The CSRA Chemist - Volume 41 Number 3 (May 1998)

It seems to me that I just wrote one of these columns for the April newsletter – and that is the case. There is a short turn around this month because of May meeting is only three weeks after the April meeting. Speaking of the April meeting, it should be an outstanding event. You can read more about it elsewhere in this newsletter. I have had the pleasure of working with our speaker, Maria Reichmanis, both while I was at SRS and in my current position at Equitech and I am looking forward to an insightful and interesting presentation.

This will be our last Section event until September, but the Executive Committee will not be power tanning for the next three months! The Committee will be busy working on our telephone survey of members. We’ll be reviewing proposed changes to the Bylaws of the Steering Committee of the Southeastern Regional Meetings of the American Chemical Society (SERMACS). We’ll meet in July to gear up for the Fall, as well as scare up a list of candidates for the Section’s annual election. Hmmm… we could meet pool side, and with cellular phones we could still conduct the survey…so power tanning may still be possible! (As health-conscious chemists, we’ll be power tanning with SPF 30 sunscreen!) Our NCW Chair, Joyce Morningstar, will begin planning for ACS’ annual outreach event, as well as the IChC or International Chemistry Celebration, which begins in conjunction with the ’98 NCW and continues through 1999. Also, in the fall we’ll be meeting the public at the Arts in the Heart festival and high school students at CSRA College Night. Monty Fetterolf and his ACS student affiliate group at USC-Aiken will be helping out during SEED. For those of a technical bent, there will be meetings in September on computational chemistry and October on biochemistry. For those who like to ferment, our November awards meeting will be at Aiken Brewing.

Speaking of the Section election this Fall, which I did just a few lines back up this page, the Executive Committee would be very happy if we didn’t have to ‘scare’ up a list of candidates. So, if anyone out there would like a chance to be an officer of the Section, there are four offices on the ballot – Treasurer, Secretary, Chair-Elect or Councilor. The Chair-Elect, once elected, is on a three-year track that also includes a year as Chair, and a year as Immediate Past Chair. Similarly, the Councilor position is a three year commitment and involves travel to the ACS National Meetings. No experience is necessary; just a willingness to try it and get involved. If you’re interested, you may contact any of the officers of the Section listed on the inside front cover of this newsletter.

Our local section filled the Hunt room at the Willcox Inn for the April meeting. It was nice to see so many familiar faces. Dr. Nagyvary was insightful and light hearted as he brought his study of violin making to the section. A truly enjoyable evening which was made special by our guest violinists, Sarah Harrison and Susan Stroebel. Sarah and Susan kindly volunteered to play violin for the section providing the meeting with an impression of the tonal qualities of different violins.

"Girls Just Want To Have Fun." So said Cyndi Lauper and so say the Girl Scouts of the CSRA. On Saturday, March 28 the Section sponsored a booth at the Girl Scouts "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" event at the Augusta Farmer’s Market. A total of 58 organizations sponsored booths or activities at the event. It was a beautiful, sunny and warm day that saw about 300 girls come by our booth and try their hands at "Supermarket Chemistry". The two featured activities were radish skin acid/base indicator cards and the very popular phenolphthalein/window cleaner invisible ink drawing. A big thank you goes out to all our volunteers: Brian Anderson, Lewis Baylor, Roy Beck, Tom Crute, Maricar Harris, and Stephanie Myers. Thank you also to the ASU chemistry department for providing the phenolphthalein.

Our local section once again participated in the National Chemistry Olympiad. This participation begins the process for selecting the four high school students who will represent the United States at the International Chemistry Olympiad held this year in Melbourne, Australia. From eleven local high schools and out of four hundred and forty-four students who took a one-hour screening exam, eight students (our local section maximum) were selected, based on their performance, to attend the national exam. The four and one-half hour national exam consists of three parts: a sixty-question multiple choice section, an eight-question written response section, and a two-question lab practical section. This year, five of the eight students were able to attend the exam at Augusta State on Saturday, April 26. They were: Ranadeb Mukerjee (Lakeside), Ronald Li (Lakeside), Manish Shah (Evans), Donald McCullough, III (Evans), and Michael Anthony Bayazas (A.R. Johnson). They received a nice book bag for their efforts. All students who participated in the screening process receive participation certificates and the two highest scorers at each high school receive a National Chemistry Week tee shirt. We congratulate all participants in the 1998 National Chemistry Olympiad and look forward to another successful selection next year.

On March 23, Maricar Harris and Lewis Baylor traveled to Aiken to serve as judges for the Section at the CSRA Regional Science Fair. There were about 600 total student projects on display in the USC-Aiken gym; our judges focused their attention on the "chemistry" projects in the "senior" category, of which there were eleven. The winner of the Section prize was Chuan-Fang Lin, a sophomore at South Aiken High School. His project was "Spectrophotometric Analysis of Commercial Aspirin". Because school commitments prevented him from receiving his prize at the Science Fair awards ceremony, we invited Chuan-Fang to our April Section meeting and presented him with a copy of the Student Edition of the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics. Rosalyn Barton, Chuan-Fang’s chemistry teacher, also attended the meeting.

The ACS Board of Directors recently adopted a 1998-2000 Strategic Plan that will take the Society into the 21st century. In distributing the plan, Chairman of the Board, Joan Shields commented, "As a Society, we have much to offer our members and customers. The new plan reflects this fact. The plan outlines a well-defined course for the Society as we approach the next century and our own 125th anniversary in 2001."

While the ACS mission remains the same, the plan includes a newly developed Vision statement. The vision focuses on our membership, literacy, and information. According to Shields, as the ACS Board of Directors reflected on the 1995-1997 plan and the increasingly competitive world in which we live, it determined that the Society was headed in the right direction. Thus, the twelve thrusts in the current plan are similar to those in the former plan—the Society will stay the course. The addition of the Vision statement provides a framework which more clearly shows where the thrusts are directed.

The Plan also provides an umbrella for initiatives such as the Membership 2001 Campaign, the International Chemistry Celebration, the Society’s new Internet strategy, and the varied programs of the Divisions and Local Sections.

As the Society finds its strength through the participation of its members, local sections, and the divisions, there are many opportunities to work individually and collectively to achieve the goals laid out in the plan. Copies of the plan are available at 1-800-227-5558.

This will be the final issue of the CSRA Chemist for the summer. We’ll be back here at the computer to kickoff our Fall program in late August. Keep checking the web page during the summer months for changes. During the break we hope to complete a number of additions such as on-line local section affiliate applications, a nomination form for the Denise Creech Outstanding High School Chemistry Teacher Award, and other enhancements. As always, your input, comments, and recommendations are welcome. Have a wonderful summer, and we’ll be back in your mailbox this Fall.

The Member’s Corner throws the spotlight on two of our section members:

Dr. Charles Crawford received his B Sc. in Chemistry from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 1986. He received a Ph.D. in physical chemistry, specializing in radiation chemistry in 1991. His first post-doctoral position was for ORISE at SRTC from 1992-1996 studying radiolytic gas generation and glass leaching. In 1996 he became a permanent WSRC employee and continues to work on glass fabrication/formulation, especially to support the processing of the next sludge tank in DWPF. He also has produced glass for the BNFL effort to vitrify Hanford Tank Wastes from pretreatment samples and has assisted in modeling efforts to develop an understanding of the role of metal catalysis in the decomposition of sodium tetraphenyl borate in a high radiation environment. As if that were not exciting enough, Charles spends his free time skiing, hang gliding and playing golf. Charles was the Section’s National Chemistry Week chair the last two years and has moved on to assume the responsibilities of Public Relations chairman.

Dr. Harry Groh received his B.Sc. in Chemistry from the University of St. Louis in 1949, and his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Rochester in 1952. Right after graduation he joined a group of chemists DuPont had brought together at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in preparation for the opening of the Savannah River Plant. He started work at the then Savannah River Laboratory in 1953 where he stayed for 25 years. He was involved in the early days of isotope production including Pu-238, Cm-244, and Cf-252. After the laboratory, Harry moved over to plant operations as the General Superintendent of Works Technical. He stayed with plant operations moving up to more senior positions ending up in strategic planning. He retired from DuPont in 1989 with the arrival of WSRC, but stayed on one more year to assist Westinghouse in making their transition. Harry is a former chair of the Savannah River Local Section. He currently is a private consultant. His most recent effort involved helping Bechtel Hanford with their chemical safety program following the hydroxylamine nitrate tank explosion at Hanford. In his free time Harry is enjoying retirement, traveling, and spending time with his children and grandchildren.