St Louis ACS to Host MWRM2011

Solutions for a Changing World: Celebrating the International Year of Chemistry

46th Midwest/39th Great Lakes Joint Regional ACS Meeting
October 19-22, 2011
Saint Louis, MO
Sheraton Chalet, Westport Plaza

The St Louis Section is hosting the 2011 Regional Meeting, and I invite each of you to attend. One unusual feature this year is that this will be a joint meeting with the Great Lakes Region. We expect over 1,000 chemists, chemical engineers, chemistry students, and chemistry teachers!

In addition to our regular poster and oral presentations, we have 15 special symposia, with themes ranging from Small Chemical Business to Pharmaceutical Chemistry, from Natural Products to Nanomaterials, from Plant Biotechnology to New Advances in NMR, and much more.

We are also excited to announce that ACS President Dr Nancy Jackson will attend. We will have several planned activities to highlight her presence, including a Presidential Address.

Please visit and bookmark the meeting website, www.mwrm2011.org. This website includes a list of the symposia, as well as information about the exposition and sponsorship opportunities. We will begin accepting abstracts and meeting registrations around June. But don't wait: block out the dates, October 19-22, before you forget.

Please look for updates each month on the meeting website and in the Chemical Bond. We look forward to seeing you in October!

Leah O'Brien, General Chair

Forensics, Chemistry, & DNA: Mystery Solved

Girl Scout Program Sponsored by the St Louis ACS Section

The ACS-St Louis Section sponsored a program called Forensics, Chemistry, & DNA: Mystery Solved on Saturday, November 6. Eighteen middle-school–aged girls attended the program at Saint Louis University from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Upon completion of this program along with an outreach project, the girls will meet the requirements for the Forensics Interest Project and receive a badge.

Drs Pat Burrell-Standley and Alexa Serfis ran the program, with assistance from the Saint Louis University Chemistry Club students. Activities focused on forensic science and chemical methods to characterize physical evidence. Activities included ice breakers, separation of objects based on physical characteristics; fingerprinting; discussion of DNA properties; and a laboratory experiment in which the girls extracted DNA from strawberries. The take-home outreach project involved using cabbage juice as an acid-base indicator. Each girl will take this project to a group of younger students and analyze the acid-base properties of common household items.

Next YCC Career event: sneak preview

The very popular speaker series sponsored by the Younger Chemists Committee continues on December 8th with Resources for Career Management for Chemists in a Challenging Market VI, 6–8 pm, in 311 McMillen (Chemistry), Danforth Campus, Washington University

Speakers:

• Betsy Frick, Independent Consultant, Plain Language Solutions, Writing Proposals Better, Faster, Easier
• Annette Kirk, Pipeline/Seed Treatment Lead Regulatory Affairs, and Tann Schafer, Team Lead, State Regulatory Affairs, Chemistry Regulatory Affairs, Monsanto, Regulatory Affairs as a Career Path

The event will feature:

• Networking
• Expert advice
• Q&A
• Pizza/soda

The cost to attend is $3 (cash) to be paid at the event.

If others in your organization may be interested in this event, please post the flyer.

RSVP by Tuesday, December 7th, to Eva Stastna, stastnae@wustl.edu. A parking pass and directions will be sent to those who RSVP.

Come to the Continuity Dinner

There is still time to reserve your place at the table for Continuity 2010 ... that is, if you are reading this very early in the month. Note that there will be a General Meeting of the Section at the start of business. If you can’t or don’t want to attend the dinner, you can still help form the quorum we need to vote on the bylaw amendments. No cost and no reservation required to attend just the General Meeting or the Board Meeting, or both!

Every December, the St Louis Section holds a fancier than usual board meeting to celebrate the year’s achievements, recognize certain members, announce the Distinguished Service Award (conferred in March), and pass the gavel to the new slate of section officers. There is also the Henry Godt Memorial Lecture, recapping the past year, which is given by a surprise speaker.

At the top of the agenda this year, there will also be a brief General Meeting of the Section to vote on amendments to the Section Bylaws. The amendments are intended to (a) bring the objects of the Section in conformity with those of the Society and the Section’s Articles of Incorporation, (b) modify eligibility requirements for recipients of the Midwest Award, (c) modify dates and procedures to conform with current practice, and (d) clarify language.

The amendments will be considered en bloc. A 2⁄3 majority vote of the members present and voting is required for adoption. The Bylaws with proposed changes marked up are posted on the website. Please review prior to the meeting, so you are prepared to cast an informed vote.

Please join us: Thursday, December 9, 2010
Glen Echo Country Club, 3401 Lucas and Hunt Rd, St. Louis, MO 63121
5:30 pm social hour with open bar (beer, wine, soft drinks)
6:30 pm dinner and meeting

Reservations required by December 1st to:

Dr. Shelley Minteer
Department of Chemistry
Saint Louis University
3501 Laclede Ave
St Louis, MO 63103
phone: (314) 977-3624

Make checks payable to St. Louis Section–ACS
Name(s) _______________________________________________________
Number attending _____ × $35 each = amount remitted $____________
Choice of entrée (number of each): fish _____ or steak _____

Jai Nagarkatti, Sigma-Aldrich CEO (1947-2010)

Jai Nagarkatti, CEO of Sigma-Aldrich Corporation, died quite unexpectedly of an apparent heart attack on November 13. He had worked for Aldrich Chemical Company and Sigma-Aldrich Corporation his whole professional life, starting as a bench chemist in 1976 and assuming the CEO position in 2006.

Sigma-Aldrich has posted a memorial notice describing Jai’s role in the company and the community. Jai was a good friend to us here in the local ACS section and to the whole St Louis chemistry community.

Editor’s note: I am a Sigma-Aldrich retiree. Back in 1991, I passed through Milwaukee with my wife and younger son on a circuit of college visits. We dropped in at the Aldrich Chemical offices so I could say hello to some colleagues, and with the hope of brief tour for the family. Jai, then president of Aldrich, welcomed us and showed us around. He was unforgettably gracious.

Holiday message from the editor

Stay warm, stay fulfilled and happy this holiday season. Enjoy friends and family, and days off. And if you can find the time, do something to make the world a better place.

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). 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 Shelley Minteer, phone 314-977-3624 or email minteers@slu.edu at least a week in advance. Usual cost of the dinner is $24 ($12 for post-docs and unemployed members). Members wishing to become active in section activities are welcomed for their first dinner as guests of the section.

Date: Dec 9
Event: Continuity Dinner with special year-end events, a General Meeting of the Section, and regular Board of Directors meeting
Social hour: 5:30 pm
Dinner: 6:30 pm
Business meeting: 7:15 pm
Future meetings: Jan 13, Feb 10

Saint Louis University

Seminars are on Fridays at 12 noon in Carlo Auditorium, Tegeler Hall, unless noted otherwise. Refreshments follow. For more information, contact Dana Baum, dbaum1@slu.edu.

At publication time, there were no seminars posted for December.

University of Missouri–St Louis

Mondays at 4 pm in 451 Benton Hall, unless otherwise specified. Refreshments 15 minutes prior to seminar time. For more information, contact the Chemistry Department, 314.516.5311.

Dec 6
David Bernlohr
University of Minnesota
Obesity, Type 2 Diabetes and Inflammation

Washington University

Seminars are in McMillen 311 at 4 pm unless otherwise noted. For information, contact: Liviu Mirica, mirica@wustl.edu.

Dec 7
Albert Bowers
Harvard University
Conformational Evolution in Thiazole-Containing Natural Products: Largazole, and the Thiocillins

Dec 14
Laila Dafik
Stanford University
TBA

Dec 21
Qiu Wang
Harvard University
TBA

About the Chemical Bond

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 the bond.remind listserv. You can also follow the link to “Manage bond.remind options” from the home page at www.stlacs.org.

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Editor	Eric Ressner	314.962.6415 editor@stlacs.org
Assistant Editor & Advertising Manager	Sue Saum	314.513.4808 ssaum@stlcc.edu
Business Manager	Donna Friedman	314.513.4388 dfriedman@stlcc.edu