You can be a Science Fair judge!

for the St Louis Section’s Science Fair awards

Volunteer for any or all of these opportunities by contacting Sheryl J Loux at 636.237.5149 or email sjloux@gmail.com. Time is getting short for the MO Tri-county Fair on Feb 25, so if you can make it, don’t wait to let Sheryl know.

• Missouri Tri-county Regional Science And Engineering Fair, Saturday, February 25
  St Charles Community College, College Student Center. 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 17
  Morris University Center at SIU–Edwardsville (#8 on campus map, park in Lot E). This regional fair hosts over 200 5th through 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.
  Light judges’ buffet available.
• Greater St Louis Elementary and Secondary Science Fairs, Wednesday, May 2
  Greensfelder Recreation Complex, Queeny Park, Weidman Rd, Ballwin, MO
  — Elementary (K-5): Participation Awards distributed to chemistry-related projects. Three people needed for about one hour each between 3 and 8 pm. No Judging involved.
  — Secondary (6-12): Judging of chemistry-related projects 3–8:30 pm. Please volunteer for at least 2½ hours. Judges must be present at 8:30 to pick winners.
  Free dinner for judges (5–6 pm).

Your participation as a judge would be greatly appreciated!

Sharpen your #2s for the High School Chemistry Contest

The High School Chemistry Contest will be administered in Room 104 Stadler Hall on the campus of University of Misssouri–St Louis on Saturday, March 10, from 9 to 11:30 am. For students who cannot participate on that date, the alternate is March 9, from 4 to 6:30 pm.

Students compete in two divisions, Advanced and Regular. The Regular Division is for students taking their first year of chemistry, other than advanced placement; the Advanced Division is for all others. The Advanced Division exam is used to determine qualifiers for the National Chemistry Olympiad Exam given in April.

The exams for both levels consist of a multiple-choice section with a time control of 110 minutes and a tie-breaker section with a 30-minute limit. Winning students and their teachers will be feted at Awards Night (usually in April, but date to be determined).

Teachers must submit a registration form for their students who wish to compete. The deadline for registration is February 17. For complete rules and registration forms, contact the High School Chemistry Contest coordinator, Myron Reese, at mreese@mckendree.edu.

Also ... Proctors Needed!

If you can serve as a proctor for either the Friday or Saturday test administration, please contact the same Myron Reese, mreese@mckendree.edu.

... and sharpen your buret tip for BoB

The St Louis Section–ACS and St Louis Community College–Florissant Valley are pleased to announce the 2012 Battle of the Burets. This contest of titration speed and accuracy for high school chemistry students matches teams from local high schools against each other for the title of king/queen of the lab.

The two-round elimination tourney will be held on Wednesday, February 29, at St Louis Community College–Florissant Valley, beginning promptly at 6 pm.

Teachers must register their students to compete. For more information on how to enter a team from your high school, contact Bruce Ritts, 314.290.4744 or bruce_ritts@steris.com.

Budget numbers for 2012

As is the case every year, the January board meeting was devoted primarily to discussion of budget items for the 2012 year of governance, service, and outreach activities. As is almost never the case, this January meeting actually ended early. Kudos to the committee chairs for preparing budget requests that were reasonable and justifiable, and to the Steering Committee for putting it all together into an easily pondered and accepted package.

And if you are new to perusing this annual Bond item, note that we always budget a modest deficit, but almost always underspend in enough lines to break even or better. There is enough history of this happening that the practice is considered safe by the highly risk-averse financial moguls in the Section.

With but a few minor adjustments, 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 2012 will be as follows (with data from 2011 for comparison):

Income	2012 Budget	2011 Budget	2011 Actual
Affiliate Dues	55	55	10.00
Corporate Donations	0	0	0.00
Dividends	50	50	0.00
Member Dues	15,000	15,000	14,552.00
National ACS Allotment	15,373	15,498	15,498.00
Other General Income	0	0	0.00
New Member	500	500	480.00
Total income	30,978	31,103	30,540.00
Expenses	2012 Budget	2011 Budget	2011 Actual
Officers
Chair	280	150	10.00
Chair Travel	500	500	0.00
Chair-elect	570	600	555.60
Chair-elect Travel	270	200	329.40
Past Chair	0	100	0.00
Past Chair Travel	800	800	646.42
Secretary	600	250	62.99
Treasurer	255	255	358.20
Officers subtotal	3,275	2,755	1,962.61
Other expenses
Board Meeting Expenses	1,200	1,200	1,718.83
Councilor’ Travel	4,000	4,000	3,791.35
Laptop and software	0	0	0.00
Other expenses subtotal	5,200	5,200	5,510.18
Awards Committee	13,450	12,800	6,837.29
Education Committee	3,950	4,250	3,413.89
Professional Activities Committee	3,975	3,100	2,462.45
Program Committee	3,635	4,335	1,547.97
Publicity & Public Relations Committee	150	400	(2,182.08)
Special events	4,184	1,900	(2,532.33)
Total expenses	37,819	34,740	17,019.98
Surplus/(Deficit)	(6,841)	(3,637)	13,520.02

Notes:

• The cost of the all-member postal mailing in October is now borne by the Secretary, where it was previously booked against the Chemical Bond. This explains the increase in the Secretary’s budget over last year.
• The income from advertising on the website and in the Chemical Bond is booked as a negative expense. Since it more than offsets the actual expenses of the Publicity & Public Relations Committee, the actual 2011 spending is negative. However, we budget assuming that income is uncertain.

Recognition Night March 10th: reserve now

March 10 is Recognition Night 2012. Please join us at CJ Muggs, 101 W Lockwood, Webster Groves, MO (map).

5:30 pm—Social hour with open bar (beer, wine, soft drinks)
6:30 pm—Recognition Night dinner and festivities

• Immediate Past Chair Jeff Cornelius will give a short retrospective talk on his 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 Alexa Serfis.
• 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 $25 per person. To reserve your place(s) at this grand event, please return the reservation form or a facsimile with choice of entrée and check by March 5 to:

Eric A Bruton
Jost Chemical
8150 Lackland Rd
St Louis, MO 63114

or email eric.bruton@gmail.com

Make checks payable to St Louis Section–ACS
Name(s) _______________________________________________________
Number attending _____ × $25 each = amount remitted $____________
Choice of entrée (number of each): steak _____ or fish _____

No High School Chemistry Teacher-of-this-Year

The High School Chemistry Teacher-of-the-Year is usually announced in the February Chemical Bond. To those who are here to find out who won, we are sorry to have to announce that the St Louis Section does not have a High School Chemistry Teacher-of-the-Year for 2012. Despite numerous calls for nominees and extended nomination deadlines, the field of nominees was too small to justify a selection.

If you know an outstanding teacher, but did not nominate him or her—maybe because you thought the chances to win would be too small or the nomination process too onerous—it’s just not so. When the call for 2013 nominees appears here next fall, remember this. The St Louis Section territory of the city of Saint Louis and 13 surrounding counties in Missouri and Illinois should be a hotbed of excellent high school teaching. And the streamlined on-line nomination process should take less than an hour to complete.

Nominations are accepted from fellow teachers, administrators, and parents. As a chemist (and a parent?), you are in a unique position to recognize an excellent teacher when your child has one. Don’t let the opportunity to recognize that excellence pass. Nominate!

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 9
Social hour: 5:30 pm
Dinner: 6:30 pm
Business meeting: 7:15 pm
Future meetings: Mar 8, Apr 12

Saint Louis University

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

Feb 3
Zachary Schultz
Notre Dame University
Nanostructures for label-free detection and imaging

Feb 10
Adrian Birzu
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Romania
Nonlinear dynamics in spatially extended electrochemical systems

Feb 17
David Wisbey
Saint Louis University Physics Department
New materials for quantum computing

Feb 24
Mikhail Berezin
Washington University
Near-infrared synthetic dyes for medical imaging

Mar 2
Marvin Meyers
Saint Louis University Center for World Health Medicine
Discovery of novel antimalarial agents

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 6
Rory Waterman
University of Vermont
Zirconium mediated bond formation: Molecules, materials, and methods

Feb 13
George Christou
University of Florida
Manganese carboxylate chemistry: From molecules as nanoscale magnets to models of the photosynthetic water oxidation center

Feb 20
Michael Fried
University of Kentucky College of Medicine
Substrate interactions of a human DNA alkyltransferase

Feb 27
Georgii Nikonov
Brock University
Chemoselective catalytic reduction of nitriles, pyridines, and acyl chlorides (How to turn a curiosity into catalysis)

Mar 5
Colleen Scott
Southern Illinois University-Carbondale
TBA

Washington University

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

Feb 2, 4pm; Feb 3, 11 am
Marcus Lecture
Paul Wender
Stanford University
At publication time, the titles of Dr Wender’s Marcus Lecture presentations were not available. But his research is in the areas of organic synthesis and mechanistic studies; his research group is affiliated with Stanford’s Molecular and Genetic Medicine program.

Feb 9
Gabriel Lobez
Duke University
Active polymer interfaces and particles for control of biointeractions and bioanalytical applications

Feb 16
Scott Kroeker
University of Manitoba
NMR studies of nuclear waste materials: Cutting through compositional and morphological complexity

Feb 23
Renee Jiji
University of Missouri–Columbia
Studies of transmembrane protein structure and lipid-mediated protein structural transitions using deep-UV resonance raman spectroscopy

Mar 1
Joshua Maurer
Washington University
To Be Announced

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 advmgr@stlacs.org
Business Manager	Donna Friedman	314.513.4388 bizmgr@stlacs.org