratify these changes to the ACS Constitution before they can take effect. Ballots are to be mailed to ACS members in July. Your voice counts. VOTE! More information is available in the Councilor's Report and below.
YOUR TIME TO VOTE:
The Petition to Increase Funding for Local Sections and Divisions Ruth Hathaway, Chair Divisional Activities Committee Yorke E. Rhodes, Chair Local Section Activities Committee In the column that appeared in C&E News on February 10, 2003, entitled "The Big Society with the Little Societies Inside", we along with Frank Blum (2002 Chair, Divisional Activities Committee) discussed the funding needs for both Local Sections and Divisions within the ACS. At the recent meeting in New Orleans, Council approved the Petition to Increase Funding for Divisions and Local Sections. Now it is your turn, as members of the Society, to ratify the changes in the Constitution required to change the way we fund these two entities. Shortly, you will receive a ballot to vote on these changes. Below you will find some information that you may find helpful in deciding how to vote. Local Sections and Divisions have their own Articles in the Constitution (Articles XII and XIII). These member units are constitutionally different from other Society units. The allotments to Local Sections and Divisions are also governed by the ACS Bylaws, so changes to the allotment and structure should be incorporated in the Bylaws. The Board of Directors is required to approve Bylaw changes. The membership must ratify changes to the Constitution. These changes eliminate dollar amounts for local section and division allotments from the Bylaws and distribute 20% of the ACS member dues collected to Local Sections and Divisions, in an effort to support Local Section and Division memberships at a similar level. The dues allotment amounts to be distributed to Local Sections and Divisions are based on the relative number of memberships using the year 2000 as a base, which had 55% Local Sections and 45% Division memberships. The percentage for funding will stay fixed at 55/45. (Total ACS members belonging to a division number ca. 85,000, with total Division memberships numbering ca. 116,000, due to members with multiple Division memberships; Division dues are required. All ACS members are assigned a Local Section membership, numbering 143,000 in 2000; Local Section dues are optional.) The petition provides a modest increase in funds to Local Sections and a significant increase in support to Divisions. The funds so allocated will be distributed to individual Divisions (34) and to individual Local Sections (189) by DAC and LSAC, respectively. Council must approve these distribution formulas at least every three years, with prior review of the Board Committee on Budget and Finance. The Divisional Activities Committee (DAC) plans to distribute the money based on a significant increase in the base allotment; a modest increase in per member allotment; an increase in National Meeting Programming funds; and a fraction for innovative projects, especially those promoting Local Section and Division cooperation and collaboration such as programming at regional and local meetings. The Local Section Activities Committee (LSAC) will distribute a base amount to each Local Section and a per capita amount, ensuring that each Local Section's current yearly allotment will remain stable. Although there is a normal fluctuation in Local Section allotments due to changes in membership, existing funds will remain effectively the same for each Local Section. Additionally an innovative projects fund will be established to fund Sections with special financial needs that can improve their programming and fund innovative projects that could normally not be funded. Favored new activities will be those that involve joint interaction of Local Sections with Divisions or with other Local Sections. Local Sections will receive their additional funds in the first year and thereafter. The Divisions' additional funds will be stepped up over four years from 2004 to 2007, when fully funded. The total increase needed to fund this petition is approximately $9 per member. This funding will come from a combination of a progressive temporary assessment (to a total of $8 in 2007) and cost savings/increased revenues in Society operations ($1 initially). The temporary assessment of $2 per each year ($2 in 2004, $4 in 2005, $6 in 2006 and $8 in 2008) is just that, temporary. It will allow the Board to find alternative funding mechanisms within the next 4 years. This assessment will be reviewed at least annually, and if funding is found, the assessment may be lowered or cancelled before 2007. One of the issues that have lead to deficit spending for Divisions is that much of the program money raised in the past from companies, foundations, etc. has become significantly more difficult to acquire. Both Divisions and Local Sections have not been able to fund innovative projects because of additional costs. The new, modest Innovative Projects fund will allow both DAC and LSAC to select and help fund those projects that will have the greatest impact. The revised petition, with the temporary assessment and allocations implemented over time is supported by the Board of Directors and the Society Committee on Budget and Finance, and has been overwhelmingly approved by Council via voice vote in New Orleans. Council has approved the distribution formulas for both LSAC and DAC. All the Officers in the Presidential succession at the time the petition was drafted are signatories on the petition. The petition supports the two major membership components of ACS. These programs that Divisions and Local Sections conduct are of importance to the entire membership. Firming up our volunteer base will strengthen the Society as a whole, and will benefit us all. Look for your ballot in the mail, and please vote! INSTRUMENTS NEEDED! | ||||||||
| HTML by: Alan W. Thompson - athomp@uwm.edu - October 30, 2003 | |||||||||
