ELECTION RESULTS

Electronic ballots for the election of 2003-2004 local section officers were mailed to members on September 13, 2003.Congratulations to the following winners:

Chair Elect – Jetze Tepe, Department of Chemistry, MSU

Secretary – Kris Chan, Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science,MSU

Treasurer – Rob Maleczka, Department of Chemistry, MSU

Councilor – Kathy Severin, Department of Chemistry, MSU

CHEMISTRY DAY AT IMPRESSION 5 – Kathy Severin

The MSU Local Section of the American Chemical Society will once again celebrate National Chemistry Week with our 17th annual “Chemistry Day” event held from 11 am – 3:30 pm on Saturday, October 25, 2003 at Impression 5 Science Center (200 Museum Drive, Lansing, MI). The theme this year is “Earth’s Atmosphere and Beyond!”. MSU faculty, staff, and students from the Departments of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering; members of NOBCChE, Science Theatre, ACS Women in Chemistry, the ACS Younger Chemist Committee, Alpha Chi Sigma, and Food Science Club; employees of the Board of Water and Light and MBI International; as well as students from area high schools, will have approximately 30 tables of chemistry-related hands-on experiments and chemical demonstrations that are both entertaining and educational! Free museum admission thanks to MBI International! Pre-registered scouts receive a patch for participating! Please come and join us for the fun! For more information, visit our website: http://www.chemistry.msu.edu/chemday or contact Kathy Severin (severin@cem.msu.edu), coordinator for National Chemistry Week 2003. 

LOCAL SECTION MEETING

The 2003 Local Section Fall meeting will take place on Thursday, October 30, 2003 in Room 136 of the Chemistry Building on the MSU Campus.The local section will be hosting Dr. Ken Carter from IBM.The meeting will start at 6:30 pm with refreshments served in the foyer outside Room 136.The lecture will begin at 7:00 pm.

MAX T. ROGERS LECTURESHIP

The 2004 Max T. Rogers lecture series will be held on January 29-30, 2004.The lectures will be given by John Polanyi, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Toronto and 1986 Nobel Prize winner for his pioneering work in reaction dynamics.

UNDERGRADUATE AWARDS

Matthew John Mathison, Freshman Chemistry

Kathryn Camille Ambrose, Freshman Honors Chemistry

Jeffrey Richard Gour, Organic Chemistry

Andrew Carl Goetz, Physical Chemistry

Kevin M. Doyle, Analytical Chemistry

Sara E. Mess, Inorganic Chemistry

Stephen Marc Stout, Robert Clark Kedzie Award for BS Chemistry Graduate

Zachary Behler, Robert Clark Kedzie Award for BA Chemistry Graduate

ACS WOMEN IN CHEMISTRY (WiC) – Anne Fischer and Prerna Sonthalia

ACS WiC has been keeping busy this fall, planning a number of programs for the chemistry department.In August, Dr. Victoria McGuffin shared her insights on how to choose a business suit that would be relatively inexpensive, yet still last through the seminars and job interviews of graduate school in our “How to Pick the Perfect Suit” brown bag lunch.Lots of graduate students attended to learn about practical, yet stylish, choices and also to enjoy the free lunch!Later in the month, we hosted a lunch for the incoming women graduate students and women faculty.This was a great opportunity to meet the new students and welcome them to MSU.At the fall ACS meeting, in New York City, Dr. Kathy Severin presented a poster of our yearly activities, including “Meet the Speaker,” round-table discussions, and outreach programs.Although we were not chosen for the Outstanding Local Section WCC, we were finalists for the award again this year.Upcoming activities for the fall include the “Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk”, sponsored by the American Cancer Society on October 11 in downtown Lansing. Anyone interested in the walk, or donating money, can visit our website http://www.cem.msu.edu/~acswic for more information.Later in October, we will be helping out with an analytical instrumentation workshop for students of Okemos high school, to give them hands-on experience with instruments they have been learning about.Of course, Chemistry Day at Impression 5 Science Center on October 25 is on the agenda as well this year.We would like to take this opportunity to offer a special thanks to Dr. Kathy Severin and ACS-MSU local section for their continued support.

Anne Fischer and Prerna Sonthalia are the 2003-2004 WCC co-chairs.Other members of the steering committee are Leslie Passeno, Soheila Vaezeslami, Elizabeth McGaw, Melissa Meaney, and Jin Li.For more information about ACS WiC or to find out about upcoming events, visit us on the web at http://www.cem.msu.edu/~acswic.

YOUNGER CHEMISTS COMMITTEE (YCC) – Emily McKimmy

LOCAL SECTION NEWSLETTER CHANGES

To help defray printing and distributing costs, we are now distributing the local section newsletter via electronic means to all local section members with e-mail addresses.If you are receiving a paper copy and would like to receive your newsletter in electronic format, please send your email to Kris Chan, MSU Local Section Secretary, (krischan@egr.msu.edu) who will update the newsletter distribution list.

LOCAL SECTION TRAVEL GRANTS

The MSU Local Section has limited funds available to provide travel support to chemical research/educational conferences. Travel grants up to $250.00 may be awarded to individuals who are members of the MSU Local Section or the local K-12 science education community and have a paper accepted at a conference sanctioned by the American Chemical Society.The application form for travel support is available at http://www.cem.msu.edu/~msuacs/tgrants.html.The Section would like to acknowledge the following recipients of MSU local section travel awards in 2003:

Mahesh Peddibhotla and Vasuda Sharma of MSU who attended the 225th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, held March 23-27 in New Orleans, LA.

Jill Muchnij, Edith Onyeozili, and Ron Rahaim of MSU who made poster presentations at the 38th National Organic Symposium, held June 8-12 in Bloomington, IN.

Prena Sonthalia (MSU) who presented her research at the 7th Annual Green Chemistry and Engineering Conference, held June 23-26 at the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C.

Annis Hapkiewicz of Okemos High School who will speak at a symposium entitled “Innovations in High School Chemistry Education” organized in conjunction with the 35th Central Regional ACS Meeting, held October 19-22 in Pittsburgh, PA.

CAS ADDS REGIONAL MEETINGS ABSTRACTS TO DATABASES

Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) and the Office of Regional Meetings (ORM) are excited to announce that beginning with spring 2003 all regional meetings abstracts will be accessible through all of CAS' online search services: STN®, SciFinder®, and SciFinder Scholar. CAS Editorial Operations Director, Dr. Matthew J. Toussant, recognizes that "Regional Meetings . . . communicate a wealth of timely and relevant chemistry-related information. CAS customers will be happy to get fast and convenient access to these abstracts online, before they appear anywhere else."Abstracts for the fall regionals also will be added to CAS. Online registration and meeting details are available on the ORM website at http://www.acs.org/meetings/regional/.

MSU ACS LOCAL SECTION OFFICERS 2003-2004.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

The MSU Local Section is always looking for people to share a little time. Additional information regarding Local Section activities may be accessed through our website: http://www.cem.msu.edu/~msuacs. We encourage you to take part in the variety of educational and outreach activities sponsored by the MSU Local Section.

MSU ACS LOCAL SECTION COMMITTEE CHAIRS 2003-2004