Volume 41 Number 4 (September 1998)
Let me start this off with some good news. We have received word that the Local Section Activities Committee has selected our Section to receive a Certificate of Excellence for our programs in 1997. I would like to thank everyone who helped last year by volunteering for one of our events, serving on Section committees, or just attending some of our meetings. Your contributions all helped bring about this honor. I also want to give a special thank you to Stephanie Myers, because as the 1997 Chair, it was her responsibility to write and submit the annual report. It is that annual report upon which this award is largely based and she clearly did an outstanding job! The Section will be receiving a certificate, and Chris Bannochie was on hand at the Boston meeting to accept it.
As I write this column my family’s weeklong vacation at the beach is still in the future. But, by the time you read this it will be September and our Section’s fall schedule will be heating up, even as the weather cools off. (OUCH! I’m sorry if anyone was injured by this bad pun.) We will be participating in many exciting events that you are encouraged to attend. Some of these will be CSRA College Night, the Arts in the Heart of Augusta Festival, SEED Day at USCA, National Chemistry Week, as well as our regular section dinner meetings. I urge you to read about these wonderful events elsewhere in this, and upcoming editions of the CSRA Chemist.
Autumn also brings our annual Section Officer elections. This year we will have races for Councilor, Alternate Councilor, Chair-Elect, Secretary, and Treasurer. If any of you out there are interested in participating in your Section’s governance and would like to run for one of these positions, please give Stephanie Myers, our Immediate Past Chair, a call. (Hey, you! Yes, you! Just look to the left, over there on the inside of the cover, and you’ll see Stephanie’s telephone number. Pick up the phone and give her a call!)
ACS COUNCIL HIGHLIGHTS
The American Chemical Society Fall National Meeting was held in Boston, August 23-27. The Council voted to recommend adoption of the Sixth Edition of the Professional Employment Guidelines (PEG). These guidelines came out of a Committee on Economic and Professional Affairs task force on which your councilor served. The updated guidelines recognize a comprehensive and fair set of standards that respect and promote the interests of chemists and employers. New to the document is recognition that chemical scientists and their employers must become better partners in order meet the challenges of the prevailing economic conditions. The current revision removes the adversarial tone established by the format of the previous document and recognizes the diverse workforce present in today’s work environment.
The Committee on Local Section Activities reported the start of a Local Section Officers mailing list on September 1. Local sections can request a copy of the Blue Book, which reviews Local Section Activities. The N.E. Oklahoma Section won the medium-small category Local Section Award for which the Savannah River Section had been nominated. We received an Award of Excellence plaque for the nomination.
The Council rejected a motion by the Committee on Meetings and Expositions for an increase in national meeting registration fees to $235 in 1999. The vote was 166 in favor and 276 opposed. Your councilor’s reason for rejecting the request centered on the lack of accounting presented to justify the need for the increase.
The Bylaws for the Division of Chemical Toxicology were approved elevating the division from probationary status to full division status.
Some Reasons to Celebrate National Chemistry Week 1998:
1) To convince the public that a "mole" is not just a cute groundhog
2) To reach school children with fun and informative messages about chemistry
3) To add another "Beaker Buddy" (those little fuzz balls with the goggles and the NCW flag) to your collection.
4) To highlight the contributions that chemistry has made to our society.
5) To put a smile on a child’s face and wonder in their eyes
6) All of the above - and because all 188 ACS local sections are celebrating NCW and you want to join the FUN!
National Chemistry Week, a grassroots public outreach program of the American Chemical Society, will be celebrated on November 1-7, 1998. This annual, nationwide event is designed to impress upon the public the important contributions that chemists and chemistry make in all of our lives. You have read about it in C&E News. Last year, volunteers from 188 ACS local sections united to perform over 5,000 hands-on activities and 3,000 chemical demonstration shows for adults and children in their communities. And this year, NCW will be bigger and better!
Whether you’re an NCW "old hand" or a "newbie", we can provide you with ideas, written materials, and training to help you conduct a successful NCW activity. Materials are designed for a broad range of age groups.
Possible NCW activities include:
• Talks on careers in chemistry or on the importance of chemistry in everyday life.
• Chemical demonstrations using common household chemicals
• Games such as "What’s that Element?" and brain teaser contests
The Section needs volunteers for a variety of NCW activities! Visit your child’s class or select an activity from a list of schools and events. There are a number of teachers who greatly appreciate your visit to their classroom. Remember, your potential audience is not just limited to a school classroom or Sunday school class. Adults, such as members in your community group or hobbyist club, can also appreciate that chemistry is fun.
NCW training workshops will be held in October. For more information, contact: Dr. Joyce Morningstar - CSRA 1998 NCW Coordinator, e-mail: jmorn@earthlink.net
During the last few months, the stock market has had it ups and downs. No, better make that just the downs. The Savannah River Section has money in several mutual funds as long-term investments, which is required by the ACS. This is to provide the Section with a cushion, which is a good idea for anyone. During the recent downturn, we did relatively well, actually we did really well compared with the losses seen in the market. Over the last three months (ending Sept. 8, 1998), our account has lost $130.00, which represents a mere 3% of our invested assets. Interestingly, 9/8/98 was also a good day for Wall Street, which rallied approximately 380 points. It was estimated by our financial manager at Prudential that we saw a 4-5% increase in our funds for the day, which would indicate that we our back in the black, as short term investing goes. As this is now a fairly good time to buy, and we lost almost no money in the recent downturn, we will be moving our under performing assets ($1450.00 yielding an average of 1.88% a year) into a higher yield Utility Fund (avg. 17% a year for the last 5 years) which should increase the performance of our investments without significantly increasing our risk. That's all for now!
| Income: Category | Actual | Budget |
| Annual ACS Allotment | $4,627.00 | $4,627.00 |
| Interest from Checking Account | $135.05 | $140.00 |
| Local Section Dues | $1,110.36 | $1,200.00 |
| Meetings | $971.00 | $1.00 |
| Income Total | $6,843.41 | $5,969.00 |
| Debits: Category | ||
| Local Meeting Expenses | $1,723.11 | $1,600.00 |
| Newsletter | $706.43 | $1,600.00 |
| National Chemistry Week | 0.00 | $600.00 |
| Travel Subsidy | 0.00 | $400.00 |
| U.S. Chemistry Olympiad | 100.81 | $450.00 |
| Checking Account Service Charge | 125.00 | $125.00 |
| Awards | $147.80 | $300.00 |
| Scholarships | 0.00 | $200.00 |
| Public Relations | $75.14 | $200.00 |
| Miscellaneous | $147.24 | $300.00 |
| Income Invested | $250.00 | $200.00 |
| Debit Totals: | $3,275.53 | $5,975.00 |
| Overall Totals: | $3,567.88 | $-6.00 |
INTERNATIONAL CHEMISTRY CELEBRATION
Chemie! Quimica! Chemistry! Any way you say it, it’s chemistry! In 1999, chemists from around the world will be participating in the International Chemistry Celebration (IChC), and you can too! If you want to share your love of chemistry with people in other countries, (and people here at home for that matter) now is the time to get involved in the first-ever International Chemistry Celebration.
The American Chemical Society is leading the U.S. celebration with special programs and events throughout 1999 for ACS members, employers, local sections, children.... Everybody interested in the chemical enterprise. The range of programs offers lots of flexibility.
The easiest way to participate in the IChC is to incorporate an international element or theme into things you already do. Take local section meetings: during 1999, plan to have at least one meeting focus on international issues...or National Chemistry Week. If you normally celebrate National Chemistry Week, (which will be the official U.S. kick-off for the International Celebration - November 1-7) this year make it International Chemistry Week. Be sure to give your celebration an international flavor!
If you’re interested in forming or strengthening partnerships with chemists from other countries, the Celebration can help. Open a dialog with a foreign partner about what it is like to be a chemist in your respective countries, then share that information with people in your community. Imagine the reaction of your neighbors when you host a mall event about what it is like to be an environmental chemist in Mexico, or a forensic chemist in India, or a chemical engineer in Tunisia. Not to mention the photographs!!! You can decide for yourself what information you want to exchange, or you can participate in a more formal survey developed by the ACS.
For the history minded, there is another IChC program entitled A Global Salute to Polymers. It will help you honor sites, artifacts, or events in your area that can be tied to the development and/or commercialization of polymers. Polymers receive special attention because they are found in so many societies, and they have had a huge impact on our lives. Any ACS member in the U.S. or abroad (with approval from their ACS Local Section or host Chemical Society) can sponsor a nomination for this recognition. If it is approved, ACS will send the sponsoring organization a polymer-resin plaque, which can be awarded to the recipient at a special ceremony. This type of ceremony is a good way to bring together various groups in your community, including ACS division members and local section members. Plus it gets great press coverage. A special advisory committee has been established to assist you in forming nominations and planning award ceremonies and events.
Turning now to the younger set: For middle and high-school students, ACS (along with British Petroleum) developed A World of Color, a booklet of experiments using indigenous plants to create natural dyes. Young people from all corners of the world will participate in this activity. The experiments will be published in 10 languages, and distributed throughout the world by British Petroleum, the National Science Foundation, and other organizations. In March and April 1999, an Internet Web site will be set up to allow the participants to enter the data they collected into a global database. This will allow each young scientist to see their results online, and compare their findings to those from other countries.
Of course, the IChC celebration is not limited to the programs developed by the American Chemical Society. If you have other ideas on how to celebrate, that is great! Tell us what they are and we will include your ideas in the IChC newsletter.
The mission of the International Chemistry Celebration is to enhance public appreciation of chemistry and its contributions to everyday life throughout the world and to enhance communication among the chemical societies and organizations worldwide. ACS President-Elect Ed Wasserman has already declared the "Global Chemical Enterprise" will be the theme of his presidency in 1999.
To find out more information about the International Chemistry Celebration, visit our website at www.chemcenter.org. To receive detailed descriptions on each of the programs listed here, e-mail your address to IChC@acs.org or write to us at IChC, 1155 16th Street NW, Room 206, Washington, DC 20036.
Look for the "GRASSROOTS ‘99" Local Section Contest to begin September 1, 1998. This is your opportunity to actively participate in the "ACS 2001" Membership Campaign that was launched in the spring of 1997, and is an aggressive effort to maintain the ACS leadership position as a provider of chemical information, and to offset the aging membership population.
ACS local sections are being urged to participate in "GRASSROOTS ‘99" not only to support the 2001 Campaign but also to develop their own membership base and keep the section strong. Local sections will compete against each other according to size category (large, medium-large, medium, medium-small, and small) by conducting recruitment, retention, and recognition activities during the contest timeframe (September 1, 1998 through February 28, 1999).
Winning sections will be announced at the 1999 ACS Spring National Meeting in Anaheim, CA, and will receive $1500 as prize money to "put back into their own backyard." Contact your Membership Chair for additional information, or the ACS "GRASSROOTS ‘99" coordinator, Cheryl Brown, at 800/227-5558 ext. 6022 or with e-mail: c_brown@acs.org.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the winners of the 1998 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards on June 29, at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC. ACS Immediate Past President, Paul Anderson spoke at the ceremony that recognizes innovative uses of chemistry for environmental improvement. Acknowledging the accomplishments of the award winners, Anderson stated, "These environmentally sound advances in chemistry are moving beyond the laboratory and into products and processes with a major impact on industry and our homes, gardens, and communities."
President Clinton announced the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge in 1995 as part of the Reinventing Environmental Regulations Initiative to "promote pollution prevention and industrial ecology through a new EPA design for the environment partnership with the chemical industry." The program was established to recognize and promote fundamental and innovative chemical technologies that have or can be used by industry in achieving pollution prevention goals. Green chemistry is the use of chemical principles and methodologies for a reduction in, or elimination of, the use or generation of hazardous materials - including feedstocks, reagents, solvents, products, and byproducts-from a chemical process.
An independent technical expert panel selected by the ACS on criteria that include health and environmental impact, industrial applicability, and innovation judges nominations received for the annual awards program. The program is open to all individuals, groups, and organizations involved in chemical design, manufacture and use. Researchers at corporations, small businesses and academic and national labs are encouraged to apply.
There was a 50% increase in the number of nominations for the awards this year, illustrating the popularity of the awards program and the expansion of efforts to participate in green chemistry. This year's winners include:
• Academic Category - Professors Karen Draths and John Frost (Michigan State University) for their use of microbes as environmentally benign synthetic catalysts.
• Academic Category - Professor Barry Trost (Stanford University, California) for the development of the concept of atom economy, an approach that allows industry to reduce or eliminate waste from the manufacture of chemical products while still maximizing profits. Under Trost’s new criteria, a successful process is one that not only maximizes product yield, but also minimizes waste generated.
• Small Business Category - PYROCOOL (Lynchburg, Virginia) for the development and commercial introduction of an environmentally responsible fire extinguishing and cooling agent.
• Alternative Synthetic Pathways - Flexsys (Akron, Ohio) for developing a new process which utilizes nucleophilic aromatic substitution for hydrogen and eliminates chlorine in the synthesis of 4--aminodiphenylamine, an important chemical for the rubber chemicals industry.
• Alternative Reaction Conditions - Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) (Illinois) for developing a novel membrane-based process for producing lactate esters as nontoxic and biodegradable solvents. The ANL process will make it technically and commercially feasible for industry to use lactate esters in place of about 80% of the 3.8 million tons of solvents currently used in the U.S. each year in applications that include electronics manufacturing, paints and coatings, textiles, cleaners and degreasers, adhesives, printing, de-inking, and many other industrial, commercial, and household applications.
• Designing Safer Chemicals - Rohm and Haas Company (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) for designing an environmentally safe insecticide. This is the second Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award given to the Rohm and Haas Company.
For awards program selection criteria and nomination criteria for the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge, visit the EPA home page at http://www.epa.gov/docs/gcc/.
Frustrated by the lack of scientific input in public policy matters? Interested in issues like federal research funding, state science education standards, or state environmental issues? Then come to a government affairs training workshop at an ACS regional meeting! The ACS Office of Legislative & Government Affairs (OLGA) will be holding government affairs workshops at several fall regional meetings. The workshops will provide individual and local section project ideas, tips on working with elected officials, and work on building state-wide coalitions of ACS local sections to work on government relations issues relevant to them all. The half-day workshops will include panel discussions with state legislators or congressional staff.
The workshops will be held at the Western Regional Meeting (San Francisco, CA, Thursday, Oct 29, 1:30 - 5:00), Southwest Regional Meeting, (Baton Rouge, LA, Monday, Nov.2, 1:30 - 5:00), and Southeast Regional Meeting (Research Triangle, NC, Friday, Nov. 6, 8:30 - 12:00). To sign up, or for more information, contact Wanda Magruder, OLGA, at (800) 227-5558 ext.4479, or via e-mail at w_magruder@acs.org.
Career Services is pleased to offer the Younger Chemists Committee’s new video, "Your Career in Chemistry: Measuring Your Skills, Weighing Your Options." This 30-minute video takes a look at the abilities needed to be successful in different career paths. The three chemists featured—Ellen Fisher (assistant professor at Colorado State University), Chris Surratt (Senior Staff Fellow, National Institute on Drug Abuse), and Birdella Kenney (Research Associate, R.W. Johnson PRI)—focus on the core non-chemistry skills they all use in their respective positions. Although the video is targeted to undergraduate students, graduate students and those considering career changes may also benefit from the information in this video. To order, please call Career Services at (800) 227-5558, ext. 6153. Price is $20 plus tax.
The ACS Committee on Professional Training (CPT) has two brochures available for undergraduates. One is Planning for a Career in Industry. Prepared by CPT with the ACS Committee on Corporation Associates, this brochure is designed to provide advice for undergraduate chemistry students who plan to enter the work force upon graduation. It includes suggestions about curriculum planning as well as a broader discussion about career options and opportunities. The brochure concludes with a bibliography of resources on career planning available to undergraduates and their advisors.
The other brochure is the sixth edition of Planning for Graduate Work in Chemistry. Written for anyone considering graduate work in chemistry or chemically related disciplines. It offers suggestions on the preparation, selection, and application process for graduate school.
Requests for copies (free of charge) may be made either by letter to the Office of Professional Training, 1155 Sixteenth St., NW, Washington, DC 20036, by e-mail to cpt@acs.org, or by phone to (800) 227-5558 ext. 4589. These brochures are also accessible via the World Wide Web: http://www.acs.org/cpt/hp.htm.
In April of this year, ChemCenter, the one-stop Web site for chemical professionals in industry, academe, and government worldwide, of the American Chemical Society went online to bring it’s members many ACS branded items at reasonable prices, with the convenience and safety of ordering through the Internet. Now the ACS Store has added a new catalog of items especially for Local Sections and Divisions to use in their recognition efforts.
Stop by ChemCenter at <<http://www.ChemCenter.org>> and check out the new Local Section and Division Awards catalog. This portion of the ACS Store features plaques, banners, certificates, past-chair pins and ACS emblems to make ordering your recognition items as easy as a few keystrokes and mouse clicks! All prices include shipping and will be delivered to your door via UPS.
For more information on ChemCenter or the ACS Store, visit the web site at http://www.ChemCenter.org or call (800) 227-5558.
Those chemistry majors receiving a baccalaureate degree and having completed a curriculum described in the ACS Guidelines may be certified to the Society for membership purposes by the head or chair of the chemistry department at the approved institution. We will be happy to send certificates to certified graduates. When you request that we send certificates, please include the student's current mailing address. If you would like to have certificates available for presentation to your certified graduates, please let us know the number of certificates you would like and the date you need them.
Send all requests to the Office of Professional Training, American Chemical Society, 1155 Sixteenth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036.
Welcome back to the CSRA Chemist. The summer seems to have flown by, but with the coming of fall, the Section is gearing up for a full season of activities. Be certain to check the calendar for an updated listing of events and meetings.
This issue is longer than usual due to the large number of articles from the National Office in D.C. Be sure to look over this information so that you can keep current with ACS programs and services that enhance the value of your membership dues.
This will be my final issue as Editor of the newsletter. The last three years have been a lot of fun for me personally. They have seen a number of changes to the newsletter that I hope everyone has enjoyed. My departure is due to a new assignment at work that will take me to the Bay Area of Northern California for the next year. While I will be maintaining the Web site during my absence, it will be too logistically difficult to maintain the newsletter from California. The new editor will be Lewis Baylor. Please wish him luck as he learns to use our layout software, Adobe PageMaker – it can be a bit challenging to have so much control over written text. Added to this will be his activities as Section Chair for the next few months. If there are any members willing to assist Lewis and the Publications Committee in preparing the newsletter, I am certain they will appreciate the help.
One of the real pleasures of using a telephone survey rather than a mail-in is the opportunity to talk to some of the Local Section Founders.
Steward O’Rear helped write the original Local Section Bylaws when the CSRA sub-section split off from the Carolina Section in 1957. The new section was very active. Stew served as Chair, and Alternate Councilor for about six years, and later as Councilor for fifteen years. During his tenure as Councilor, he was a member of an ACS advisory board, and was a member while ACS first moved from paper to computers.
Stew worked for DuPont Central Research in Wilmington, Delaware when word went out that engineers were needed for the Atomic Energy Division to design a new nuclear materials production plant for the Atomic Energy Commission in South Carolina. He came down to Aiken to help with plant construction and has been here ever since.
Stew retired from the Savannah River Plant in the 1980’s and is enjoying an active retirement. He does volunteer work for the IRS helping Senior Citizens prepare their tax returns. He tries to play golf at least three days a week, and enjoys bass fishing.
Stew is also an avid fan of bluebirds. He has put up about 200 bluebird boxes around Woodside and has enjoyed the influx of birds the boxes provide.