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Next Meeting

Dr. Granato (Chicago Metro. Water Reclamation Dist.), Tours,
Distinguished Service Award, 50-,60-year Awards

Dr. Thomas Granato

Director, Monitoring and Research Department,
Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago

"Chicagoland’s Little Known Recycling Success Story – How Metropolitan Water Reclamation District  Biosolids Are Benefiting Farmers, Recreators and the Environment"

PLUS: Tours,
Distinguished Service Award, 50-,60-year Member Recognition

5:30 PM, June 16 at Sawa's Restaurant in Broadview, IL

ABSTRACT

The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago was created in 1889 by the Illinois Legislature.  It is a special purpose district that collects and treats wastewater generated by the City of Chicago and 128 suburban communities in Cook County and also has stormwater management authority for the county.  The District’s service area is 883 square miles.  It operates and maintains seven water reclamation plants with a total design average flow of nearly two billion gallons per day, 22 pump stations, 560 miles of intercepting sewers, 34 stormwater detention reservoirs, seven aeration stations in the Chicago and Calumet River Systems, and the Tunnel and Reservior Plan (TARP) including 109 miles of deep tunnels and three combined sewer overflow reservoirs with a combined storage capacity of over 20 billion gallons.  The water reclamation process generates a large amount of solids, initially referred to as sewage sludge, which are transformed through appropriate treatment to biosolids that are suitable for  recycling through land application.  While the District water related accomplishments such as reversing the flow of the Chicago and Calumet Rivers, and building TARP are will known to Chicagoland residents; its biosolids program accomplishments are virtually unknown.
 
The District currently processes its sewage sludge to produce approximately 150,000 dry tons of various biosolids products that are suitable for use as a soil amendment.  This quantity of biosolids could fill enough semitrailor trucks to stretch from downtown Chicago to Kankakee bumper to bumper in one lane of interstate highway.  The presentation will discuss the biosolids products that the District currently produces as well as their uses which today includes application to farmland in northeastern Illinois, controlled solids distribution in the Chicago metropolitan area for building or topdressing the turf at golf courses, athletic fields and parks (such as Maggie Daley Park in Chicago).  The presentation will also provide some historical context to the present program.  Some of the past programs that will be highlighted include the Fulton County Prairie Plan (you might be surprised to learn that the District owns a 15,000 acre land reclamation site in Fulton County where nearly 1.5 million dry tons of biosolids were ultimately land applied to reclaim strip mine soils and to cap acidic coal refuse piles); the NuEarth give away program in the Chicago Metropolitan Area; and the landfill cover program.  The presentation will also provide an overview of the extensive research program the District has undertaken and supported, which has included evaluation of environmental fate and phytotoxicity of trace elements, long term environmental fate and transfer to crops of PCBs, PBDEs, perfluorochemicals, gross alpha and beta radioactivity, nutrients and endocrine disrupting chemicals.  Studies of the nature of biosolids salinity and ecotoxicological assessments have also been conducted.  Finally, the presentation will look ahead to the future of biosolids land application which is being shaped with the development of a new composting processs which currently is utilizing chipped wood from emerald ash borer infested trees that have been removed in the City of Chicago.

DATE, TIME, LOCATION

Register Now

AFTERNOON TOURS (SOLD OUT)

• 1:00 - 3:30  (Skokie) - O'Brien MWRD Plant Tour
• 1:00 - 4:45  (Cicero) - Sitckney & LASMA MWRD Plant Tours

EVENING PROGRAM

• 5:30 - 6:30  Registration & Social Hour with cash bar
• 6:30 - 7:30  Dinner 
• 7:30 - 7:35  Presentation of the Distinguished Service Award to Ken Fivizzani
• 7:35 - 7:50  Presentation of the 50- and 60-year member awards
• 7:45 - 8:30  Lecture by Dr. Granato
• 8:30 - 9:30  Networking

 MENU - Family Style: 

• Tossed green salad
• Entrées, served family style (no need to make selection now)
• Roast beef au jus
• Broiled cod with lemon
• Stuffed cabbage rolls
• Sides: pieorgis, vegetabls, potato pancakes
• Chef selection dessert

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Award Winner

Ken Fivizzani Receives
Distinguished Service Award
From the Chicago Section

The Chicago Section of the American Chemical Society’s Distinguished Service Award was established in 1974 at the suggestion of Louis L. Lerner, then Editor of The Chemical Bulletin. This award recognizes members who provided exceptional services to the Section over, above, and separate from any other achievements of the recipient, either in the profession or to the National ACS.

The Nominating Committee for the Distinguished Service Award (DSA) is composed of the five former Chairs of the Chicago Section that have served between eight and twelve years ago plus the individual that will be serving as Section Chair in the year of the award. The makeup of this committee is designed to provide a long-term view of the contributions to our Section by prospective nominees. Each member of the Nominating Committee proposes up to three nominees for consideration by the entire committee, along with a brief statement supporting the nomination. The committee chair compiles the nominations into a ballot that is distributed to the committee for consideration and vote. Interestingly, Ken Fivizzani was among the individuals proposed by each member of the Nominating Committee.

Ken has twice served as Chair of the Chicago Section, and has served on so many committees and in so many roles they are almost too numerous to count. I will mention only that he has served as a Director, a Councilor, and as a Trustee for our Section.

During the nominating process, comments were made in support of Ken’s nomination such as: “Ken has demonstrated many years of commitment to the Section and has been very good at getting people to work together – he is a fine example of a great Chicago Section Team Player!”   “Ken has been a great resource for ACS Chicago Section members.”  “Ken is exceptionally willing to help out and has such a positive spirit that encourages others to do the same.” I would add to that my personal experiences in working with Ken as a Trustee for the Chicago Section and as volunteers at our ACS tent at the Illinois State Fair. Ken is always willing to roll up his sleeves to pitch in wherever needed, and he brings a sense of calm and can-do spirit to every task in which he is involved. I always appreciate Ken’s contribution to a project, and always look forward to opportunities to work with him. Please join me in congratulating Ken on receiving the Chicago Section’s Distinguished Service Award for 2016.

Milt Levenberg, 2016 Chair
Distinguished Service Award Committee

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Historical Feature

Distinguished Service Awardees

The Chicago Section American Chemical Society’s Distinguished Service Awards were established in 1974 at the suggestion of Louis L. Lerner, then the Editor of the Chemical Bulletin. These Awards recognize members who provided exceptional service to the Section over, above and separate from any other achievements of the recipient, either in the profession or by the National ACS.

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Special Recognition

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR 50- AND 60-YEAR ACS MEMBERS!

As part of our June 16 meeting program, we will honor an elite group of our section members who have been ACS members for 50 or 60 years! A membership card entitling them to free attendance at all ACS meetings is sent to each of them from the ACS National office in grateful appreciation of their many years of service to the Society. At our meeting, each of them will be presented a handsome membership certificate to mark the occasion.

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Senior Chemists

First Senior Chemists Committee Event – A Success!

On April 28, 2016, the Chicago Section-ACS sponsored the first event under the umbrella of the newly approved Senior Chemists Committee. The event was held at Loyola University Institute of Environmental Sustainability. Eighteen attended which included a luncheon held at the campus de Nobili Cafeteria and a tour of the facilities of the Institute. The tour included the Biodiesel Lab, the Green House, and the Toxicology & Soil Analysis Lab. Institute personnel that facilitated the tours included Zacj Waickman, Kevin Erickson, Ahenwei Zhu and Aaron Durnbaugh.

Feedback from participants was very positive. The event was deemed to be very informative, very interesting and had great insight into the Loyola program. Much interest was expressed in planning more events such as company visits (Food & Drug Industry, Government, Manufacturing Plants, Retirement Planning) with invited guest speakers. Also mentioned was interest in engagement with K-12 students. Feedback as to how regular such events should be planned was expressed to be bimonthly or quarterly.

In the fall of 2015 the Section received a mini-grant from the national office to establish the Senior Chemists Committee and once established, to become a vibrant group. Other Section members that played key roles in ensuring the success of this event include Dr. Dave Crumrine, Fran Kravitz. Appreciation is expressed in recognition of the Section Office Manager, Gail Wilkening. The American Chemical Society Board of Directors approved a joint-board Council Committee that became effective January 1, 2013. Long-time member, Dr. Claude Lucchesi was the driving force responsible for bringing the idea of establishing a Senior Chemists Committee in the Section committee structure. The acs.org site mentions the following fact - “Of the more than 163,000 members, 34% are over the age of 50 and is one of the fastest growing segments of the society.”

Charles Cannon, Senior Chemists Committee Chair

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Someone You Should Know

Prof. Charles Cannon

by Fran Kravitz

This month, I chose Charles Cannon as my subject. I believe Charles and I joined the Chicago Section board about the same time. I remember him back then as this very tall, intelligent gentleman with strong ideas and opinions. It was later that I met the true Charles, someone who cares and defends others first; rarely says no to volunteer opportunities and mentors young students. Dr. Cannon is an ACS Fellow (class of 2013, see photo below), one of the ten Chicago Section’s Councilors and is Chair of the Minority Affairs and Senior Chemist Committees. Charles was Chair of the Chicago Section from 1982-83.

Charles was born in Sylacauga, Alabama which is where the nearest hospital was to Vincent, Alabama where his family lived. He comes from a family of six, two girls and four boys. He is the second eldest. One of his brothers died at six months and he lost his youngest brother in 2010 at age 60. Dr. Cannon’s mother stayed at home to care for her children until they reached school age and then she was employed in domestic work and later as a cook in chain restaurants. Charles’ father worked in a paper mill after finishing his tour of duty in the US Army. His father completed school on the GI Bill and then became a construction worker for various companies. Charles is a very devoted son, brother, and uncle. He visits his mother quite often in Alabama.

Dr. Cannon was the first in his immediate family to go into science. Charles was always interested in science and mathematics as a child and was engaged in school science fairs. The study of science was reinforced by his first cousin who lived 60 miles from his family and whom they visited occasionally. His cousin earned his PhD from LSU in biochemistry. In 1968, Charles earned his bachelors in chemistry with great honors at Alabama A&M University. He went on to Vanderbilt University from 1968 to 1969 working in the area of carbohydrate chemistry. In 1969, he left Vanderbilt University and went to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and earned his Ph.D. in Physical Organic Chemistry in 1974. His dissertation was titled “Some Rearrangements of Tricyclic and Bicyclic Organomagnesium Compounds”.

In 1974, Charles went to work for Amoco Research Center in Naperville as a Research Chemist in the Petroleum Additives Research Labs. He rose to the rank of Lab Supervisor of the Micro-Chemistry Analytical Lab. In 1985, he left Amoco and went to work for the West Aurora School District 129. This was the start of Dr. Cannon’s career as an educator. During that year, he joined Nobel Laureate Leon Lederman as one of 12 founding faculty members of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA). He remained at IMSA until 1992 and then went on to teach at Columbia College in Chicago. Dr. Cannon was chair of the Science and Mathematics Department at Columbia until 2006. He is currently Professor of Distinction at Columbia College. Charles states that his favorite positions during his career have been as a Microchemical Analysis Supervisor at Amoco and his various positions at Columbia.

Charles joined the ACS 46 years ago as a student affiliate under the advisement of his organic chemistry professor, Dr. Richard Evans, whom he still maintains contact with to this day. Later, Herbert Golinkin, a minute man with the Chicago Section and fellow Amoco employee, introduced Charles to the Section. Herb would invite him to ride along to Section meetings with him and became instrumental in getting Charles involved on the Board. Dr. Cannon’s activities in the Chicago Section include Vice Chair, Secretary, Director, Alternate Councilor, Chair of the College Education, Gibbs Awards, Employment, Policy, Tellers, House, Awards, Nominating, Hospitality and Safety Committees. He is also very active on the steering committee of the Illinois Section of the American Chemical Society State Fair project inviting and organizing University/Colleges chemistry departments throughout the state to have their students participate in the hands-on demonstrations in the tent at the Illinois State Fair. Charles has been a Councilor for more than ten years. He has been on the Committee on Economic & Professional Affairs (Survey Subcommittee) and is currently on the Local Section Activities Committee. Dr. Cannon is also an ACS Career Consultant and Career Workshop Presenter. Besides the ACS, he is active with the American Association of University Administrators, American Association of Higher Education and National Association for the Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers just to name a few.

Dr. Cannon is extremely active in volunteering and serving in leadership positions for his undergraduate institution alumni association in his free time. He is also very involved in music both in his church choir and with the National Association of Negro Musicians. While Charles never married, his family has always come first. He has over 16 nieces and nephews and of course their children. He has brought a few of them down to the Illinois State Fair. He states it is hard to keep up with them but he is working on nurturing and mentoring the third generation of nieces and nephews. He is extremely proud of his eldest niece who has pursued and succeeded in a professional career.

Charles has a unique talent that most of us are unaware of. As a young boy, Charles’ maternal grandmother made beautiful quilts and had a room in her home dedicated to it. She created beautiful geometric patterns which Charles was intrigued by. He was short enough at that time to go under the frame and punch the needle from beneath back up to where she could repeat the stitching. He recalls being able to perform the straightest and most uniform stitches. Other people learned of his talent while he was in graduate school and encouraged him to continue. He made uniforms, formal gowns, church choir robes, and men’s suits. His talent earned him enough money to purchase and pay for his first new car, a 1968 Dodge Charger.

Charles’ final words of wisdom to us are: “Pursue your interests-enjoy the fascination of the science-after all we possess the most sophisticated chemical factory there is-our body”.

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State Fair

Volunteers Needed For
the Illinois State Fair Science Tent

The 2016 Illinois State Fair is just around the corner and WE NEED YOU! Illinois Local Sections of the ACS will have a Chemistry Tent in Conservation World at the Illinois State Fair. This will be our 13^th year for this community outreach project. The Illinois State Fair is scheduled from Friday, August 12 through Sunday, August 21.

Our tent provides information to the public on chemistry by way of demos, hands-on activities, literature and give-aways. Last year, we had over 17,000 people come through our tent. WE CAN’T DO THIS WITHOUT YOU!

We are looking for volunteers to help us at this year’s fair. This is a very rewarding activity and a chance to meet new colleagues from other Sections while reaching out to the public. We need demonstrators, individuals willing to help with hands-on activities and individuals who are a “jack of all trades”. Come for a shift or for the day or participate for several days. Parking and admission to the fair is FREE for volunteers who participate. There are nearby reasonably priced hotels, motels & campgrounds for accommodations during the fair.

Please contact either Fran Kravitz at [email protected] or Milt Levenberg at [email protected] if you are interested in more information on this fun, rewarding and challenging opportunity. You may also register directly on line at http://chicagoacs.net/statefair/volunteers.html. Thank you in advance for helping us make this program a continued success!!!

Fran Kravitz ([email protected])

Milt Levenberg ([email protected])

Co-Chairs of the Illinois Sections of the ACS State Fair Project

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A Company You Should Know

PerkinElmer

by Paul Brandt

PerkinElmer has existed since 1937 where it began in optics from a shared passion for astronomy of Richard Perkin and Charles Elmer. By 1944 the first infrared spectrometer and in 1963 an atomic absorption spectrophotometer were made available. A number of acquisitions beginning in 1976 and continuing today, PerkinElmer has extended its business well beyond instrumentation and finds much of its success today in the life and environmental sciences as well as diagnostics.

The environmental health business provides products, services and solutions to facilitate a cleaner and safer environment, including the creation of secure food and consumer products. PerkinElmer serves the environmental, industrial and laboratory services markets.

Worldwide, the company employs 8000 and their annual revenues in 2015 were $2.3 billion. Although its Corporate Headquarters is in Waltham, MA, the Downer’s Grove site is one of their training and technical centers for their Analytical Instrument, Analytical Sciences, and Environmental Health while they also have an R&D site in Naperville for all of their product lines. Oak Brook houses services for their product lines.

The new Technical Center in Downers Grove has a wide range of Environmental Health instruments for customers to see, experience and verify their application needs.

For the environmental market, they develop and provide analytical technologies, solutions and services that enable customers to understand the characterization and health of many aspects of the environment, including air, water and soil. PerkinElmer’s technologies are used to detect and help reduce the impact products and industrial processes may have on the environment. For example, they have solutions to help ensure compliance with regulatory standards that protect the purity of the world’s water supply by detecting harmful substances, including trace metals such as lead, and organic pollutants such as pesticides and benzene.

They provide the tools needed to test functionality, meet quality specifications and safety standards, and innovate for next generation products. PerkinElmer provides a variety of solutions that determine food quality, including the level of moisture in grain or detecting the presence of potentially dangerous contaminants, such as lead and mercury in milk. Their solutions can also be used to identify the origin of food products such as olive oil, which helps prevent counterfeiting. The methods and analyses are transferable throughout the supply chain so their customers are able to keep pace with industry standards as well as governmental regulations and certifications.

PerkinElmer also provides analytical instrumentation for the industrial market which includes the chemical, electronics, energy, food, lubricant, petrochemical and polymer industries. Their industrial instrumentation is primarily used by customers focusing on quality assurance standards.

Scientists across academia, government, pharmaceuticals, biotech, chemical processing, environmental, food & beverage, and oil production use PerkinElmer’s ChemDraw® software as their chemical structure drawing application. For more than 30 years, ChemDraw software has been the chemical structure drawing solution of choice for scientists (see ChemDraw's story). It allows for quick and accurate creation of publication-ready, chemically-intelligent drawings for use in electronic laboratory notebooks, databases and publications, and for querying chemical databases. Key applications include: drug discovery, water and soil safety, creation of new food flavorings, environmental pollutant detection, industrial analysis, and review of by-products from oil residue.

PerkinElmer has gone through many changes in their more than 75 year lifetime, from optics to now offering solutions in diagnostics, environmental and applied markets, as well as the life sciences. With over 3300 patents, they’re sure to continue leading the way in these critical industries.

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Education Focus

Flinn Summer Courses

Learn innovative demonstrations, laboratory experiments, and teaching activities from award-winning teachers. Three online graduate courses for chemistry teachers are available this summer through Illinois State University:

• Advanced Chemistry Demonstrations: Chemical Reactions, Stoichiometry, and the Mole
• Advanced Chemistry Demonstrations: Atomic and Molecular Structure
• Topics in Contemporary Chemistry: Industrial Chemistry

Summer courses will begin on Monday, June 13 and run until August 5. The last day to apply to Illinois State University for a summer course is June 8. For more information about these courses, including information for new applicants to Illinois State University, please visit http://chemistry.illinoisstate.edu/eLearning/course_info.shtml. The application process is online, fully automated and open to chemistry or science teachers who are currently licensed by their state, province, county or independent, private or charter school.

Northwestern Summer Workshops for Teachers

The Office of STEM Education Partnerships (OSEP) at Northwestern University is excited to offer a wide array of FREE summer professional development opportunities for K-12 STEM educators. With 13 professional development workshops ranging from topics such as: biotechnology, design thinking, climate change and life sciences throughout the summer, they have something to offer all educators. Sign up for FREE Professional Development Workshops from the Biotechnology Center of Excellence (BCoE).

ChemWest Has New Leadership

For 12 years, Karl Craddock at Fremd High School has been the outstanding President of ChemWest, but as of June 1 he is relinquishing his role. However, ChemWest will continue to flourish under the guidance of Jill Serling from Glenbrook South High School and Mike Palazzolo from Schaumburg High School who have graciously agreed to undertake the role of co-presidents. They are both wonderful and are coming in with great ideas for the future. The old email address ([email protected]) and website (http://www.chemwest.org/) will remain the same.

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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, October 8 at College of Lake County in Grayslake, Saturday, October 29 at Oakton Community College in Des Plaines, and Saturday, December 3 at North Central College in Naperville; 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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Chemistry Olympiad

Congratulations go to Harrison Wang of Hinsdale Central and Eric Qian of Stevenson! Both have been selected to attend the study camp this summer in preparation for the International Chemistry Olympiad.

Clearly, we here in the Chicagoland area, are doing something right. Congratulations to all of you and your students for wondrous work.

- Russ Kohnken

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Sponsors of this issue

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Calendar of Events

June 14-16: The 20^th Annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference (GC&E), Portland, OR. The theme is Advancing Sustainable Solutions by Design.” For details, visit http://www.gcande.org/

June 16: Chicago Section Dinner Meeting honoring our 2016 Distinguished Service awardee, Ken Fivizzani, and our 50- and 60- year members. Guest Speaker: Dr. Thomas Granato from the Chicago Metro. Water reclamation District. See details in this issue.

August 11-21: The Illinois State Fair in Springfield. Come volunteer at the ACS booth. http://chicagoacs.org/Illinois_State_Fair See details in this issue.

August 21-25: The 252^nd National ACS Meeting in Philadelphia. The theme will be “Chemistry Of The People, By The People, For The People.” See details at http://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/meetings/fall-2016.html?cid=home_meetings

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