The MSU local section received the ACS ChemLuminary Award "Outstanding Event for a Specific Audience" for their 2006 National Chemistry Week Celebration "Chemistry Day at Impression 5".  The specific audience was scouts.  Girl scouts and boy scout troops registered for the annual event and received a themed patch (thanks to Two Men & a Truck) for participating in hands-on activities.  The theme was the Chemistry of Toys.  Almost 2000 people attended including over 800 scouts.  The event was held at Impression 5 Science Center and admission to the museum was free thanks to MBI International.    Dr. Amy Pollock accepted the award on behalf of the local section at the ChemLuminary Awards Ceremony during the 234th ACS National Meeting in Boston, MA.  Congratulations to event coordinators: Dr. Amy Pollock and Dr. Rob LaDuca and to Mr. Dave Voss who trained the demonstrators!

The MSU Local Section was also a finalist for the Local Section Activities award "Best Activity or Program in a Local Section Stimulating Membership Involvement" (again for Chemistry Day) and Women in Chemistry (WiC) was a finalist for the Women Chemists Committee (WCC) Award "Outstanding Overall Women Chemists Committee".  The latter award was first given in 2000 and WiC was the first recipient.  Since that time, WiC has either been the award winner (2000, 2003, 2004, 2005) or a finalist (2001, 2002, 2006) every year.

Congratulations to Ms. Jaime Curtis and Ms. Amber Hupp of Women in Chemistry (WiC), who applied for and received a $2000 grant from the ACS Local Section Activities Committee (LSAC) to fund a program celebrating the "Ten Years of  Women in Chemistry"!  Former WiC steering committee members are being invited to relate their experiences in academia, industry, and national laboratories since graduating from MSU with a PhD in Chemistry.  The event is still in the planning stages, but will occur on Saturday, March 29, 2008 in 481 Chemistry Building - the conference room in the new Chemistry Annex.

LSAC disburses approximately $115,000 annually to local sections through this program.  This is the second time that WiC has obtained one of these grants.  In 2005, Ms. Melissa Meaney and Ms. Elizabeth McGaw were awarded a grant to fund the seminar series: “Things Every Scientist Should Know—Outside the Laboratory”.

On Saturday, October 27, 2007, the MSU Local Section of the ACS celebrated National Chemistry Week (NCW) with our 21st annual “Chemistry Day” event.  This year, 1337 people visited Chemistry Day at Impression 5 Science Center!  Among those in attendance were 413 Boy and Girl Scouts who earned a participation patch for completing nine special activities, many of which related to the theme of the day, “The Many Faces of Chemistry”.  Thanks to a generous donation from Emergent BioSolutions, admission to Impression 5 was free!  The MSU Local Section gave everyone who attended Chemistry Day an NCW activity newspaper (“Celebrating Chemistry”), a “Hooray for Chemistry” bag, an NCW sticker, a “Proud to be a Chemist” temporary tattoo, and an NCW helium balloon.  Dr. Amy Pollock was the event coordinator and Mr. Dave Voss trained the demonstrators.  More...

Women in Chemistry (WiC) sponsored the fifth-annual Chemistry Merit Badge Day on Saturday, December 1, 2007.  Boy scouts and girl scouts came to the MSU chemistry building and participated in a day of experiments and activities.  The boys earned a Chemistry Merit Badge; the girls earned a Chemistry Interest Project Patch (IPP).  This year 37 boy scouts from 7 troops and 17 girl scouts from 6 troops attended.  The event was organized by WiC members Ms. Jill Pinter, Ms. Lisa Harlow, Ms. Amanda Palumbo, Ms. Allison Brown, & Ms. Ruth Udey.  Many others volunteered and helped with the activities including 10 other graduate students, 11 undergraduate students, and professors Dr. Janice Hironaka and Dr. Abby Bickley.  Chemical demonstrations by Dr. Amy Pollock and a glass blowing demonstration by Mr. Scott Bankroff were also part of the event.  The organizers would especially like to thank Scott and Amy, as well as Merit Badge councilor Dr. Bob Hausinger who comes every year to sign all of the cards and make sure all of the boy scout requirements are met.  They'd also like to thank Melissa Parsons, and everyone else who volunteered!

The Girl Scout Chemistry Interest Project Patch was developed by women in the local section and approved by the Girl Scouts of Michigan Capital Area Council in 2004.  Any girl scout can earn the Chemistry IPP by fulfilling the requirements.

This the fifth year that Women in Chemistry has participated in this Lansing event.  The group raised money by selling pink ribbons and close to 100 homemade cookies in the lobby of the Chemistry Building; having an ice cream social (ice cream donated by MSU Dairy Store) for the department on Wednesday, October 3rd; and walking in the event on Saturday, October 20th.  Altogether they raised $1867.03 for breast cancer research!  Ms. Thu Nguyen coordinated this activity.