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Next Meeting

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Women Chemists

WCC Non-Traditional Career Event on Friday, September 18

On Friday, September 18, 2015, the Women Chemist Committee of the ACS Chicago Section will participate in a pre-dinner student poster session held at Loyola University in Chicago before the monthly meeting.  Chemists with non-traditional careers will talk to students and dinner attendees about non-traditional chemistry career paths and the educational requirements needed. The setting will be casual and will be in the same area as the posters. Come and join us to learn about what working chemists can do with their chemistry degrees.  If you have an interesting career, let us know beforehand, and we would be pleased to have you join us and talk about it.  If you plan on being a chemist, and you think that being a professor and a bench chemist are your only options, think again, and join us for an interesting evening! 

For more information, contact Margaret Levenberg at [email protected] or Ilana Lemberger.

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Scholarship Winners

2015 Fifty-Fifth Annual Chicago Section Scholarship Exam in Chemistry

SPONSOR:       Chicago Section, American Chemical Society: High School Education Committee
HELD AT:        North Central College on May 23, 2015
AWARDS:        Funds are contributed by the chemical industry and by individuals.
FOR TEACHERS:  Teachers of prize-winning students will receive $100 and a complementary membership to the American Association of Chemistry Teachers (AACT).

*To the highest scoring female in the examination.  This award honors Marie Lishka, who was an active Chicago Section member for many years.  Additional funding for the Lishka award was provided in memory of Stan Drigot.

**To the highest-scoring Chicago Public High School Student. His sister, Rachel, established this award in 1972 in memory of Marshall S. Smoler.  Mr. Smoler was for many years a chemistry teacher in the Chicago public schools.

*** To the highest scoring Chicago High School student.  Mr. Bernard Schaar’s widow established this award in memory of Mr. Bernard Schaar, long active in Chicago Section, American Chemical Society and the Chicago Chemist’s Club.

HONORABLE MENTIONS LISTED IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER

(These students were the next highest performers)

A total of 105 students took the 2015 ACS Scholarship exam.  Each chemistry teacher could nominate two students.

Awards will be given to students at the ACS Education Night, September 18^th at Loyola University.  Award winners and their teachers will be contacted by the Chicago ACS office. All teachers and students are invited and encouraged to attend the ACS Education Night meeting.   Teachers who attend the ACS Education Night meeting will receive CPDU credits. Teachers do not have to be ACS members to attend.  Register online at http://membership.acs.org/C/Chicago/meetings/calendaracs.html#next  

A special thank you to Dr. Paul Brandt, Chemistry Professor at North Central College, for his hard work and willingness to author the exam. Additional thanks go to those who helped to proctor the exam:

Dr. Jeffrey Jankowski

Dr. Rebecca Sanders

Mirachelle Anselmo

Silvia Lopez

Daniella Martinez

Jack Weinberg

FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTORS TO THE SCHOLARSHIP EXAM ARE: ACS Chicago Section, Stan Drigot, Dr. Henry M. Walton, Chicago Chemists’ Club, and Rachel Smoler. 

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Award Winner

Bryce Cai, Chemistry Olympiad Silver Medalist

Bryce Cai, a student at Barrington HS has won a Silver Medal at the prestigious International Chemistry Olympiad held in Baku, Azerbaijan July 20-29, 2015. The U.S. National Chemistry Olympiad (USNCO) program is a chemistry competition for high school students. The purpose of the competition is to stimulate young people to achieve excellence in chemistry.

There is very stiff competition to be on the US team for the International Olympiad. First, the students must take a local qualifying exam that is administered nationwide in March. The Chicago Section had 91 students, nominated by their chemistry teachers from 33 high schools, take the local Chemistry Olympiad exam.  Then in April, a selection of the highest scoring students in each local exam take a three part second exam that includes: multiple choice questions; free response questions; and two laboratory experiments. The answer sheets are sent to a central facility for careful and consistent grading.  The top 20 scorers from the ~1000 students taking the national exam then go to a 15 day ‘USNCO study camp’ held at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado. During the camp the candidates went through training, with an emphasis on organic chemistry, through a series of lectures, problem-solving exercises, lab work and testing.  The top four students from that camp were selected to represent the US in the International competition which is held in a different country every year. The American Chemical Society, founded in 1876 and chartered by Congress, is a nonprofit scientific and educational institution that has sponsored the program since 1984.

This year, the US Team competed against 286 students from 74 countries. Bryce, an outstanding senior at Barrington who scored a perfect 36 on the ACT this past fall, took both levels of US exams in 2014 and attended the Study Camp.  This year he again was chosen for Study Camp and for the US team. We congratulate Bryce, his family, and his High School Chemistry teacher Polly Foley.

Cai will attend Stanford University and is considering studying chemistry.

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Primary Education

CHEMISTRY MENTORS NEEDED IMMEDIATELY FOR BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA CHEMISTRY MERIT BADGE PROGRAM

 The Chicago Section of the American Chemical Society is currently seeking volunteers for its Boy Scout of America’s Chemistry Merit Badge program. We need individuals to join us for lunch (noon to 1 p.m.) on either Saturday, September 26 at North Central College in Naperville; Saturday, October 10 at Oakton Community College in Des Plaines; and Saturday, October 17 at College of Lake County in Grayslake to discuss their chemistry career. Volunteers can be either active or retired chemists or chemical engineers in the industrial, government or academic sectors or be a graduate student. Scouts will be divided into small groups of 4 to 5 scouts per table during lunch. Volunteers are asked to describe their career and general information about careers in chemistry including educational requirements. Lunch consisting of cheese pizza, dessert and beverage will be provided. We are seeking at least ten volunteers at each location. Additional information about each location will be sent to volunteers that sign up for this activity. Please contact Fran Kravitz immediately at [email protected] if you are available to help with this very valuable educational Chicago Section program. We need to make sure that we have enough volunteers at each location. Please put “BSA Chemistry Merit Badge Program” on the subject line.

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Education Focus

CHEMED 2015

Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw Georgia was the host site for CHEMED 2015.  The biennial conference brought together educators from across North America and a few from other reaches around the world.  Over 400 participants spent five days from July 28 to August 1 exchanging ideas, doing hands-on laboratories and chemical demonstrations.  Aaron Sams, Saint Vincent College) gave the Opening Ceremony Plenary Talk on the flipped classroom.  Ramsey Musallam, the Reg Friesen lecturer from Sacred Heart Cathedral in San Francisco, gave a spirited talk on technology in the classroom.  The author of the Cartoon Guide to Chemistry, Larry Gonick, lightened things up with his ideas on getting chemistry across to a lay audience and Donna Nelson, President-elect of the ACS closed out the conference detailing her experience on joining the Breaking Bad writing team as the science advisor for the Emmy-award winning TV series.  The Mole Breakfast, The Mole Run, So You Think You Can Demo, and an excursion to Stone Mountain were other fun events that were well attended during the week.  Hopefully you can attend the conference in 2017.  Look for it to be in the Chicago Section in 2019!

- Paul Brandt

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Volunteer Opportunities

Become a Science Coach

The ACS has a program called Science Coaches, in which professional chemists (even those in non-traditional roles) find a K-12 science teacher to assist them with teaching chemistry in their classrooms. The teacher and the science coach sign up together, with the science coach agreeing to help the teacher at least 6 times a year, and the teacher receives $500 for their classroom. While there are a few stipulations, the program is very easy to sign up for and very beneficial. Please visit the following site:  http://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/outreach/science-coaches.html

If you are interested in having a coach for your classroom, please contact Paul Brandt at [email protected].  

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Historical Feature

The Chemical Bulletin Archives Online: 1914-1960

You may be interested in the online version of the Chemical Bulletin (ACS Chicago Section) from 1914-1960 which is available and searchable, from the Northwestern University Library. In addition to having information on activities in the Chicago Section and chemists and chemistry in that area, for many years the Chemical Bulletin also carried news and information from the Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Ames, St. Louis, Kansas City, Louisville, and many other sections of the ACS. The various sections provided news of activities; personal and professional information on staff of chemical companies, colleges, and universities in the area; editorials and debates on topics of professional interest; brief overviews of various chemical fields; professional meetings held; and much other information that may be difficult to discover elsewhere.

The digitized versions may be accessed by clicking the "Online version" link at these catalog records:

Chicago Chemical Bulletin (Oct. 1914-June 1919) http://nucat.library.northwestern.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=5344492

Chemical Bulletin (July 1919 – Dec. 1960) http://nucat.library.northwestern.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=5391474

When you click on the "Online version" link it may take a minute for thumbnail images of about 1000 pages to appear.  You may also search the contents including the advertisements.  As an example of the sort of search that can be done using the "Search inside this book" window, to find information on the June 1921 visit of Marie Curie to Chicago, when she received the Gibbs Medal of the Chicago Section, you can search for "marie curie" AND "gibbs medal" (upper-case AND so as not to retrieve instances of the word "and").  That immediately brings up the first page of the July-August, 1921 issue, with the beginning of the article on the award; you can also use the arrow buttons at the bottom towards the right to page back and forth from that point. You might want to explore other buttons as well, such as "Thumbnails" at the top which brings back thumbnail images from whatever point you are at.  Since the digitized images include the complete issues, it is possible to locate ephemeral items such as display ads (e.g. schaar AND analytical - brings up display ads for Schaar & Co. analytical balances dating back to 1921; or beckman AND spectrophotometer AND 1945 retrieves a 1945 ad for the Beckman Model "B"; etc.)

If you find problems in using this database, please direct questions or comments to [email protected]

Bob Michaelson, Harriet Lightman, and Cunera Buys

Northwestern University Library

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Articles

Duties of Section Councilors Explained

This is a reprint of an article appearing in the April 1997 issue of the Chemical Bulletin. The article is updated annually to help you with your decisions in electing councilors and alternate councilors in the upcoming Chicago Section election. Remember to cast your vote. 

Have you ever wondered who and what ACS councilors and alternate councilors are and what they do for you and the Chicago Section? The two major structural components of the Society besides your national officers and Board of Directors are local sections and divisions. ACS local sections and divisions not only elect their own officers, but also elect representatives to the ACS Council, the deliberative body of the Society. This is your opportunity to have a voice in Society's governance.

The Council consists of the President, the President-Elect, the Directors, the Past Presidents, the Executive Director, the Secretary, and more than 400 voting Councilors representing Local Sections and Divisions. The Council convenes twice a year at the Society's national meetings.

Councilors provide the principal contact between local section members and governance leaders in setting policies for the ACS that directly or indirectly affect you. Councilors are elected to serve a three-year term. Alternate Councilors represent the section when a Councilor is unable to attend a Council meeting.

Councilors also serve on National committees that meet during National meetings. Councilors are appointed to these committees by the President of the Society and are eligible to serve only three consecutive terms on the same committee. A councilor who accepts an appointment to a committee accepts an obligation to work year-round throughout that term. The Councilor is expected to attend meetings of the committee, and be willing to undertake special assignments that require time between meetings.

Committees of the Council are: 1) Standing Committees: Constitution and Bylaws, Divisional Activities, Local Section Activities, Meetings and Expositions, Membership Affairs, and Economic and Professional Affairs; 2) Society Committees: Budget and Finance, and Education; 3) Joint Board-Council Committees: Chemical Abstracts Service, Chemistry and Public Affairs, Chemists with Disabilities, Community Activities, Environmental Improvement, International Activities, Patents and Related matters, Professional Training, Public Relations and Communications, Publications, Science, Minority Affairs, Chemical Safety, Women Chemists, and Younger Chemists; 4) Other Committees of the Council: Analytical Reagents, Ethics, Nomenclature, Project SEED, and Technician Affairs; and 5) Elected Committees: Council Policy, Nominations and Elections, and Committee on Committees.

The Chicago Section is currently represented by 10 councilors elected by you. All of these councilors are members or associates on National ACS committees. Your Chicago Section Councilors and their current committee appointments are: Charles E. Cannon (Local Section Activities), David S. Crumrine (Constitution and Bylaws), Ken Fivizzani (Community Activities), Fran Kravitz (Local Section Activities), Russell W. Johnson (Chemistry and Public Affairs), Margy Levenberg, Milt Levenberg(Public Relations and Communications), Inessa Miller, Barbara E. Moriarty (Professional Relations Divisional Representative on Science; Great Lakes Regional Board Chair), and Susan Shih (Education).

Alternate Councilors for the Chicago Section are: Amber Arzadon, Irene Cesa (Chemical Safety), Thomas Higgins (Education), Josh Kurutz, Mark Kaiser, Mike Koehler (Chemical Safety), and Avrom Litin (Analytical Reagents; Community Activities).

Other Section members involved on National ACS committees are: Mark Cesa (Science), Lin Chen (Publications), Herb Golinkin (Senior Chemists), Lauren Jackson (AGFD Divisional Representative on Science), Gail Karet (Nomenclature, Terminology and Symbols), Katy Leach (Younger Chemists), Zafra Lerman (Chemistry and Public Affairs), Lisa Mueller (Patents and Related Matters), Andrea Twiss-Brooks (Council Policy), Beau Wangtrakuldee (Younger Chemists) and Don Wink (Education).  We have section members who are involved in other activities related to the National Meetings. For example, Fran Kravitz, Charles Cannon, and Herb Golinkin are career consultants who do resume reviews and mock interviews during National meetings. Fran Kravitz, Charles Cannon and Katy Leach are also career workshop instructors. 

Your Councilors and Alternate Councilors ask for your help in providing your opinions about the Society and issues relating to the Society. This will help Councilors better represent you during Council.

FRAN KRAVITZ

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Special Recognition

SOMEONE YOU SHOULD KNOW 

Skylar Carlson is the Chicago Section’s chair of the Program Committee. This is her first year on the board but she has been an active member of the Section. She has taken on a huge responsibility as chair of the Program Committee, finding both interesting speakers and topics which will bring in members to the monthly dinner meetings. Skylar is still learning the ropes of the job but has been very successful in finding quality speakers. Chairing the Program Committee is not an easy task and she would appreciate members’ input for future meeting topics and speakers. You can contact her at [email protected].

Skylar was born in Salisbury, Maryland and is the eldest of two children. In high school, she was convinced that she would be an event manager. She changed her mind after taking AP Chemistry as a junior and then she was hooked. Skylar is not the first in her family to go into science. Her great-grandfather was a water quality chemist in Springfield, Illinois and her brother is a nuclear engineer in the Navy.

Skylar decided to study biochemistry at Florida State University and earned her B.S. in 2010. She was a teaching assistant during her last year as an undergraduate.  She left Florida and came to Illinois to study at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She recently earned her Ph.D. in pharmacognosy this summer. She studied under Brian Murphy and the title of Skylar’s dissertation was “Secondary Metabolite Regulation and Drug-lead Discovery from Aquatic Actinomycetes.” She earned two poster awards at the David J. Slatkin Symposium and was the 2013 Van Doren Scholar at UIC College of Pharmacy.

Besides performing research for her Ph.D., Skylar was very active in graduate school. She was a student representative to the Dean for Research and Graduate Education’s Council at UIC College of Pharmacy and was responsible for events for the graduate students across the college. She was the chair for the 52^nd Annual Minnesota-Iowa-Kansas-Illinois regional medicinal chemistry meeting held at UIC College of Pharmacy. Skylar was also the founding president of the Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy Graduate Student Association. All of this was training for her current position as a Special Events Facilitator at UIC in the office of Academic Affairs after graduation.

Skylar loves Chicago and has made it her home. She enjoys riding her bike and exploring as many parts of the city as possible. Of course, riding a bike takes energy and Skylar loves trying all the yummy foods that Chicago’s neighborhoods are famous for. She is a Blackhawk fan and also loves hanging with friends. Skylar’s energy, training and passion for both event management and science are a winning combination for the Chicago Section in her role as the chair of the Program Committee.

Fran Kravitz

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Support the Chicago Section and its Activities

The Program Committee can use your help.

Skylar Carlson, chair of the Program Committee is looking for Section member’s input on ideas for future meeting topics and speakers. Please send your suggestions for future topics and speakers to [email protected] and please use “Program Committee Suggestions” in the subject line.

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ChemShorts for Kids

Turn A Smartphone into a (Hologram?) (Projector?)

Kids, would you like to tinker with hologram-like images in the comfort of our own home? You can create amazing 3D visions that can be projected from your smartphone. 

Here is what you'll need:

• Graph paper
• CD case
• Tape
• Pen
• Scissors
• Smartphone
• Box cutter (for an adult partner)

Please note:  All chemicals and experiments can entail an element of risk, and no experiments should be performed without proper adult supervision.

First you need to draw a perfect rhombus shape on the graph paper. The dimensions are 1 cm x 3.5 cm x 6 cm. Next, take off the sides of the CD case, place the rhombus template on top, and have an adult partner cut out the shape with the box cutter. Once the first rhombus is cut out, your adult partner can use this as a template to cut out three more just like it. This is difficult to cut and takes some skill. As an alternative, there is a link to buying a pre-made reflector (http://www.ebay.com/itm/181835509279).

Fasten the four plastic rhombus shapes together in an open vase shape using some tape (glue doesn't work well); tape the 3.5 cm sides together. To start projecting images, you'll need to load hologram-specific videos from YouTube, and Mrwhosetheboss links to a few of these on “Mrwhosetheboss” YouTube page. For example, for blue jellyfish go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FounIsUgNjg

Place the phone flat on the table, load the video, and place the rhombus vase on top. Turn off the lights and you'll see a full, 360-degree animated visual from the side, level with the table.

A hologram is a photographic recording of a light field. The hologram itself is not an image. It is an encoding of the light field as an interference pattern. When suitably lit, the interference pattern diffracts light into a reproduction of the original light field and the objects that were in it appear to still be there. Holography should not be confused with other 3D display technologies, which can produce similar results but are based on conventional lens imaging.

http://www.sciencealert.com/watch-how-to-turn-your-smartphone-into-a-3d-hologram
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YWTtCsvgvg

Editor, DR. KATHLEEN CARRADO GREGAR, Argonne National Laboratory

To view all past “ChemShorts for Kids”, go to: http://chicagoacs.org/articles.php?article_category=1

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Sponsors of this issue

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Calendar of Events

September 15: ACCA Seminar – Dr. An Li (UIC) Semivolatile Organic Pollutants at North Central College at 7pm in Larrance Academic Center, Rm 5.

September 18 (note the date change): Chicago Section Dinner Meeting at Loyola University.  Additionally,a Women Chemists Committee (WCC), Non-Traditional Chemical Careers event will take place.  This is Education Night. See details in this issue. 

September 22: ACCA Seminar – Dr. Mike Schultz (LanzaTech in Skokie) Winner of the Presidential Green Chemistry Award on Greener Synthetic Pathways: A Gas Fermentation Process at North Central College at 7pm in Larrance Academic Center, Rm 5.

September 26, October 10 and 17: Volunteers needed for the Chicago Section ACS Boy Scout of America’s Chemistry merit Badge program, noon to 1 p.m. on either Saturday, September 26 at North Central College in Naperville; Saturday October 10 at Oakton Community College in Des Plaines; and Saturday, October 17 at College of Lake County in Grayslake to discuss their chemistry career.  Contact Fran Kravitz at [email protected] if you are available to help. See article in this issue.

October 13: ACCA Seminar – Dr. Rainer Glaser (U of Missouri) CO₂ Capture from Air at North Central College at 7pm in Larrance Academic Center, Rm 5.

October 13-16: Laboratory Management Conference sponsored by The Association of Laboratory Managers (ALMA), Las Vegas, NV.  See details at http://labmanagers.org/meetinginfo.php.

October 16-17: MACTLAC Annual Meeting at Millikin University.  This years’ theme is Green Chemistry’s Silver Anniversary: A Look Ahead.  For more information see details at http://www.millikin.edu/academics/college-arts-sciences/chemistry-department/get-involved/mactlac-annual-meeting-2015.

October 23-24: Illinois Science Education Conference, Tinley Park Conference Center.  For more information, visit http://www.ista-il.org/#.

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