Nominate next year’s leaders

The St Louis Section–ACS requests nominations for officers (chair-elect, secretary, treasurer), directors, councilors, and alternate councilors to stand for election in the Fall of 2012. If you would like to nominate someone, including yourself, for any or all of the offices, you have three options to submit the nominations:

• Print this form, fill in your nominees, and mail it to the Secretary. The mailing address is embedded in the form. Your anonymity is assured, as long as you don’t put a return address on the envelope.
• Send an email with the subject line, STLACS 2013 Officer Nominations, to the Secretary. List your nominations and the office for which you are nominating: no more than one each for Chair-elect, Secretary, Treasurer, and Alternate Councilor; up to three for Director; and up to two for Councilor. Your identity will be known to the Secretary, but he will remove it before forwarding your nominations to the Nominating Committee.
• Use the secure online nomination form. You will remain anonymous.

The continued success of our Section, serving the needs of area chemists and mounting popular outreach programs, depends on participation of members. Please help by getting yourself or someone else (with their permission) involved.

Picnic with chemists

Remember the picnic: June 9, 12 noon to 5 pm at the Chinese Shelter in Tower Grove Park, south of Main Drive and east of Cypress Circle on this map. We’ve requested mild weather, a gentle breeze to disperse combustion products, and dry skies. A cross-section of the Section—newbies and long-timers; young and ... less young; chemists and non; adults and children; hotdoggers and hamburgerers; beer-sippers, soda-swillers, and pure-water purists—will defy the Second Law of Thermodynamics to share picnic fare, games, and conversation. No shop talk—bring the family! Just $5 per person (kids under 12 free). Please reserve by June 6th so we can plan for food and drink. Questions and reservations to:

Jeff Cornelius
1 Maybeck Place
Principia College
Elsah, IL 62028
email jeff.cornelius@prin.edu

Chemical Science and Technology Award

Call for nominations

The St Louis Chemical Science and Technology 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.

To be eligible, the nominee should have an Associate, Bachelor, or Masters Degree in chemistry or a chemistry-related curriculum. The nominee need not be a St Louis Section-ACS member to be eligible.

Letters of nomination must be received by December 20 of the year preceding the award. The nominating letter should address the criteria above. A current work address, phone number, and fax number must be provided for each nominee. Please include an email address.

To submit a nomination, contact the Chemical Science & Technology Award coordinator:

Adrienne Mazdra
314.513.4035
amazdra@stlcc.edu

Kids and Chemistry

helps Chemists Celebrate Earth Day

reported by Kids and Chemistry Coordinator Sheryl Loux

Kids and Chemistry was front-and-center at the Saint Louis Science Center for Chemists Celebrate Earth Day on April 21st. An estimated 500 people stopped at Kids and Chemistry tables to witness demonstrations and get hands-on with discovery activities.

Demonstrators and kids had a great time discovering which foods contain starches and that some laundry detergents have enzymes added to break down messy meals. All enjoyed the crushing cans demonstration and many viewed the DNA models on display.

Pegah Jalili and Sheryl Loux, while Experimenting with Enzymes, explain how scientists record their procedure and results.

Smitten with science, Brooklynn Staples Experiments with Enzymes at Kids and Chemistry.

Ryan Cantwell and Don Sartor demonstrate Crushing Cans with air.

Gus Justin (holding his son) and Chris Glass help Nathan Staples search for Starch in Foods.

The St Louis Section loses two “good guys”

Two very long-time and very active members of the Section died on March 31, 2012. We will miss them.

Samir El-Antably served as Chair of the St Louis Section–ACS in 1982, and since then had been the go-to guy for arranging any sort of banquet or special event. His side interest in cooking naturally led him to knowledge of the local restaurant scene, and he used that knowledge to the Section’s benefit for almost 30 years.

Samir emigrated from Egypt to continue his education, earning his PhD at the University of Minnesota, and serving as a post-doc research associate at the University of Kansas. He settled in St Louis, working as a research chemist for Mallinckrodt, and in 1982 founded his company, Camela Medical Equipment.

He always liked to stay active. Section members were accustomed to seeing him arrive for Board meetings in his tennis duds, fresh from an earlier match, all smiles, win or lose.

Samir’s obituary was published in the St Louis Post-Dispatch.

Marie Sherman was a fixture on the chemistry and ACS scene in St Louis for over 60 years. She launched her career at Monsanto during World War II. In the 1960s, she earned her Masters degree and found her true vocation in education. Marie taught at Ursuline Academy from 1967 until her retirement in January, 2012.

In addition to teaching and mentoring generations of Ursuline students, Marie also did dozens of years of outreach for our Section; her Chemistry is pHun presentations reached thousands of elementary students. Marie was one of the founders of the Polymer Ambassadors; her students were perennial award winners at Science Fairs and the JSEHS (Junior Science, Engineering and Humanities Symposium).

Marie’s obituary, printed in the Post-Dispatch, can be seen here.

Career Management, Parte Douze (12)

The 12th in the series Resources for Career Management for Chemists in a Challenging Market, subtitled “Career Paths and Skills”, was presented on April 19 in Washington University’s McMillen Laboratory Sciences Room 311.

After dinner, our speakers regaled us with information, insights, and inspiration. First, Sean Dingman, New Business Development Manager at Sigma-Aldrich, spoke on Midcareer in Business: Reflections and Trajectory, describing his planned vs actual career path, and the versatility a career chemist needs to be successful.

Then Keith Hampton, Sr Account Recruiter, and Keith Tope, Sr Leader, at Lab Support, spoke on Interview Skills. Keith Hampton started off explaining keys to having a good interview, including preparation and starting the interview before you enter the building. Keith Tope closed with a wake-up call on skills needed to find a job in today’s market.

After the speakers were finished, the floor was opened for questions. Many of the attendees then stuck around to network and talk to the speakers. There were 32 people in attendance.

The three speakers take questions after the formal presentations (l to r): Keith Hampton from Lab Support, Sean Dingman from Sigma-Aldrich, and Keith Tope from Lab Support.

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: May 10
Social hour: 5:30 pm
Dinner: 6:30 pm
Business meeting: 7:15 pm
Future meetings: Jun 9 (picnic—no business meeting); Sep 13; Oct 11

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, rmccull2@slu.edu.

May 4
Edward Nikonowicz
Rice University
Structural Studies of the T box Riboswitch and its tRNA Ligands

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.

At press time, no seminars were scheduled for this month

Washington University

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

May 3
Linda Hsieh-Wilson
California Institute of Technology
TBA

May 10
Weissman Lecture: Charles P Slichter
University of Illinois
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, a Scientific Evergreen

May 11
100th Weissman Birthday Symposium (details)

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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