Chemical Bond — November 2016

Vol. 67, No. 9, November 2016

Continuity Dinner 2016

The annual Continuity Dinner this year will be a combined Board of Directors meeting (where non-Board members have voice but no vote) and a general meeting of the Section (where all Section members have a vote, including a vote on the revised bylaws).

The ACS St. Louis Section Board of Directors worked diligently over the past several months to make revisions to the bylaws. These bylaw revisions have been approved both by the ACS St. Louis Section Board of Directors and ACS National Constitution and Bylaws committee. There will be a vote by the membership to approve the bylaw revisions at the Continuity Dinner. Please address any comments, queries, or concerns about the bylaws to Donna Friedman.

What: ACS St. Louis Section Continuity Dinner
When: Thursday, December 8, 2016 at 7:00 PM
Where: Bristol Seafood Grill (in the Creve Coeur Room)
11801 Olive Blvd,
Creve Coeur, MO 63141

The charge will be $28 per attendee with a cash bar.

RSVP by Monday, November 21st to Section Chair Joe Ackerman at ackerman@wustl.edu.

2016 St. Louis Award Banquet

The 2016 St. Louis Award Banquet was held on October 15 at the Glen Echo Country Club. There were 50 in attendance including 12 members of the research group of the honoree, Professor Liviu Mirica of Washington University. Professor Mirica was accompanied by his wife Liudmila Mirica, a financial manager at Siteman Cancer Center at Washington University School of Medicine, and their four-year-old son, Max.

Section Chair Joe Ackermann opened the formal proceedings by welcoming those in attendance and telling some very long jokes, which seemed to require insider knowledge. He went on to welcome everyone to the 46th St. Louis Award Banquet, described some of the recent activities and successes of the Section. He then acknowledged the presence of the honoree, Dr. Mirica, and is family, along with the Symposium Speakers, Section Officers present and former St. Louis Award winners. Of interest was that the latter spanned 40 years from Prof. Jake Schaefer, who was at Monsanto when he won the award in 1977 to Prof. Sophia Hayes, form Washington University, who won the award in 2015. Special mention was made of Dr. William Abraham from Monsanto: the company helped establish the award and which has provided excellent support over the years. Those present then consumed an excellent meal which included an entrée of tenderloin Oscar: beef tenderloin topped with crabmeat, asparagus and a béarnaise sauce.

After dinner Dr. Ackerman introduced William Buhro, Washington University Chemistry Department chair, who in turn introduced Dr. Mirica, the winner of the 2016 St. Louis Award of the St. Louis Section.

Dr. Mirica was presented with a plaque and a check for $1,500, and he made a presentation titled ″Metals on the Brain″. The talk described his work on the interaction of transition metal ions involving copper, iron, and zinc with Aβ peptides and the study of the role of these metal ions in Aβ oligomerization and amyloid plaque which is considered to be the cause of Alzheimer’s Disease. The presentation was general and quite brief and was able to hold the attention of all those present. A very successful evening was enjoyed by all.

Saint Louis Chemical Science & Technology Award – call for nominations

Nominate a member of your team for the Saint Louis Chemical Science & Technology Award. This award is presented to a chemist in the St. Louis area who has demonstrated a high degree of professionalism and scientific contribution. Criteria used to judge the award include technical proficiency, presentations, coaching/teamwork, and additional professional activities. The award will consist of a plaque, a $500 honorarium, and dinner for the awardee and a guest at the annual Recognition Night. The Due date is January 1 2017.

You can find all the details on eligibility, nominating a candidate, and recent winners right here. To submit a nomination, email the Chemical Science and Technology Award Coordinator David Rhee at david.wonjun.rhee@monsanto.com or phone 314.694.4874.

2016 STLACS Undergraduate Research Symposium

The 2016 ACS-St. Louis Section Undergraduate Research Symposium will be held Friday November 4th from 2:30-5:00 p.m. in the Science Laboratory West building at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. All undergraduate students participating in chemistry research are encouraged to present a poster. Being an ACS member is not required. Invitation Flyer 2016

Last year there were 18 participants from four area universities. The award recipients were Dallas Wright (SIUE, 2nd place), Andrew McLaughlin (SLU, 1st place), Katlyn Hausman (SIUE, 3rd place), Charlene Yu (SIUE, 4th place).

This year the symposium is earlier in the academic year. If you are sending students to the Midwestern Regional meeting in Manhattan, KS… send them here too! If you are sending students to the East Central Illinois Undergraduate Research Conference… send them here too! If your students aren’t ready for those venues, but you want to give them a taste of presenting so that they are motivated for spring showcases… send them!

This should be a relatively low stress (and low cost) opportunity to mingle with folks from a range of St. Louis area universities, find out what other folks are doing, and showcase student research. Posters from area Student Chapters are also invited – let’s get some connection between St. Louis ACS Student Members earlier in the school year!

2016 ACS symposium application forms are available at the STLACS website; requests or questions can be sent to the organizer, Susan Wiediger, swiedig@siue.edu.

National Chemistry Week (and more) celebrated

Report from Reni Joseph
Kids and Chemistry co-ordinator

ACS kids division celebrated National Chemistry Week at the Science Center on Thursday, October 27. We participated in the science SPOOKTACULAR event hosted by the Saint Louis Science Center. The hands-on activity was entitled “Making a clear liquid change color, is it magic or science?”

Most liquid household goods are colorless. Despite being colorless they have individual properties. By using cabbage juice as an indicator we showed how various household products though colorless have acidic and basic properties. By adding cabbage juice it underwent a color reaction as demonstrated in the various pictures below. The hands-on activity drew a large crowd of kids and parents. About 150 children had an opportunity to perform the experiment while learning about acids and bases in the process. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the volunteers, Trang Truong, Michael Barnes-Flaspoler, and Susan Nguyen who volunteered their time from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm.

ACS kids division also participated in the Fright Fest event at Beaumont Scout Reservation on October 8. Thanks to Lisa Balbes for organizing this event. There were close to 1,000 kids who performed the hands-on slime activity. Thanks to the volunteers, Trang Truong, Kathyrn Holland, Michael Barnes-Flaspoler, Susan Nguyen and Eva Cepele for their hard work in making the Fright Fest event a success.

Board of Directors

St Louis Section–ACS Board of Directors meets the second Thursday of each month, usually at the Glen Echo Country Club (map and driving directions). Meetings are open to all members, and all are encouraged to attend. Elected officers and chairs of major committees vote on questions put to the Board; others in attendance have voice but no vote.

If you want to attend for dinner, please contact the section Chair at least a week in advance. Usual cost of the dinner is $21 ($12 for post-docs and unemployed members). Bar service and dessert are optional extras. Members wishing to become active in section activities are welcomed for their first dinner as guests of the section.

Date: Thursday, December 8th, 2016. Continuity Dinner – see article above for details.

Future meetings: Jan. 12,2017; Feb. 9, 2017

Saint Louis University

Seminars are generally on Fridays at 12 noon in Carlo Auditorium, Tegeler Hall, unless noted otherwise. Refreshments follow. For the most up-to-date information, refer to the department’s seminar page or contact Brent Znosko, znoskob@slu.edu.

University of Missouri–St Louis

Mondays at 4 pm in 451 Benton Hall, unless otherwise specified. Refreshments 15 minutes prior to seminar time. For timely information on visiting seminar speakers, contact the Chemistry Department, 314.516.5311, or visit the seminar schedule. The department has additional seminar series which are also accessible from this page.

Washington University

Seminars are in McMillen 311 at 4 pm unless otherwise noted. For information, consult the departmental events page. Related seminars, including endowed seminar series and the WU med school biochemistry series, are linked here as well.

The Chemical Bond is published at www.stlacs.org January through May and September through December by the St Louis Section–American Chemical Society. If you would like to receive email notification when each issue is posted, you can subscribe to our email list and join the “Chemical Bond reminders” group.

Correspondence, letters to the editor, etc., should be emailed to editor@stlacs.org or mailed ℅ St Louis Section–ACS, PO Box 410192, Saint Louis, MO 63141-0192 Copyright © 2015 American Chemical Society and the St Louis Section–ACS
Editor	Margaret Allen	editor@stlacs.org
Associate Editor	Eric Ressner	314.962.6415 editor@stlacs.org
Assistant Editor & Advertising Manager	Keith Stine	314.516.5346 advmgr@stlacs.org
Business Manager	Donna Friedman	314.513.4388 bizmgr@stlacs.org