Midwest Regional Meeting 2011

Focus on Program

by Keith Stine, Program Chair

Saint Louis is the site for the 2011 Regional ACS meeting. This time around, the meeting is officially advertised as the “46th Midwest/39th Great Lakes Joint Regional Meeting” with the St Louis section and the Wabash, Indiana, sections as co-hosts. The meeting will be held October 19-22 at the Sheraton Westport Chalet Hotel, and is expected to bring in strong attendance and worthy presentations from both regions.

This year the theme for the meeting is “Solutions for a Changing World—Celebrating the International Year of Chemistry”. The core of any regional meeting is the program, and ours includes expanded general sessions, poster sessions, and special symposia. Special symposia include topics of interest to a range of academic chemists as well as small chemical business, the regional chemical economy, and chemical education.

Special symposia, as we know them today, are

• Pharmaceutical Chemistry (with discussion forum for industrial chemists)
• Biomolecular Structure and Function
• Natural Products Synthesis
• High Sensitivity Spectroscopy
• NMR: The Next Generation (of Techniques)
• Biological Mass Spectrometry
• Supramolecular Chemistry in Membranes
• Nanomaterials
• Plant Biotechnology—Blurring the Line between Chemistry and Biology
• Revitalizing the Heartland’s Chemical Economy
• Small Chemical Business Program, featuring three half-day sessions:
  1. True Stories of Success from Chemical Entrepreneurs
  2. What Every Small Business Owner Needs to Know about Patents, Trademarks, and Intellectual Property
  3. Small Business helps the Agriculture and Food Industry Grow
• Chemical Education Research

The range of general sessions for contributed talks and poster sessions includes analytical, biochemistry, organic, inorganic, polymer, nanoscience, physical, environmental, and chemical education. Some of these—such as polymer, environmental, and nanoscience—have not been offered at recent Midwest-only regional meetings.

The meeting will also feature a full slate of special events. The Midwest Awards banquet will be on Thursday evening, and the awards described in the article in the January Chemical Bond will be presented, along with awards to undergraduate poster session winners. There will be a diversity lunch with an invited speaker. Two ACS Career Development workshops will be offered, and the ever-popular Career Services workshops will be running.

Undergraduate programming will feature an ice cream social: a talk by Dr Doug Goff, an ice cream expert in the Department of Food Science at the University of Guelph, on ice cream-making followed by sampling and socializing. There will be a career forum, a symposium on plant chemistry, and the opportunity for undergraduate poster presenters to win awards.

To top it off, the meeting will be attended by ACS governance, who will be available to answer your questions about ACS at a breakfast event. We are expecting to have 2011 ACS President Nancy Jackson as a special guest to participate and meet attendees, present awards, and possibly present a special talk.

Please check the meeting website for further details and updates.

Recognition Night March 12th: save the date

March 12 is Recognition Night 2011. Please join us at Bartolino’s (I-44 and Hampton, inside Drury Inn), 2103 Sulphur Ave, St Louis, MO (map).

5:30 pm—Social hour with open bar (beer, wine, soft drinks)
6:30 pm—General Meeting of the Section to vote on proposed Bylaw Amendments. All St Louis Section members are eligible to vote on this issue, and your voice is needed! You need not attend the Recognition Night event to vote on the bylaw amendments.
6:45 pm—Recognition Night dinner and festivities

• Immediate Past Chair Shelley Minteer will give a short retrospective talk on her tenure as chair or on a related topic. In other words, it could be just about anything.
• The Distinguished Service Award will be presented to Lisa Balbes.
• Many 50+ year ACS members will attend, and those celebrating their 50th and 60th years of membership will be specially recognized.

Reservations are required for Recognition Night. Cost is $30 per person. To reserve your place(s) at this grand event, please return the reservation form or facsimile with choice of entrée and check by March 5 to:

Jeff Cornelius
1 Maybeck Place
Principia College
Elsah, IL 62028

or email jeff.cornelius@prin.edu

Make checks payable to St. Louis Section–ACS
Name(s) _______________________________________________________
Number attending _____ × $30 each = amount remitted $____________
Choice of entrée (number of each): steak _____ or fish _____

 You be the judge

for the St Louis Section’s Science Fair chemistry special awards!

Volunteer by contacting Sheryl J Loux at 636.237.5149 or email sjloux@gmail.com. These are the 2011 science fairs we are judging:

• Missouri Tri-county Regional Science And Engineering Fair, Saturday, February 26, 9 am–12 noon
  St Charles Community College, College Student Center (CC on campus map). Judging 9 am–noon. K-4 participation awards distributed. Judging for grades 5-8, 9-12, and honors 9-12.
  Free breakfast for judges 8–9 am.
• Illinois Junior Academy of Sciences Regional Science Fair, Saturday, March 26, 9:30 am–1 pm
  Morris University Center at SIU–Edwardsville (#8 on campus map, park in Lot E). This regional fair hosts over 200 5th–12th grade student projects from a ten county area. Meet at 9:30 am; judging from 10 am to 1 pm in divisions grades 5-8, 9-12, and honors 9-12.
• Greater St Louis Science Fair, May 4
  Greensfelder Recreation Complex, Queeny Park, 550 Weidman Rd, Ballwin, MO
  — Elementary (K-5th): participation Awards distributed to chemistry-related projects. Three people needed for about one hour each between 3 and 8 pm. No Judging involved.
  — Secondary (6th–12th): judging of chemistry-related projects 3–8:30 pm. Please come for at least 2½ hours. Free dinner for judges (5–6 pm). Judges must be present at 8:30 to pick winners.

Your participation as a judge would be greatly appreciated!

Meet the High School Chemistry Teacher of the Year

The winner of the 2010-2011 Award for High School Chemistry Teaching is Kathleen Dwyer of the Maplewood–Richmond Heights School District.

Ms Dwyer has taught chemistry in the Maplewood–Richmond Heights school district since 2001. She received awards in 2007 as Educator of the Year from the Missouri Consortium for Science Research and The Maplewood Richmond Heights School District. In 2008, she received the Pfizer Award as Science Teacher of the Year. She has also worked on scientific programs and projects in Belize and Colombia. In addition to numerous extracurricular activities in science, Kathleen has been involved in community volunteer activities such as Speakers for Science, Girl Scouts, and children’s art events and theatrical productions.

Midwest Award call for nominations

As the Midwest Award Chair for the St Louis Section of the American Chemical Society, I solicit your assistance in identifying candidates for the 2010 Midwest Award. The St Louis Section of the ACS established the ACS Midwest Award in 1944 to recognize outstanding achievements in chemistry in the Midwest region. The award is conferred annually on a scientist who has made meritorious contributions to the advancement of pure or applied chemistry, chemical education, and the profession of chemistry. These contributions must have been made during a period of residence in the geographical area defined by the territories of the Local Sections that participate in the Midwest Regional Meeting of the ACS. Nominees can be from industry, academia, government, or private practice, and need not be members of the ACS.

The 2011 ACS Midwest Regional Award will be presented at the 46th Midwest/39th Great Lakes Joint Regional ACS Meeting to be held in St Louis, Missouri, October 19-22. Both the Midwest Award Symposium and the Midwest Award Banquet will be on Thursday, October 20. It is at the banquet where the award (medallion and honorarium) is conferred and the recipient delivers the Midwest Award Lecture. A condition of the Midwest Award is that the recipient gives the Midwest Award Lecture and attends the Awards Banquet.

Nominations should include a nominating letter, two or more seconding letters, a curriculum vitae, a brief biography, documented and objective information regarding the outstanding achievements of the nominee, and if the nominee is an academician, a list of persons who have received advanced degrees under her or his direction. Please submit nine copies of all nomination materials to me at the address given below. All nomination materials must be received on or before the deadline of March 31, 2011. Additional details, including a list of previous winners, and citations for recent winners, can be found at www.stlacs.org/events/midwestaward.html.

If you have any questions, please contact me at obrien@jinx.umsl.edu. Thank you for your assistance.

Sincerely,

Dr Jim O'Brien
Chair, 2011 Midwest Award
ACS St Louis Section and
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
University of Missouri–St Louis
One University Blvd
St Louis, MO 63121-4400

Chemistry Career Day this spring

High school chemistry teachers: it’s not too early to begin planning to take your students to Chemistry Career Day. This popular annual event is sponsored by the St Louis Section–ACS and held at the University of Missouri–St Louis in the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department on Friday, May 6, from 9 am to 12 noon.

Students will be introduced to careers involving chemistry and biochemistry and will witness what some of those careers entail. The schedule includes a tour of research laboratories and instrument facilities, chemistry demonstrations, and a pizza lunch.

Please respond by Friday, April 22, to either Keith Stine (314.516.5346 or kstine@umsl.edu) or Jim O’Brien (314.516.5717 or obrien@jinx.umsl.edu). Let us know how many students will accompany you so we can set up tour groups and lunch.

It’s the Budget, 2011

The business of the January board meeting is usually a preponderance of budget discussion, which is not to say that the discussion is ponderous, although, sometimes ... yes. But we do have to adopt our allocations to officers, major committees, and other activities before we can spend any money (of course). Our new Treasurer, Vic Lewchenko, presented the budget proposal. In 2010, we were again successful at underspending against the budgeted amounts. In fact, we ran a slight surplus, even after the $5,000 transfer to the St Louis Award endowment. A similar fiscal policy stands behind the 2011 budget: allocate a slight deficit, and underspend our way to a balanced budget.

After discussion and minor adjustments in a few line items, the full budget was passed by acclamation. We’ll spare you all the gory details, but the top-line summary of income and expenditures for 2011 will be as follows (with data from 2010 for comparison):

Income	2011 Budget	2010 Budget	2010 Actual
Affiliate Dues	55	55	10.00
Corporate Donations	0	1,000	0.00
Dividends	50	50	0.00
Member Dues	15,000	15,000	15,273.50
National ACS Allotment	15,498	15,268	15,650.99
Other General Income	0	0	0.00
New Member	500	75	675.00
Total	31,103	31,448	31,609.49
Expenses	2011 Budget	2010 Budget	2010 Actual
Officers
Chair	150	150	360.00
Chair Travel	500	500	561.00
Chair-elect	600	200	585.12
Chair-elect Travel	200	500	200.20
Past Chair	0	100	0.00
Past Chair Travel	800	800	559.03
Secretary	250	255	223.51
Treasurer	255	255	228.56
Officers subtotal	2,755	2,760	2,717.42
Other expenses
Board Meeting Expenses	1,200	1,500	1,189.43
Councilor Travel	4,000	4,000	3,074.08
Laptop and software	0	0	0.00
St Louis Award Fund	5,000	5,000	5,000.00
Other expenses subtotal	10,200	10,500	9,263.51
Awards Committee	4,280	4,430	3,120.86
Education Committee	4,850	5,000	3,891.01
Professional Activities Committee	3,100	2,700	2,299.05
Program Committee	6,135	5,885	3,735.23
Publicity & Public Relations Committee	400	1,075	1,147.83
Special events	2,450	3,310	2,076.01
Total Expenses	34,170	35,660	28,250.92
Total Income	31,103	31,448	31,609.49
Surplus/(Deficit)	(3067)	(4212)	3,358.57

Women chemists travel grants up for grabs

It’s time to apply for a WCC/Eli Lilly Travel award! The deadline is February 15, 2011. The grant covers expenses, up to $1,000, for attendance at an ACS meeting between July 1 and December 31, 2011, for a woman chemist who will present at that meeting. For more information, please visit the www.acs.org/diversity or email diversity@acs.org.

Chemist? Celebrate Earth Day!

It’s getting to be that time of year when chemists celebrate Earth Day. This year’s theme, Energy—It’s Everywhere!, is bound to give you a boost. We will hold our yearly event at the St Louis Science Center on April 23, 2011, in the May Exhibition Hall from 10 am to 4 pm. Presenters and volunteers are needed to flll the Hall with energy and passion for chemistry. To participate in this public outreach event, contact Greg Wall at gwall37@msn.com or 314.435.6487. Looking forward to seeing you there.

BoB 2011 this month

The annual Battle of the Burets contest for high school chemistry students pits teams from local high schools against one another in a test of titration accuracy. This year, the contest will be held on Thursday, February 24, at St Louis Community College–Florissant Valley, starting promptly at 6 pm.

For more information on how to enter a team from your high school contact Bruce Ritts at bruce_ritts@steris.com or 314.290.4744.

Marcus Award preliminary heads-up

The 2011 Leopold Marcus Award competition will be held Wednesday, April 6 at 4 pm at Saint Louis University. The Marcus Award is sponsored by the Department of Chemistry at Saint Louis University and the St Louis Section–ACS.

The competition consists of 15-minute presentations by senior SLU chemistry majors based on their undergraduate research projects. The candidates are chosen by the faculty, and the winner is determined by vote of the professional chemists in the audience. All ACS members are invited to attend and welcome to vote. For further information, contact Bruce Kowert at kowertba@slu.edu or 314.977.2837.

Joint event with AIChE

Our local section and the local AIChE section are jointly sponsoring an event for Ch’s and ChE’s, March 9 at Pujols 5 Westport. Dr Michelle Jones of Covidien will speak on Thermochemistry Measurement. Contact Mike Gentilcore mike.gentilcore@gmail.com or visit the AiChE website for further details.

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 the section Chair 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: Feb 10
Social hour: 5:30 pm
Dinner: 6:30 pm
Business meeting: 7:15 pm
Future meetings: Mar 10, Apr 14

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.

Feb 4
Eric Munson
University of Kentucky
TBA

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.

Feb 7
James Janetka
Washington University
Structure-based Design and Synthesis of Biaryl Mannosides as Anti-virulence Therapeutics

Feb 14
Wenbin Lin
University of North Carolina
New Functional Materials via Crystal- and Nano-engineering

Feb 21
Qun (Treen) Ho
University of Central Florida
A New Platform Technology for Biomolecule Detection and Analysis Using Gold Nanoparticles Coupled with Dynamic Light Scattering

Feb 28
Xiaoqin Zou
University of Missouri–Columbia
Predicting protein interactions with application to rational drug design

Washington University

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

Feb 3
Greg Engel
University of Chicago
Imaging Excited State Dynamics: Uncovering Design Principles behind Quantum Biology

Feb 8
Michard Mabbs
Washington University
Cluster Anions as Molecular-scale Electron Beam Instruments? Photodetachment Angular Distributions as Indicators of Electron-molecule Interactions

Feb 15, 11:45 am (Biomed Eng Seminar)
Weibin Lin
University of North Carolina
New Functional Materials via Crystal- and Nano-engineering

Feb 17
Guo Zhongwu
University of Kansas
Synthesis and Biological Applications of Complex Glycoconjugates

Feb 24
Lisa Szczepura
Illinois State University
Supraoctahedral Clusters: Synthesis and Reactivity

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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