North Jersey ACS Blog

Washington DC ACS Meeting

2009-09-06T03:32:00.000-07:00

Sorry I dropped the ball on posting during the meeting. I was very busy with meetings so when it was time to write, I was tired.
I spent most of the meeting on Diversity topics. I am a member of the Joint Subcommittee on Diversity and we spent most of our meeting reorganizing. It had been a group where members of all Diversity groups met to coordinate activities. In effect this group will still do that but it will be a stronger group. It used to be that the chair's of all the diversity groups met separately from the committee and in DC under the leadership of Terry Quinn Grant, we all met together to thrash out what the group will do and how it will be organized in the future. It was a very productive meeting.
I am the historian on the Women Chemists Committee. The WCC talked about programing for the San Francisco meeting and I am organizing a symposium of all the outside Diversity groups such as NOBCChE, AISES, SACNAS and the Chinese Chemistry group. I envision this symposium to be panel discussions by each group in which they explain what they do, how they are organized and what would be the connection to the ACS in the future and now.
In effect this was done by each group at a reception during the DC meeting, but this will be for the west coast.
I am a member of the Committee on Minority Affairs and we discussed programing and action items. The committee wants to make sure that diversity is held to be important throughout the whole ACS and not just lodged in these committees. We are thinking of ways to diversify the Council. Stand by for that action item. The committee selected Dr. Marie Daly (the first African American women to receive a PhD in chemistry) to be highlighted by the society just as Dr. Percy Julian was. I will be the champion of this cause. I am going to the Board of Directors to ask them to set up a task force to see what can be done. Maybe there will be another NOVA production, that would be great it we can pull it off in this economy. But there are a lot of independent film makers who may want to produce a documentary about her life this remains to be seen.
Of course the highlight of the meeting for me was the Fellows award ceremony. Just as I suspected I was the only African American woman to be nominated in this class of Fellows. There are three African American men and two of them were at the ceremony. Dr. Jim Shoffner did not attend unfortunately after all the hard work he had done for the ACS.

At the Chem Luminary Awards the North Jersey section came up with two awards. The award for best local section and for Earth day. I was excited about that. I will post the photos on the website soon.

Last but not least I have a publisher for my book about African American Women Chemists. I have started a new blog about the book and the writing of it. I will probably be posting to this blog and to that one more often because writer needs to write just as a singer needs to sing every day and I am both. Here is the other blog http://aawomenchemists.blogspot.com
Jeannette Brown

Death of Barbara Hodson Ullyot

2009-07-06T13:35:00.000-07:00

I am the current 2009 Ullyot Scholar at the Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF). I have been at CHF for two months working on my project The History of African American Women Chemists. Barbara Ullyot and her late husband Glen are major contributors to CHF and they sponsor this two month Scholarship for independent scholars like me. I am truly grateful for this award as it enabled me to continue my research and even submit a proposal to a publisher for publication. Note I have not yet heard from the publisher, which means that it might be good news or just that it is summer and every one is on vacation.
As soon as I got to CHF I wanted to send Barbara Ullyot a thank you note, but I was told that it is usually done at the end. But I did thank her in person. Barbara Ullyot had a new project at ACS to start the endowment for Project SEED. She was on that team. So I saw her at the Project SEED Anniversary Symposium and I said: "I am the current Ullyot Scholar at CHF." She said:"I know." Then I thanked her and told her she would receive the first autographed copy of my book. Little did I know that she was suffering from lung cancer. I will follow through and send a copy of my book to her son.
Those of you who have been ACS members and councilors for as long as I have will remember her as Barabara Hodson when she was the staff person in charge of meetings and membership. If you become a councilor you become friends with the ACS staff. At least that's the way it was in the old days. They became like family. It is the same sort of today except the family has changed and all the old faces have retired or died. The new staff members have been promoted to take their place or left for other positions.
But I guess I learned something. Always thank people who help you. I am glad that I did thank Barbara Ullyot when I saw her so that she knew that I was grateful for the award.
For those of you who remember Barbara Ullyot her obituary is at the following web page; https://www.usna.com/SSLPage.aspx?rss=obits_arch&referrer=&pid=8246.
Her first husband was a Naval man so she will be buried in Arlington Cemetery next to him and the memoral service will be held on July 30 at Ginger Cove in Annapolis, the retirement community in which she lived.
I wondered if the ACS was going to do a memorial to her. But her obituary says contributions should be made in her name to the ACS Project SEED Scholarship Fund.

Since I was a former chair of the Project SEED Committee, I donate to Project SEED every year and you should too. I hope that you will do it in her memory if you knew her or just because it is a good cause.
Jeannette Brown

Salt Lake City Tuesday Day 5

2009-03-25T04:33:00.000-07:00

The day ended with the Annual Awards Banquet. It is a black tie affair for the awardees and most of the attendees as well. It is usually very elegant. There were about 37 awardees, but of that group only one African American awardee, Dr. Shirley McBay of the Quality Education for Minorities group. She is one of the women in my book and I suggested that she be nominated for the ACS Award for Encouraging Disadvantaged students into the Chemical Sciences. She is only the 4th African American woman to win any ACS national award and I believe only one man has won an award. I am trying to work to change this. I would like to see minorities and especially African Americans be nominated and win ACS national awards for research and not just mentoring. I am working on it.
Dr. McBay gave her award talk in the Environmental Chemists Division. She talked about environmental racism and how the ACS and anyone in the community can help to change this. People of color and poor people suffer from environmental racism in that they may live near toxic waste dumps or poor air quality or just lead paint in the housing. There are groups working on the clean up. I will write the full story of her talk for the Women Chemist Newsletter and he Committee on Minority Affairs Newsletter as well.
I had breakfast with the Public Relations group of the ACS. They are going to roll out some new tools to help us and they wanted our input as to what they should do. It was a very productive meeting and many ideas were generated.
Then I went to the convention center to pick up the press release about the DNA paper as it was not in my kit. I wrote the story there in the press room.
The women chemist luncheon was held in the convention center. The speaker was the 2009 Garvan-Olin Medal winner Kathlyn Parker. She gave a talk about her life and her research.
After the luncheon I made my only visit to the exposition which was very large. I did not stay long because I would have needed my scouter to see all of it and I did not pick up the scouter that the ACS rented for me.
After Dr. McBay's talk I went to see Dr. William Carroll win the Henry Hill award. Dr. Henry Hill was the first African American ACS president back in the 70tys.
That completes the circle of my day. Tomorrow is the last full day of the meeting for me.
Jeannette Brown

Live from Salt Lake City #2 Redefining DNA: Darwin fro the atom up

2009-03-24T09:43:00.000-07:00

"In a dramatic rewrite of the recipe for life, scientists from Florida described the design of a new type of DNA on Monday March 23 at the 237th National Meet inf of the American Chemical Society. This artificial DNA with 12 chemical letters instead of the usual four is helping to usher in the era of personalized medicine for millions of patients with HIV, hepatitis and other diseases.

"The research may also shed light on how life arose on Earth, by producing a self-sustaining molecule capable of Darwinian evolution and reproduction, much like one that many scientists suggest arose at the dawn of life on Earth nearly four billion years ago."

This paper is COMSCI 001 "Modern synthetic biology:Darwin from the atom up" presented by Steven A. Benner Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution 1115 NW 4th Street, Gainsville, FL 32601

The main reason for this research is not to explore human evolution, but to develop multiplexed diagnostic test for viral diseases - - test that require identification and tagging of viral DNA. Old methods used regular DNA to bind and tag foreign genetic material. But natural DNA would often bind with non-disease DNA and generate confusing false positive and false negative results.
This artificial synthetic system does not operate on Watson-Crick rules, so the tagging gives more accurate results. The artificial alphabet already has been applied commercially. It is the basis of a viral load detector, which helps personalize the health care of those 400,000 patients annually infected with hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV, the cause of AIDS.

"For patients with HIV and hepatitis, the viral load detector can mean the difference between life and death"

"Brenner says that the artifical DNA system is poised to become an essential tool in genomic research. The 12 letter alphabet already luderlies new work at the National Human Genome Research Institute to connect large quantities of genomic data with human medicine."

Note: The information for this comes from a press release written by the American Chemical Society Office of Public Affairs.

Salt Lake City Monday Day 4

2009-03-24T03:23:00.000-07:00

Technical sessions start on Sunday of any national ACS meeting but governance goes along but not as many meetings are held. Some governance meetings can't be held until all the other meetings have been held because they deal with what happened in those meetings. I am speaking of the Committee on Committees and the Council Policy Committee. Yes the ACS has a Committee on Committees (ConC). Our own Les McQuire is currently the chair of this committee. This is an elected committee that sends it's members out to all the committees to check up on the activity of those committees and the functioning of the leadership and members. They take note of the participation of the members especially of the associate members who may be considered for full membership. I went to this committee's open meeting to discuss the policy about councilor's ability to attend any open executive session of a committee as an observer. This was because the information written in the ACS program was not clear as to the definition of participation in the meeting, which I term being able to actively contribute to the meeting and just observation which I term just being in the room and seeing what goes on in the committee. When I became a councilor years ago, we were told that councilors are welcome to observe the executive sessions of a committee, so long as it was not a closed meeting, and that would be a method of becoming a member of the committee. ConC is going to clarify this information for chairs and I guess councilors.

My day started with the WCC Women in Industry Breakfast which is not only for women in industry. We are encouraging all women, and students to attend this breakfast and there was talk of changing the name of this event. At this breakfast we engaged in a networking session, in which professionals sat on one side of a long table and students on the other side. Each was given about two minutes to give their elevator speech. This exercise is benefical especially to the students as they get to know some professionals and find out about how they got their jobs. On the other hand the professionals get to coach the students in how to find a job or whatever else is going on with them at the time. In my career I got two of my jobs by networking so this is a very important skill to learn.
After breakfast I took a break until the Committee on Minority Affairs Luncheon. Actually I caught up on my blogging at that time. The Keynote speaker at this luncheon was Dr. Lakeeshia J. Taite a professor of chemical engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. She gave her talk about her educational background and experience in being a minority in most of her educational experience. Then she talked about her goals and research. She felt that since she was a loner most of her life that she would not be a good medical doctor, but she did want to make a difference so she went into the field of biomedical engineering. She is working on materials for cardiovacular diseases and sickel cell anemia etc, she calls it bench to bedside research! This is one of the reasons for encouraging minorities into becoming a scientist as they will work on projects that will benefit their community that maybe other researchers would not touch.
She gave some guidance to the ACS Scholars who were in the room and other students as to what she would have done differently if she were in college. I have paraphrased them:
Students should
-Prepare for international careers, by taking advantage of overseas educational opportunities
-Embrace undergraduate research opportunities
-Remember that college is for training and education much of which you will do yourself.
-Take advantage of co-op or internship opportunities
-Use your electives to expand your horizons (Note: I would suggest taking some cultural electives such as music and art and literature.)
-Strengthen their communication skills. (Note: this is very important that you do not neglect your written and verbal skills because they are needed in any job.)

I hope I have captured the essence of what she said. I will be interviewing for my book project.

That evening I went to the Leadership reception. The ACS has started a series of Leadership Courses and this reception was to launch the courses that had only been piolt courses before and congratualate the ACS members who had been trained to facilitate these courses. This reception was full of food an drinks which means I used it for supper. If you work it right you never have to pay for a dinner at an ACS meeting because there are always receptions that have food. I also noted at this reception a large number of African American chemists. This reception competed with a Diversity reception at another hotel in which you expect to see a large number of minority chemists, but they were at this reception, which I think is a good thing. Maybe the ACS striving for diversity in all things is working.

In the evening was the Sci-Mix poster session which I did not attend. This was the session invented by our own Val Kuck in which people can present posters in different divisions and there is free beer and popcorn. In the fall the Project SEED student present their work at Sci-Mix. It is a good way for undergraduates and BS and MS professional to present their work in a easy way.

Jeannette Brown

Live from ACS Salt Lake City #1 Proteins from garden pea may fight high blood pressure, kidney disease

2009-03-23T18:33:00.001-07:00

Researchers in Canada are reporting that proteins found in a common garden pea show promise as a natural food additive or new dietary supplement for fighting high blood pressure and chronic kidney disease (CKD). Those potentially life-threatening conditions affect millions of people worldwide.

This study was presented at the American Chemical Society National meeting in Salt Lake City on Sunday March 22. Abstract # AGFD 002 Dr. Rotimi E. Aluko Ph.D Department of Human Nutritional Sciences at the University of Manitoba Winnipeg, Canada.

High blood pressure, for hypertension, is a major risk factor for CKD, a condition that as been affecting an increasing number of people in the United states and other countries. Estimates suggest that 13 percent of American adults --- about 26 million people --- have chronic kidney disease, up from 10 percent, or about 20 million people,in the 1990s. CKD is difficult to treat, and may progress to end-stage kidney disease that requires kidney dialysis or a kidney transplant. That situation is fostering a search for new ways of treating CKD and preserving kidney function.

Working with University of Manitoba colleague Harold Aukem, PhD., Aluko purified a mixture of small proteins -- called pea protein hydrolysate -- from the yellow garden pea. The researchers fed small daily doses of the protein mixture to laboratory rats with polycystic kidney disease, a severe form of kidney disease used as a model for research on CKD. At the end of the 8-week-long study period, the protein-fed rats with kidney disease showed a 20 percent drop in blood pressure when compared to diseased rats on a normal diet, the researches say.

To view the story about this paper please use this link:
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1285204

Information for this blog was obtained from a press release written by the ACS

Salt Lake City Day 3

2009-03-23T10:19:00.000-07:00

Wow these days are exhausting! An ACS meeting goes from Morning till night so you can get really tired. I am writing this on Monday and we have the long promised snow. It is really very light and not sticking to the ground but I hear the mountans are getting it so the skiing will be good tomorrow.
Yesterday, Sunday, was the day of the Committee on Minority Affairs meeting. We started with sub committee meetings in the morning, followed by a break and lunch and then he full committee meeting.
I am on the education sub committee and we discussed a proposal for funding of minority chemist to take a course. This will roll out next year. We also discussed who would be the next minority chemist to highlight like Percy Julian. I suggested Dr. Marie Daly the first African American women to get a PhD in chemistry. She did a lot of other things in her career. The committee will decide whether or not to chose her when they see the supporting information.
We also discussed how to get more minorities into science starting at the K-8 level. We came up with a lot of ideas to get students and parents more interested in science ssome that are already being done by local sections and some that need to be done.
CMA now has an awards sub committee to manage our awards and I hope to suggest people to nominate minorities for National Awards.
We branstomed ideas to be done at Regional meetings and came up with three, teacher workshops, networking programs, and symposia about a local minority sucess person with a take away kit for teachers. We will try to implement these programs.

The liason from the Committee on Professional Training (CPT) came to the meeting. They had run a series of Workshops with the minority groups, Native American, African American and Hispanic. The reports are on the CPT website which is reached from the ACS home page by clicking on about us,governance, committees,professional training, reports,special reports. (The url is too long to print) Our committee was asked to read the reports and comment on the action items. I reccomend that you do the same.
The Committee on persons with disabilties has a new version of the book Teaching Chemistry to Persons with Disabilities. I reccomend that every teacher have a copy of this book as it is free.
The Merck Index will be donating copies of the Merck Index to every high school in the nation. They will be distributed via the local sections so we will get some of them. I hope some of you will help me distribute these books to your children's high achool. We will give you something to distribute while you are there.

The ACS Diversity Partners are organized and have set goals for 2009. The diversity partners were featured in C&ENews a while back. I will scan the information about this group and put it on the NJACS miniority Affairs webpage. I am hopeing to get one or two of them to come to North Jersey to help organized our local section CMA group.

We learned that Project SEED has received an award for public service from the National Science Board of the National Science Foundation. The award will be given in May.

2011 will be the year of chemistry. The ACS is planning for this by printing materials in four different languages.

This is a good summary of the CMA meeting.

I went from there to the Town Hall meeting. Once a year the four people nominated by Nominations and Elections are presented at a Town Hall where they field questions about what they would do if elected ACS president. This year there are three women and one man running for ACS President elect, Dorothy Phillips, Nancy Jackson,Cheryl Maring,and Berkley Cue. Dr. Cue was ill so he was not at the Town Meeting. The three women did well. The councilors will cut the field down from four to two at the council meeting on Wednesday. I want to congratulate N & E for fielding the most diverse slate ever! Any one of them would make a good ACS president.

After the Town Hall, Councilors meet for an hour to Caucus, by region. Our region is the Middle Atlantic. Our regional director spoke to us and we also heard from Budget and Finance about the state of ACS finances and what they are going to reccomend as to what will be the dues for 2010. I will not devulge that figure now as we have not yet voted.

The 2010 MARM meeting will be held in Willmington DE in April.

After the caucus I went to the CMA open meeting and reception which served as dinner for me. After that I was shot so I went up to my room and went to bed.
It was a long day!

Jeannette Brown

Salt Lake City Day 2

2009-03-22T04:05:00.000-07:00

Day 2 of the meeting for me was spent at the Women Chemist Committee Meeting (WCC)over at the convention center. Since the meeting was not at the hotel where I am staying, I had to take TRAX to get there.
We now have three North Jersey women chemists besides myself who are members of that committee, Bettyanne Howson, Amber Charlebois, and Kelly George who works at Roche for my mentee Sherrie Cole. I will try to get Kelly more involved in the North Jersey local section activities. I serve as a consultant and WCC historian on that committee so I mostly sit back and observe and give the background information for current activities.
One of the members just had a baby so the baby came to the meeting and was picked up and cradled by some of the members, even the male members, during the meeting.
The highlights of the meeting were that because there are so many talks and symposia in which women are being honored or speaking, some of the members were assigned to cover the talks for the Women Chemist newsletter. I will be covering the talk by Dr. Shirley McBay who is receiving the award for Mentoring Minorities. I will also go to the award banquet in which she will receive the award. It was I that suggested that she be nominated for that award as a part of my African American women chemist project.
Speaking of the Women Chemist Newsletter, one of our North Jersey women chemists Dr. Kathryn E. Uhrich was featured in the current issue of the newsletter which is on line at http://membership.acs.org/W/WCC/newsletters/Winter09/index.html
The WCC selected a women to be nominated as an ACS fellow. The deadline for nominations for ACS fellows is April 15 and the nomination information can be found on the front page of the ACS web page.
Speaking of nominations and the promotion of women, the Committee on Nominations and Elections would like to receive the names and cv's of women who could be nominated for governance positions or be future nominees, rising stars. If you have such names you could send them to the wcc staff liaison at the link on the wcc home page.
The WCC has a number of awards that it manages here are the deadlines for two of them:

Spring Awards Deadline Reminders:

Priscilla Carney Jones Scholarship, supporting an undergraduate woman entering her junior or senior year in the study of chemistry or a chemically related area. APRIL 1

Overcoming Challenges Award, recognizing overcoming hardships to pursue a degree in chemistry at a 2-year or 4-year non-PhD granting institution. MAY 1

It is also good to remember that the ACS has national awards for which women can be nominated that deadline is November 1 and the details are on the ACS home page.

The day ended with the WCC reception and open meeting in which the Salt Lake City local women chemists committee explained what they do. They are an extention of the women in chemistry group at the University of Utah.

I was going to the WCC dinner afterwards but I got invited to the career councilors dinner in my hotel which was free!

I found out that the ACS would like more Career Councilors. Career Councilors are trained to review resumees, conduct mock interviews, and counsel other chemists who are seeking their first job or a new job. They are looking for a younger more diverse group of volunteers to join the ranks. For more information about career consultants, search for it on the ACS careers page.

I have a press pass for this meeting and I picked up my credentials. There are a lot of technical papers at this meeting that are currently embargoed. I will discuss some of them when I can

Jeannette Brown

Greetings from the Salt Lake City ACS Meeting #1

2009-03-21T03:56:00.000-07:00

The ACS meeting is being held in Salt Lake City for the first time ever I believe. I arrived early in order to take some vacation and play. The first day (Wednesday) I took a tour of the city in a van. It was nice because there were only two of us and the other woman happened to be from Newark New Jersey! I learned a lot about this Mormon city (80%) and the other people who live here. Thursday I took a trip to Park City Utah. It is one of the near by ski areas that I skied at back when I was skiing. It was fun to wander Maine street and look at the shops. I ended the day with a late lunch at a restaurant that was right at the Town lift so I could watch the skiers coming and going or end their day of skiing. The snow was good but it is the end of ski season so Spring skiing conditions prevailed, crusty in the morning and mushy in the afternoon.
That evening I went to hear the world famous Mormon Tabernacle Choir rehearse. It was wonderful. I hope I captured it on my new toy a camcorder. I am taking the first pictures with it so we will see.

OK Let's get down to the business of chemistry. I have a press pass for this meeting so I hope to cover as much as possible and blog every night or morning as the case may be. I have more energy in the morning usually.
Yesterday was my first meeting the Joint Subcommittee on Diversity. This committee is organizing a Diversity symposium to be held on Monday morning of the Washington DC ACS meeting in August. There will be a panel of CEO's or CFO's discussion at the Committee on Minority Affairs Luncheon on that same Monday. Stay tuned for details.
At that committee meeting the two in the Presidential secession, Neal Lane and Joseph Francisco attended and asked what they could do and told us their priorities for diversity in the society.
The day ended for me at the Society Committee on Education reception.

If you are on your way to Salt Lake City you should know that they are predicting snow or rain in the valley and heavy snow in the mountains so skiing should be very good on Tuesday. They need the precipitation because of a drought situation. They get all their water from a runoff from the mountain snows and there hasn't been much snow.

Also the ACS is running shuttle buses from most of the hotels to the convention center but if your hotel is on the TRAX line, (light rail) it is free and you can use it to get to the convention center.

Les McQuire has set up a North Jersey Group in the ACS network. I urge you to join this group. The first posting is about the proposed change in high school graduation requirements. I urge you to read this as well both here in this blog and the article in the ACS Network.
So much for Day One at the ACS meeting.
Jeannette

New Jersey High School Graduation Requirements

2009-03-02T04:24:00.000-08:00

The New Jersey Department of Education has changed the high school graduation requirements to make them more rigorous. The North Jersey Section Executive Committee voted to send a letter of support to them because they have included chemistry as one of the sciences. They have decided not to require a second chemistry course in all districts, but it is an option.
There was concern that the urban districts might not be able to handle this due to the lack of equipment and laboratories in some of the schools. I heard on the radio that Governor Corzine is going to use most of the stimulus funds in New Jersey for education. I don't think that will be for school construction though.
It is my idea that for urban kids who want to pursue AP chemistry they can be bussed to a suburban school that has the course. Hillsborough Township already does that for part time vo tech courses so it can be done for science. Why not? We need to think outside the box at times.
I am writing this to keep you informed about science education in this state. If you want to look at the proposed changes a summary of the changes can be found on the DOE website with a link to the full standard. http://www.state.nj.us/education/news/2009/0220req.htm
If you would like to add to the North Jersey ACS comment please contact the Chair Josepth Potenza.
You as a citizen of New Jersey also have the right to send in your own comments.
Remember quality education K-16 is important for all students and as scientists we are interested in quality science education. The ACS has science education policies which can be viewed on the ACS website. ACS Science Education Policy.
Jeannette Brown
NJACS Publicity Chair

Act4chemistry.org

2009-03-01T15:27:00.000-08:00

act4chemistry.org

Do You Know This Website?

Here is a great opportunity to have your voice heard in Washington. The ACS Office of Public Policy and Communications maintains a website which will give you timely information on legislation important to the science community. It is your gateway to the LAN (Legislative Action Network), a free ACS advocacy program. As a LAN member you easily can contact your Members of Congress as relative legislation on topics like science education and R&D funding are proposed. About eight times a year you will receive email from the ACS asking you to log onto the website to send letters on pending bills. The website makes this easy and has information on how you can join many of your North Jersey colleagues as a LAN participant. Keep up to date and log into act4chemistry.org.

Maureen Chan, North Jersey Government Affairs Committee

The above article will be posted in the Indicator.

I signed on to this web site as I was a member of the previous site LAN. I send out the letters to my members of congress when I get the action alert e-mails. It is really very easy as the letter has already been written for you. You can personalize the letter if you want or just send it as it is. This is the easiest way to contact your congress person and or senators about items of interest to you. They may or may not read the letter but someone on their staff will read it and I have gotten responses from them commenting on my letter.

Recently the action items have been about the stimulus plan:

"Invest in Science for our Country's Future

Dear Jeannette:

Please link to act4chemistry.org and contact your representative and senators to urge them to support the proposed investments in science research and education within the comprehensive 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan. The stimulus debate may be completed this week, so it is important that you act today.

As Congress debates the final details of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, it is imperative that you urge your members of Congress to support strong, consistent funding for scientific research and education. This is essential to sustaining our nation's economic and scientific competitiveness in these trying times.

We need to make the case that federal investment in scientific agencies in the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will help meet our nation’s long-term objectives while providing jobs in the immediate term."

In addition to the letters to congress members may visit their congress person to talk about science. I made such a trip when I was in Washington DC with a member of the ACS LAN staff. It was a lot of fun. The staff member briefed me about the ACS position and when I met my congress man I spoke about the ACS position in my own words. At the time my congressman was in a committee meeting but he left the committee to speak to me.

The members of the North Jersey Government Affairs Committee are planning a trip to visit Congressman Lance in the near future. Also a staff member of Congressman Freylinghausen is trying to set up a meeting about science here in New Jersey. Stay tuned and we will tell you the details when we know them. I once went to such a meeting that Rush Holtz had in another section. You don't have to be in the congress person's district to go to these meetings, but it helps.

So the bottom line is that you can make a difference with legislation so become active in LAN.

The ACS Network

2009-03-01T14:43:00.000-08:00

Are you in the ACS Network? It is getting better and better all the time. To register for the network all you have to do is to log into the ACS web page www.acs.org. Then log in to the site. If you have not logged in you can register to log in. The ACS has information about you including your ACS membership number name and address. Once you have logged in the scroll down the home page til you see ACS Network. Click on that and you will see another page that says access the network and voila there you are.
Once there you can complete your profile, add a photo of yourself and scroll the members who are already in the network and invite your friends to be part of your network. At this point I have no idea what you do with your network but at least you will have it for future use. There are now discussions which you can join or start.
I have been playing a game called Chemical History. You add names of people or things in history starting with the last letter of the last post. At least that were the original rules. There have been deviations from this. But it is fun to do. There is a discussion about"Chemist Celebrate Earthday" which is coming up soon There are other ongoing discussions about the Stimulus plan about Obama plans for science, about science in general about the upcoming ACS meeting in Salt Lake City etc. If you don't see anything you want to respond to, you can start your own discussion.
Les McQuire has asked the members of the Executive Committee to investigate the network and see how it can be improved. I am going to throw this out to you to help make the network better.
Here is his notice to us:

Try the following:

Log in to the Network via the ACS Home Page.

Click on one of your Divisions or your section (i.e. North Jersey). This pulls up a lot of names, try clicking through the list (click "next") it can very slow to pull up the next 10 people. What is your experience? What happens if you switch to 50 or 100 names per page.

Pick someone you know and invite them to join your network. How quickly does this happen?

Use the search feature, pull down the "governance" option: there are multiple duplication of positions and I feel too many classifications (Chair-elect, Chair etc). Pick one of the categories and search. Is it clear why the search found the people it did (I think people are unsure how to classify themselves).

Play with the network for a few minutes - any comments, does it work well?

I think his could be a very useful tool for ACS and our members but we need to know about and address any issues.

If you have any problems with this network you can post your comments to this blog. We can help to make it better.

Jeannette Brown
NJACS Publicity Chair

A new Era for Volunterism in America

2009-01-20T08:24:00.000-08:00

OK folks I am writing this while watching our new President Barack Obama be inaugurated. Yesterday was the Martin Luther King Jr holiday and a national day of service. I did not go out to do my service but I did work on my award, the Freddie and Ada Brown award for African American and Native American middle school and high school students. There is a new web page on http://www.njacs.org/freddieadabrown.html about this award. We had a team of the NJACS executive committe headed by Les McQuire to write the award announcement and the application. So I consider that service because four young people will be recognized for their accomplishments in school and will have a person or persons who will follow them and their careers to possibly become scientists or science literate citizens of the USA.

The ACS is a volunteer organization so for us this is not a day for service but 365 days of service. Many of you became chemists, chemical engineers or other scientists because of your love of science or because of a teacher or other mentor who lead you to that profession. It might have been by accident or by purpose. You come from different backgrounds and economic situations. You may have gone to private school and were educated in the university of your country before you came to the United States to go to graduate school or to work. Or you may have succeeded in the United States education system by having teachers who cared for you or by having a system wo cared for all students. You may have gone to a University in the United States using your student loans and later graduate fellowships.

But there are students here in the United States who are not as fortunate as you were. I was fortunate to be born in New York City at a time where education K-16 was free if you had the right grades. I was fortunate to have parents who cared about their only daughter and worked hard so that she would have a good education because all urban schools were not equal even in that time. So my father worked two jobs so that we could live in white neighborhoods and I could go to white schools who would not discriminate or dumb down the curriculum for one Black child.
But there are students here in the United States for whom this is not true. Here in New Jersey we have the most racially separated education system in the nation. This was written by the Civil Rights Project which used to be at Harvard but is now at UCLA. Students in our urban cities and some even in our suburban towns are being left behind.

Why am I telling you this? Because our new President values science. He just said that in his inaugural speech. He also values a quality K-16 education for all people. Put the two together we need to grow our own scientists. So I don't care where you received your education or what nation you received it in, you owe it to the nation that gave you a job to give back by helping young children, school districts or what ever to improve the education for all students.
Look around you where you work. Did you ever wonder about the lack of diversity in your lab? Do you look at your colleagues and wonder why they all seem to be mostly the same? When I listen to speakers at our meetings and at the end of their talk they show their research group. I am always happy when I see a diverse group of students in their group. Some companies hire chemists who have had fellowships or post doc in Research I universities. But some great science has been done by scientists who did not attend Research I universities. If you saw the Percy Julian DVD you will know that he had to go to Austria to get his PhD. Other chemists such as our own Lincoln Hawkins a Medal of Technology winner had to go to Canada to get their PhD. Now there are students who could go to these universities but they have been overlooked.

The ACS has a great program to introduce students who are economically disadvantaged to science. It is called Project SEED and has just celebrated it's 40th Anniversary. I urge you to contribute to this program when you pay your dues or at anytime on the web. It has been shown that this program has encourages many young people to become scientists. It also has the ACS Scholars program to help students through college. This was started by an ACS president who said we should have such a program.

The ACS now has a program called Diversity Partners a program which is going to reach out to our diverse scientist and find out what the ACS can do with them and for them. I hope to have two of these diversity partners come to speak to our section when we have the Section wide meeting that we are planning.

The ACS Diversity Statement is:

Statement on Diversity

The American Chemical Society believes that to remain the premier chemical organization that promotes innovation and advances the chemical sciences requires the empowerment of a diverse and inclusive community of highly skilled chemical professionals regardless of race, gender, age, religion, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, gender expression, gender identity, presence of disabilities, educational background, and other factors. Chemical scientists rely on the American Chemical Society to promote inclusion and diversity in the discipline.

To enable scientific progress and maintain its global competitive edge, the American Chemical Society remains committed to inspiring and educating the present and future generations of diverse, innovative, and creative chemical professionals. By promoting inclusion and equity to all, the American Chemical Society will succeed in fostering a diverse community of professionals in the chemical sciences who will be the catalyst for transforming the world through their full participation and integration into the chemical professions.

OK what can you do? I have a list of volunteer opportunities that you can do. The NJACS is listed with Volunteer Match and New Jersey Serves. There will be a new service website www.USAservice.org that Colin Powel will be spearheading for volunteers. Agencies will be asked to post their volunteer opportunities and I will be doing that as I do on the other two website.

The North Jersey Section participates in Street Fairs. I have requested that you spend one or two hours on a Saturday or Sunday at the street fair table to represent chemistry to the public . You can also represent your corporation. So you can make a difference!

The ACS has a new course in working with volunteers, but Volunteer Match has a webniar on being a volunteer.
The dates for this course is

New VolunteerMatch Training

How to Be A Great Volunteer

Most people never think about their volunteering as a thing that can (or should) be improved. Posture? Sure. Diet? Absolutely. But volunteering?

You bet! Whether you are new to volunteering or an old hand, there’s a lot to learn about collaborating with a nonprofit. After all, if the goal of your volunteering is to make a difference, a little bit of education and training about how to be a great volunteer could produce a huge impact in the world.

This month VolunteerMatch is proud to announce an expansion of our recently launch live Web training for volunteers. Presented by two experienced volunteer managers, this new “Webinar” series is a unique opportunity for you to ask questions and learn how to be a great volunteer.

Here are a few questions the Webinar will help answer:

	What kind of training and screening procedures can you expect at many of today’s nonprofits?

	What kind of questions should you ask when you’re considering a volunteer opportunity?

	How can you tell whether an organization is a good fit for you and your skills?

	How can you use VolunteerMatch more effectively to find a great to volunteer?

Here are the links to sign for the new two Webinars in this series. But hurry! Space is limited:

Tuesday, 1/20, 11AM - 12PM PT

Thursday, 2/12, 11AM - 12:00PM PT

So it is a new year, a new President and a new era. I hope that you will decide what you can do in this era.

I am running a meeting about this on February 8th. If you want to find out about the details of the meeting contact me at jebrown@infionline.net. This is Not and ACS meeting, but it is open to scientists who want to make a difference.
Jeannette Brown
North Jersey ACS Publicity Chair

Visit to "Good Morning America" 2008 for National Chemistry Week

2008-10-21T18:34:00.000-07:00

Bill Suits, Bobbie Gorman and I left New Jersey at 4:45 AM to get in line as the audience for "Good Morning America" an ABC news program that airs from 7 AM to 9 AM nationwide. We had to be on line by 6:15 AM but we were the second people to arrive at 5:30 AM.

To the left is the photo of the studio on 44th street in Times Square. It is a two level studio. The photo at the left shows the empty studio before the crew arrived.

Here we are on line waiting to get in. The people who were first in line took our picture. We had to wait outside until about 6:30 at which time the audience coordinator came out to get us organized. Maria Carey was going to be on the show (we didn't see her because she did not come downstairs.)

Here is a photo of the audience coordinator. She kept us amused while she did her job of getting us lined up in the proper place. We were lucky in that we were right up in front. But another group from Canada came and she placed them in another area and took photos of the group. The audience had to rehearse the script and she was in charge of getting us to stand in the right place. Also there was a bathroom run (which only the women wanted to do). We had to stand against the wall, she said like prisoners, more like students in school. We used both the men's and women's rooms but still it was too slow so I opted out of that deal. Also when the hosts went outside to introduce the program at 8:00 AM she took the people who were in the back of the line and put them outside.

Here is how we looked lined up before we are on camera. The audience coordinator thought the banner might be too big so Bill showed only the important part about NCW. They were happy that we did not have the website posted on the banner.

OK about 8:15 we finally saw the hosts of the show. The spent the first hour in the upstairs studio. The Sam Champion pictured at left came down to do the weather. He schmoozed with the audience and seemed to overlooked us. It is probably because we were advocating chemistry. He did do the weather right in front of us so in other screen shots we are seen in the background. It would have been nice if he had talked to us on air but you can't have everything! At least we were on air for our two seconds of fame and to show the world that it was the beginning of NCW.

Here is the screen shot where Sam Champion on air is talking to the women next to us because they did not like Christopher Como's hair cut!
Oh well at least we were on air!

After the show the anchors pose for photos with all the groups. Her is our group photo. Of course I am right next to Robin Roberts, I will explain why later and Bill and Bobbie are next to Diane Sawyer. (Since this is my blog, I can see I need to go on a diet!)
We have the entire banner open for this shot.

OK At 8:15 when the anchors came downstairs I shouted to Robin Roberts about how I liked her hair. She came to me and shook my hand and I told her that my hair was short because of the same reason (cancer). She commented how nice my hair looked and that I looked younger. She also said her hairdresser could help me with my hair. The photos to the left are the after the show shots with Robin. She was so gracious about this and in the second photo she is talking to me again about my hair.
I was so excited about this whole experience. I am going to write follow up notes to the audience coordinator and to Robin Roberts.
This was a great beginning to National Chemistry Week. I hope to see all of you at Liberty Science Center this Saturday!
Jeannette Brown

Correction ACS Position on NCLB

2007-12-14T19:01:00.000-08:00

I received this e-mail from Mary Kirchhoff of the Education Division of the ACS. It is also in the comment of my original post:

I noticed your recent posting on the North Jersey ACS Blog, and appreciate your efforts to update people on the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). I would like to make you aware that ACS continues to work tirelessly to include science as part of the AYP in NCLB, and does not promote science as an “optional” subject as stated in your blog. I would be most grateful if you could update your blog to ensure that it accurately represents ACS’ efforts in the reauthorization of NCLB.

___________________---
I guess what I meant to say is what I understood that now besides literacy and math there were other optional subject that the districts could use for testing science being one of them. It is is the ACS position that Science should be chosen by the districts . I hope that clarifies the situation.
Jeannette

No Child Left Behind Reauthorization Bill

2007-12-12T17:27:00.000-08:00

I received two communications about the "No Child Left Behind Reauthorization" which was supposed to happen in 2007 and now has been put off until 2008. This is something which should be of interest to everyone parent, grandparent, and single. How are children are educated reflects on the future of our economy and our political future. How many times have you called someone about a problem and when you finally got a human on the phone, that person was unable to give you any other answer than that which was printed on the sheet in front of him/her. They might have been in a call center in India but even if they were here in the USA students are not being taught to think outside the box. This is the result of standardized testing where teachers spend all their time teaching to the test and not exploring the thoughts of students. Some teachers jobs depend on the students performance on these tests. Schools in New York City are being closed and reorganized because of the "poor" performance of the students.
Science is not one of the subjects being tested and the American Chemical Society's position is that if you can't fight them, join them and want science to be one of the "optional" subjects to be tested. As a chemist I do not agree with this as I would like to do away with the tests and find other ways to "test" student knowledge of a subject. These other methods do exist as I learned them when I took some courses with WestEd in Teacher Leadership, but it involves training the teachers to be able to do this. It is simpler for a teacher to teach by rote to the standardize test.
But enough of my soap box I will copy below the e-mail I received from the Rev Jan Resseger the UnitedChurch of Christ minister whose sole job is to study Public Education in this country. She is the only minister of any denomination to have this job and as such sits on some important education commissions.
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On December 5, author Jonathan Kozol finally was able to meet with Senator Ted Kennedy about the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act.

Kozol has made the overwhelming injustices in the federal education law a primary subject in presentations during a recent national promotion tour for his new book, Letters to a Young Teacher.

He has also spent the summer and fall engaged in a partial fast to protest Senator Kennedy's unwillingness to meet about the No Child Left Behind Act.

Here is a link to Kozol's report about his December 5 meeting with Senator Kennedy: http://ed-action.org/news.php?section=letters .

As you know, the law will not be reauthorized in 2007, as scheduled. Jonathan Kozol's fast was a powerful witness to bring attention to the injustices not just in the law's mechanisms but also in its educational philosophy of test-and-punish, a strategy that has increased pressure to intolerable levels for many teachers and children, and that has increased so many unfunded demands for the most vulnerable schools that there is less funding remaining for instruction.

As we enter 2008, it will be up to all of us who care about public education to reflect on ways we too can witness to keep the focus on the need for reform in the No Child Left Behind Act, even during this presidential election year when politics might push the reauthorization even farther into the future.

Wishing you peace in this Advent season.

--Jan

Jan Resseger, Minister for Public Education and Witness
United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries
700 Prospect Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44115-1100
216-736-3711

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Not to get political but I also received a letter from Senator Lautenberg in reply to my "form" letter that I sent to him advocating the American Chemical Society's position along with my own. --------------

Dear Ms. Brown :

Thank you for contacting me about the reauthorization of the "No Child Left Behind Act" (NCLB). I appreciate hearing from you on this important issue.

The "No Child Left Behind Act" was enacted in 2002 to increase accountability and raise educational standards in our public schools. While I support the principles upon which NCLB is based, I have concerns about the way this law has been put into practice.

First, I am concerned about the emphasis on standardized testing. The law requires annual math and reading tests in grades three through eight, and once in high school. Schools that miss the set benchmarks face increasingly tough consequences, such as loss of funding or having to replace teachers or principles. While useful in some cases, standardized testing can measure only a small sample of what is learned in school. We should not rely solely on a single test to reflect the achievement of a student or the realities of their school district. I support changes to No Child Left Behind that would grant states flexibility in measuring schools' progress.

I also support implementing a "growth" model when assessing schools. Under this method, changes in test scores are measured over time to determine if students are making strides in their learning. Thus, schools will get credit for student progress. This model is particularly useful when measuring the achievements of schools in poorer districts, which face a more difficult set of circumstances than schools in more affluent areas.

Finally, I believe the reauthorization should place a high priority on a wider number of academic subjects. As it stands, many schools have begun to neglect subjects like science, social studies, and the arts in favor of increased instruction on reading and math - both of which are assessed by standardized tests. While reading and math are important subjects to learn, they should not be taught to the exclusion of other important fields of study. It is imperative that students receive a well-rounded education that will prepare them for a wide variety of professions.

Congress is set to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind law within the next year. Please be assured that I am closely monitoring the progress of this legislation, and will keep your views in mind as this issue comes before the Senate.

Thank you again for writing.
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This letter appears to be a personal note maybe I am wrong, but we have met because he is also involved with the Amtrak appropriation but that is another soap box.

Happy Holidays
Jeannette

Organic Topical Group Fall Symposium

2006-11-24T01:30:00.000-08:00

“Discovery, Selection & Development of Drug Candidates: A Senior Leadership Perspective”

Presented by the Organic Topical Group of the North Jersey Section of the American Chemical Society

November 17, 2006 at the Somerset Marriott Hotel in Somerset, NJ.

The speakers for this amazing and unique symposium were:

Dr. Carl P. Decicco, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.: “Innovation in Drug Discovery”

Dr. Malcolm MacCoss, Merck & Co. Inc.: “Emend© (Aprepitant): a Potent, Orally Active Substance P Antagonist for the treatment of Chemotherapy Induced Nausea and Vomiting (CINV). From the Medicinal Chemistry Bench to the Clinic”

Dr. Paul L. Feldman, GlaxoSmithKline Inc.: “PPAR Pan Agonists – The Next Generation PPAR Ligands”

Dr. Bruce D. Roth, Pfizer: “The Discovery and Development of Lipitor”

The Keynote Speaker was Dr. P. Roy Vagelos, Retired Chairman and CEO Merck & Co. Inc.: “The Changing Pharmaceutical Industry”

The meeting was introduced and organized by Dr. Michael M. Miller the current NJACS Organic Topical Group Chair from Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Dr. Carl P. Decicco was the first speaker and he began his talk by discussing some data on creativity. A young child begins with very creative minds but as they grow up to adulthood this creativity is “educated” out of them by the need to conform to standard ways of thinking and learning. His premise was that creativity is what is needed by scientists in the drug discovery process and some scientists still have this knowledge. His talk included three drugs that Bristol-Myers Squibb has advanced recently within their pipeline. “Apixaban” is a new drug for deep vein thrombosis. The clinical data will be presented at the upcoming ASH meeting to be held in Orlando, FL in December so he was not at liberty to disclose that data at this meeting. It is a drug that prevents clot formation without unnecessary bleeding. Computer assisted drug design was used to find an inhibitor of the active site and the compound was furnished and tested. But this was not the only method used to find active compounds by the scientists at BMS, they used their creativity and empirical thinking to design and test other candidates.

Hepatitis B is caused by a virus which attacks the liver which can eventually cause cancer (another one of the cancers caused by a virus). The scientist put in five years of work to find a key compound by testing numerous analogues that were discovered during their medicinal chemistry program. Some of these compounds had been made by a multistep synthesis which involves much time and energy. They did a bio study of the lead compounds in woodchucks over three years to assure the efficacy of the compound. This study was needed to encourage the company that it was safe to move forward into the clinic.

The last drug he spoke about was Dastinib which is a second generation drug for Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML). This drug was featured in a Business Week article on smart drugs. CML represents 20% of the adult leukemia’s and can be controlled by targeting the Philadelphia Chromosome. Gleevec was the first breakthrough drug for CML but it has some severe side effects so BMS decided to continue and advance a program to prepare a therapeutic alternative for in this area of unmet medical need. Dasatinib was the result and is active in all phases of CML. This drug was made possible through creative thinking.

Dr. Malcolm MacCoss detailed the history of the discovery of EMEND which is a Substance P antagonist for the treatment of chemotherapy induced nausea and vomiting. This involved a long term research project until the final compound was found. During this research project one of the biochemists on the projects was diagnosed with breast cancer. She had so much trouble during her first session of chemotherapy that she was not going to undergo it again. She asked to be able to use EMEND during the early clinical phase of the drug under “compassionate use.” This drug enabled her to undergo her last chemotherapy without a problem. This story was used to exemplify that at Merck “patients come first!”

Dr. Paul Feldman spoke about PPAR Pan Agonists. This class of compounds are involved in metabolic syndrome which involves obesity, hypertension, cardiovascular disease and diabetes. About 25% of the public has metabolic syndrome. Obesity is a growing problem as even teenagers are becoming obese at an early age. Currently the FDA does not recognize it as a disease. The scientist identified the PPAR ligand and then tested 5,000 molecules to find the one which would interact with the receptor. The GSK chemists enhanced the target molecule through medicinal chemistry techniques. It was remarked that efforts like this one needs to be done because patients are waiting for new compounds to counteract obesity and other areas of metabolic syndrome.

Dr. Bruce Roth is the single patent holder for Lipitor. He entertained the audience with the story of the discovery and development of Lipitor by the research and development teams at Pfizer. The discovery of Lipitor is an amazing story of innovation and perseverance, as well as risk on the part of the pharmaceutical industry to advance a compound in a medical landscape congested with a large amount of competition.

After dinner Dr. P. Roy Vagelos gave the keynote address. He was introduced by Dr. Malcolm MacCoss, VP of Basic Chemistry and Drug Discovery Sciences of Merck, Rahway, NJ.

Dr. Vagelos gave an overview of his time at Merck and the Pharmaceutical Industry in general. Dr. Vagelos was a researcher who brought his interest in research to Merck. He said that he had fun at Merck because of the “drug discovery process.” When he was CEO of the company, the organization was at its heyday and the industry was held in high respect. In 2004 there was a Harris Poll about the Pharmaceutical Industry. People had lost confidence in the industry because of the high prices and because they did not respond to the needs of people in the developing countries.

The problem of pricing has to do with the long time that the discovery and development process takes. For example the precursors to the drug Mevacore was discovered in 1978 but was not launched until 1987. The second generation drug Zocor took 5.5 years from discovery to launch. This is one of the reasons for the high prices of drugs, it accounts for the enormous cost poured into R&D each year to address unmet medical needs of the public’s interest.

With respect for improving the health of people in the third world, Dr. Vagelos was responsible for the donation of Metizin for the prevention of River blindness to the developing countries. When scientist William Campbell discovered a compound that was active to prevent the disease, it was decided that it should be donated to the people who would need it. A new drug application was filed in France and approved in two months. After determining that the US government would not help with this donation, Merck decided to do it alone.

He then talked about the three drug cocktail for AIDS. It costs about $25,000 a year for the treatment of people with AIDS which transform the disease from a lethal disease to a chronic disease. It was known that this disease was endemic in Africa but the industry decided not to donate it to the people who need it. An Indian company began making the drugs at a lower cost and selling it to the people who need it. It was then the Pharmaceutical Industry changed their minds about the donation and the price, but as Dr. Vagelos said it was too late. They had already lost their credibility with the public. He suggested that each company should pick one country or area of the world to contribute to the welfare of the people through donation of such life saving drugs.

He spoke briefly about VIOX by saying all drugs (including aspirin) have side effects. They are tested in limited populations for a limited time. When a side effect is discovered during use within a patient pool, the company should tell the FDA and then change the label describing the side effect, but not take it off the market.

He said that big pharma is no longer a growth industry because many drugs are going off patent. The new growth will come from small companies which start with zero sales. These companies are started by professors who recruit their best students to work for them. Many of these companies fail but the chemists are able to go from company to company for new employment.

He said currently, big pharma can be considered mature companies. They are:

Outsourcing the discovery process
The development process is done in-house
Early in the clinical research process they are genotyping people to discover the eventual side effects.
Outsourcing manufacturing
Sales and marketing should be changed. Sales representatives waste a lot of time trying to see doctors. Three academic medical schools have banned sales reps. Companies need to find new ways to get the information to doctors.
Direct advertising to the consumer puts a great demand for the drugs to the doctors. He feels they should limit the direct advertising until there has been a lot of human exposure to the new drugs.

He summed it up by saying that the pharmaceutical industry affects the lives of all people in a positive way. It is through the efforts of the thousands of scientists that tirelessly work to find cures of disease that life saving new drugs are found and dispersed to society.

ChemLumniary Awards at ACS San Francisco Meeting

2006-09-12T22:31:00.000-07:00

Tonight was the ChemLuminary Awards. This is a big night for ACS volunteers because it is the night when the ACS committees recognize the work of the ACS volunteers who run the programs for the membership. The North Jersey Section was nominated for several awards. We won the "Outstanding Local Section Career Program Award" for our "Careers in Transition" program that help members to obtain new positions in industry and teaching.
Here is a photo of Val Kuck accepting the award from the Chairman of the Committee on Economic and Professional Affairs and Katy Hunt President elect of the ACS.

The other award that our section won is the "ACS Student Affiliates Chapter Interaction Award"
Here is a photo of Bill Suits accepting the award from Joe Heppert Chair of the Society Committee on Education and Kathy Hunt President Elect of the ACS.

American Chemical Society National Meeting San Francisco

2006-09-08T16:17:00.000-07:00

As an American Chemical Society Councilor I am able to attend both National Meetings of the American Chemical Society. The fall meeting this year is held in San Francisco from September 8 to 14. Since I do not fly I went to the meeting via Amtrak from Trenton NJ to San Francisco.

Society Committee on Education (SOC ED) Meeting

Since I am a member of the Society Committee on Education(SocED) I had plenty of things to do on the train since we had a lot of items on the agenda for this meeting. Soc ED meets in sub committee on September 7th. There are two subcommittee's one for K-12 and one for Higher Education. I am a member of the K-12 subcommittee because of my year's of working with Pre-College teachers as the New Jersey Statewide Systemic Initiative Regional Director.
Here are some of the items that came up at this meeting.
1. They are thinking about the formation of a high school chemistry teacher affiliate group. I must emphasize thinking about. Nothing is etched in stone. They decided at this meeting to determine if there is a need for this organization and also to find out what organization already exist. For example the North Jersey Section has an on going Teacher Affiliate group which is very active. This was started by the teachers and continues to be run by the teachers. Many teachers are full members of the ACS and have become chair's of the Section or Secretary. Currently Diane Krone is the Chair -elect of the NJACS and BettyAnne Howson is the secretary. Both are high school teachers.
2. High School Chemistry Clubs. This is a pilot program which was started last academic year and there were 15 active clubs nationwide. There were no clubs in New Jersey, but we would like to have one established in New Jersey especially in the urban school districts. Teachers can sign up to establish High School chemistry clubs.
3. We heard from James Brown of the Office of Legislative Affairs (OLGA). The good news is that funding for science education has a high priority in congress after the war. Mr Brown urged ACS members to become members of the Legislative Action Network (LAN). Congress does listen to the members so when an alert comes out members should take action. There should also be a local section legislative action committee and North Jersey Section has such a committee. Members are urged to join.
4. ACS is looking for a new director of education due to the retirement of Sylvia Ware. A search was undertaken which only yielded two names and one dropped out. A new search was initiated and there are now more names to consider. In order to determine the perception of ACS education. This report was reviewed by the committee. The bottom line is that the ACS has to do a better job of communication because some things perceived as missing in programs are there but it is hard to find them on the web. The ACS is working on improving the web so that improvements should be seen in the near future.
5. The Committee on Professional Training is preparing a booklet on How to Prepare for Graduate School. It will be a web based booklet which students can download as a pdf form. It will be posted on the CPT website http://www.chemistry.org/portal/a/c/s/1/acsdisplay.html?DOC=education\cpt\index.html.

More later. This was a long meeting.

Jeannette Brown

North Jersey ACS Members at The Biennial Conference on Chemical Education

2006-08-06T11:27:00.000-07:00

The Biennial Conference on Chemical Education (BCCE) was held last week at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. Over 1300 chemical educators who teach at the college and secondary school level attended it. There were over 840 papers, which is a record for that event! This meeting is organized by the Division of Chemical Education for chemical educators to exchange the latest information about the teaching and learning of chemistry at every level K-25. The meeting also consists of plenary lectures given by experts for the whole conference. Experts in chemical demonstrations exchange the latest in demonstration and put on a show for the entire conference. Every evening there is a social event after the evening plenary. The meeting is always held on a college campus and most attendees live and eat in the dorms. In fact even if a person opts to live in a near by hotel you can eat in the dorm because that is where you network with other members of the profession and find out informal information.(Photo caption Bettyann, Jeannette, Tom, Diane)
Every year members of the North Jersey Section of the ACS attend this conference. This year three members presented papers, Anita Brandolini, Jeannette Brown and Valerie Kuck. Diane and Tom Krone, and Betty Anne Howson also attended the meeting.

Jeannette Brown and Valerie Kuck (a Purdue alumni) gave presentations in a Symposium entitled " Women in Chemistry Education. Ms Brown's presentation was "The History of African American Women Chemists” Ms Kuck's presentation was "Analysis of the Doctoral Training of faculty members at Research Universities". Both women have done extensive research on their topics and will be publishing books in the future.

(photo caption Val Kuck)

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Dr. Brandolini's paper was entitled "The Keys to Chemistry: Interactive Web-Based Tutorials". Her paper was about a simple way for students to learn the background information that they need in order to understand chemistry courses. It is intended for college students whose secondary preparation was not up to par, but it is also being used by current secondary students as a tutorial. (Photo caption Anita Brandolini)
Diane Krone and Bettyanne Howson are high school teachers who attend these conferences for professional development to hone their skills. They spent a lot of time attending the demonstration lectures and POGIL workshops. POGIL is Process Oriented Guide Inquiry Learning, a student -centered discovery-based teaching strategy designed to simultaneously develop content knowledge and key process skills such as critical think and teamwork. This method prepares students for working in teams in college and industry.

(Photo caption The Aldehydes and Ketones whop it up)
Just so you know this meeting is not all work and no play. Sunday night there was an ice cream social sponsored by the Journal of Chemical Education, Monday night there was wine and cheese in the exhibit area and Wednesday night there was music and dancing. The music was played by a pick up band of chemists called "The Aldehydes and Ketones". This group was started two years ago at the Biennial at Iowa State University and was such a hit they came back for an encore presentation at this convention. They played music from the 60's and 70's. They had people such as Dr. Glenn Crosby retired chemical educator, dancing along with the younger chemists!

Facts about the North Jersey American Chemical Society

2006-08-03T18:11:00.000-07:00

The North Jersey Section of the American Chemical Society with 7000 members is the largest local ACS section in the Nation. Our members live or work in all the counties of New Jersey, north of the Raritan River, with the exclusion of parts of Bergen County and all of Hudson County. Our members work in industry, teach in colleges and universities, teach high school work in government or are retired. The major industry in New Jersey is the pharmaceutical industry, but we also work in the electronics, communications and biotechnology industry as well as hospital and government labs.
Our current Chair is Dr. Stephen Waller; he highlights more information about NJACS on the web page http://www.njacs.org/about_njacs.html.
Since we are such a large organization we are divided into topical groups and committee. Our topical groups are: Chromatography, Drug Metabolism, Lab Robotics, Mass Spectrometry, NMR Spectroscopy, Organic, Regulatory and Quality Group and Small Chemical Business. So you can see there is something for everyone. Most of these groups meet monthly in different locations in the North Jersey area. In addition we have committees; Metro Women Chemists, Minority Affairs, Senior Chemists, Younger Chemists, Education, Teacher Affiliates, and Careers. These committees tend to run programs for their members. Membership in topical groups and committee is free to all ACS members. Members of the general public can attend the topical group meetings without being an ACS member but it is encouraged. The committees welcome new members in their groups. More information about our topical groups and committees can be found at http://www.njacs.org/index.html
Our Careers in Transition Group meets once a month to help members get a new job or get a promotion in their present job. This is a very important group for those who might be laid off from a job or are currently thinking about changing jobs.
The Teacher Affiliate Group is very active. Teachers meet once a month in different locations during the school year at a Chem Tag or Chem Central meetings. This is an informal after school meeting where teachers enjoy refreshments and share activities. Younger teachers are able to get their questions answered about some aspect of their teaching by experienced teachers. The experienced teachers also run workshops to teach younger teachers or alternative route teachers cutting edge techniques for the classroom. They also have a list serve called chementhusiasts to help teachers on a daily bases. More information about our teachers groups can be found at: http://www.njacs.org/teacher.html
Please check the NJACS website regularly for updates and information about the section. We are a very active section and we could use volunteers. If you would like to volunteer contact us on the web.http://www.njacs.org/volunteers.html
Book mark this blog for the latest news about our section.