Chicago Section ACS 2002 Annual Report
Narrative
Top Ten Activities
The Women Chemists' committee was organized in November with 11 women indicating interest at this meeting. We immediately began to plan activities for 2004. Various committee members will write articles highlighting a woman chemist each month for the Chemical Bulletin. Information about the featured chemist will also be presented as a poster at the monthly dinner meetings. Response at dinner meetings in November and December was very positive.
Chemistry Day, the Chicago Section's celebration of NCW, was the best ever this year. Once again we held it at the University of Illinois Chicago and had a turnout of about 1500 people in addition to over 100 volunteers. The day included the traditional demonstrations, hands-on activities, lectures and twenty exhibits with a few new things added. This year we publicized the event more widely, including reaching out to all of the Chicago Public School science teachers and creating a Spanish version of the flyer. Inspired by Earth Day activities, we added a poetry contest to the always popular poster contest. And we handed out CDs of our ChemShorts for Kids to the participating high school teacher volunteers. In addition, a pilot program for the Chicago Section was developed to encourage participation of youth groups such as the Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, 4-H Clubs, Campfire USA, YMCA and others in NCW activities. About a dozen scouts registered at Chemistry Day and completed some of their requirements for a Chemistry patch. The day was a very successful celebration of chemistry centered around the theme of the "Earth's Atmosphere and Beyond".
On Friday, November 21st, the College Education Committee sponsored
the first of three planned undergraduate mini-symposia in conjunction with the Section's monthly meeting. Three students from the University of Chicago presented the results of their research. The session was well attended and supported by Board members, Chicago Section members and colleagues [approximately two dozen] from the University of Chicago. The next undergraduate symposium will be held in February and will see presentation of research results by Loyola University students.
The Section co-sponsored a symposium on "Adjunct Faculty Issues in Higher Education" with the Division of Professional Relations at the Great Lakes Regional Meeting. Section and Division members worked together to organize the symposium. After presentations by an adjunct faculty member, a full time faculty member, a college administrator and a union representative, a lively discussion ensued. The session was well attended by a wide mix of chemists. SOCED later requested information on the session and charged a subcommittee at the New York meeting to look into some of the issues raised, a promising sign.
Co-sponsored by the Chicago Section and the Department of Chemistry at Loyola University, the theme of the meeting was Chemistry Serving Society. The program emphasized chemical education and environmental chemistry but also covered the entire spectrum of chemical endeavors. The diverse program had 267 papers presented over the three days of the meeting. There were 11 symposia, 6 workshops and 5 special events. The kick-off for the meeting was the Gibbs Award Dinner and Lecture held at Argonne National Laboratory on Friday, May 30. Professor John Brauman from Stanford University received the Chicago Section's Gibbs Medal and talked on "Gas Phase Ionic Chemistry." Attendance at the various sessions was, for the most part, very good; holding the education related sessions on one of the two weekend days attracted many teachers.
Over the course of 2003, the Section collaborated with several different professional organizations on different activities. As always, we publicized their activities on our web site and in the Chemical Bulletin and took part in them whenever possible. Among the activities were the DuPage Area Engineers Week festivities, lecture series at the University of Chicago, National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE) mentoring, and the Percy Julian Symposium organized by the Institute for Science Education and Technology. The American Institute of Chemical Engineers participated in Chemistry Day with us. Chem West was an important partner in both our Chemistry Day activities and in the workshop for high school teachers. A Section committee is working with a Chicago School Board task force on laboratory safety issues. The Section co-sponsored meetings with the Chicago Chemists' Club and Iota Sigma Pi.
For the past twelve years, Dr. Kathleen A. Carrado, a Section member and chemist at Argonne National Laboratory has submitted ten "ChemShorts" a year to the Chicago Section's website and newsletter, The Chemical Bulletin. We now have one hundred and twenty articles, each describing a simple and interesting chemistry experiment that a young student (grades K-6) can do at home with adult supervision and common household items. After describing the experiment, Dr. Carrado provides a simple explanation of the chemistry that causes the result the student will observe. This is an exciting way to introduce young minds to the wonders of science, and even teach them a little chemistry along the way. The ChemShorts section of our web page can be found at: http://membership.acs.org/C/Chicago/CS_home.html . For the first time, a CD was burned of the entire compilation and distributed to high school teachers as part of our 2003 National Chemistry Day activity.
The high school teacher activity was held on Chemistry Day, Saturday, October 25th at the University of Illinois Chicago in collaboration with Chem West. Approximately twenty teachers and two professional chemists attended. Post workshop evaluations indicated that teachers enjoyed the workshop and that it was a beneficial experience. The workshop was divided into two sessions, the Bunsen Box activity and UNSCO lab challenge. The first workshop, presented by Shannon Kelly and Marty Landorf, taught teachers how to make a visible light spectrometer and then calibrate it. The second workshop, presented by Ann Levinson, gave teachers a chance to solve one of the UNSCO lab practicals. Middle school and elementary teachers have approached us with a request for a future workshop at the middle school level.
A PowerPoint program entitled, "The Year in Review, a Photographic Perspective" was created to accompany our 2002 Annual Report. This program included thirty-three photographs documenting activities sponsored and supported by the Section in 2002 with a musical accompaniment. This program was burned on a CD and submitted to National with our Annual Report. The program was also posted on the Section website. Copies of the CD were also made available to interested parties throughout the year.
This year the Chicago Section continued their dinner survey at nine of the ten meetings (not the Gibbs dinner) to determine attendee satisfaction with the meetings and suggestions for future meetings. Ratings of the facilities continue to be very good with respect to the social hour, meal, comfort and acoustics while the cost averages as good. Evaluations of the Topical Group presentations range from good to very good, with much the same range for the main presentation. Several topics were suggested for future meetings. Some of the problems raised in the 2002 surveys have been corrected; a few still remain. Some changes in the questions are planned for 2004 in an attempt to address additional issues.
In addition to the top ten activities already described, the Section was extremely busy with other projects during 2003. The Employment Committee complied a thirty-four page Guidebook titled: "A PRIMER FOR JOB SEARCH SUCCESS : Resources and Strategies". The Guidebook was provided to Job Club participants and mailed to requestors. The Employment Committee sponsored Job Club meetings prior to eight Section dinner meetings. The Job Club is open to all interested parties- job seekers, employers, and those looking to improve or change their jobs. Each participant in the Job Club monthly meeting is encouraged to bring a résumé and business cards, to distribute these at the meeting, to describe what they seek in the way of a job, employer, or employee, and to share their work and educational history. Ideas and information are exchanged and shared among the participants.
In September, we displayed the Section's ChemLuminary poster at the dinner meeting to showcase some of our top activities from 2002. Then in December, we had photos of our 2003 activities displayed, in addition to the winning posters from the Chemistry Day contest. These posters generated a lot of comments and questions, hopefully resulting in more members desiring to be active in Section activities.
At the Section's celebration of NCW, we held a poetry contest for the first time. There were several entries and the winning poem is posted on our web site.
The Chicago Section's Project SEED summer program hosted two SEED I students at Finch/Chicago Medical School under the mentoring of Ken Neet and Hector Rasgado-Flores and two SEED I students at DePaul University under the mentoring of Greg Kharas. The research projects at Finch involved nerve growth factor structure and function, control of ion transport, and cell volume in excitable cells. The students, Evelyn Arranda and Jesus Guitierrez, learned about mammalian and bacterial cell growth, how to do gel electrophoresis, how to stain for proteins, how to do ion flux measurements, how to set up transport experiments, animal muscle preparations, and how to analyze the data. The research projects at DePaul involved preparation and characterization of a new copolymer of a novel trisubstituted ethylene with styrene. The students, Margaret Smith and Precious Wright, participated in the synthesis and purification of the monomer and used spectroscopic, chromatographic, and polymer characterization techniques. Both Finch and DePaul received 50% funding from the Chicago Section and the remaining funding from the National ACS Project SEED program.
The High School Education Committee of the Chicago Section ACS held its 49th annual High School Scholarship Examination on May 3, 2003 at Loyola University. The chemical industry and individuals contribute funds in support of these scholarships. Each area high school chemistry teacher can nominate up to two students. This year, 69 students were nominated to take the examination. A total of $13,950 was awarded to the scholarship winners.
The Chicago Section supported the US Chemistry Olympiad again this year. On March 22, 2003 the search for potential nominees took place. About thirty-four students took a two-hour exam to identify the top students. The Chicago Section had numerous students with honor and high honor rankings. We are proud to have such a talented group of students in our section. Ben Kaduk, Naperville North High School, and Caleb Ng, Libertyville High School, received high honors (top 50) and also qualified to attend the U.S. Chemistry Olympiad camp. Ben Kaduk qualified for the four person International Olympiad team and won a bronze medal at the Olympiad.
Chicago's Farragut Career Academy has implemented a program geared for pre-kindergarten children as part of its Kids and Chemistry outreach activities. One of the health and safety programs completed this year with forty pre-K students was hand washing. The children learned how to wash their hands thanks to a kit with an UV light and fluorescent cream. This cream glows white under the black light. When the child has not properly washed his or her hands the area with the cream glows. The little ones understood that with the right amount of washing, their hands did not have any glowing cream. Our high school students at Farragut enjoyed working with the pre-K's and earned service-learning credit towards graduation. The Chicago Public Schools Pre-Kindergarten teachers will discuss expanding this program to other pre-K locations in the system.
The Section was represented at the 19th annual DuPage Area Engineers Week program on Saturday, February 26, 2003 at Illinois Institute of Technology's Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Campus. The program is a joint effort among professional engineering and scientific societies, the two area national laboratories, businesses, educational institutions and community organizations. This year, our booth featured a hands-on display of density. Adults tried to guess and then explain which drink (a 12 oz. can of Coke or a 12 oz. Can of Diet Coke) would drop to the bottom of a column of water. Children constructed their own density columns using colored salt solutions of varying densities.
The Chicago Section continues to provide Continuing Professional Development Units to teachers taking part in Section activities.
The tradition of collecting food for charity continued this year at the annual holiday party. Each member was asked to bring in a nonperishable item of food to this dinner meeting. About 500 pounds of food were collected and donated to a local food pantry.
The Hospitality Committee has also continued holding its popular drawing for a "CHICAGO" T-shirt at the monthly dinner meetings. After dinner speakers are presented with one of the T-shirts as well.
The Chicago Section honored three of its own in 2003. Tom Kucera received a Salutes to Excellence Award for his shepherding of Chicago's Chemistry Day celebrations since its inception sixteen years ago (New). Inara Brubaker received the Section's Public Affairs Award for "pioneering the development of programs and activities that established the agenda for a decade of state and local section cooperation on a wide range of public policy issues; for setting the performance standard for the ACS Congressional Fellowship by your significant achievements during your fellowship year of 1977; and for serving your community in various ways." And Larry Thielen posthumously received the Section's Distinguished Service Award for his numerous contributions to the Section over many years.
The Minority Affairs committee was once again active this year. Representatives attended a FUTURE (Faction United to Unveil Resources Through Education) career fair attended by elementary and high school students and parents. ACS career brochures and ACS moles were handed out. Allison Aldridge gave a presentation at a program that teaches underrepresented minority children about science and other career opportunities that college education can provide for them. She spoke about the ACS and some of the services available to them if they become members as a student in chemistry. She also spoke on how chemistry touches everything in their lives and can be very exciting. In addition, committee members collaborated with NOBCChE in planning mentoring activities.
The 2003 Gibbs Medal was presented in May to Dr. John Brauman, the J. G. Jackson - C. J. Wood Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University.
"For work which fundamentally changed the understanding of chemical structures and reactivities; for research which revealed intrinsic stabilities and reactivities and provided models for the dramatic effect of solvation on chemical reactions; for major advances in the understanding of energy transfer and its effect on reaction dynamics; for studies using photodetachment to provide accurate descriptions of chemical structures."
The 2003 Basolo Medal, awarded by Northwestern University and co-sponsored by the Chicago Section, was given to Daryle H. Busch, the Roy A. Roberts Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at the University of Kansas. This award is given for outstanding research in Inorganic Chemistry and was established by former students of Dr. Fred Basolo.
Several Section members have been recognized for their contributions to their profession this past year. Zafra M. Lerman, distinguished professor of science and public policy and head of the Institute for Science Education & Science Communication at Columbia College Chicago, was selected by the ACS Board of Directors as the 2003 recipient of the Charles Lathrop Parsons Award in recognition of outstanding public service to chemistry. The Parsons Award is named after the executive secretary who helped create today's ACS.
Lee Marek, formerly of Naperville North High School and frequent guest on late night national television, received the 2003 Helen M. Free Award for Public Outreach. This award is made for outreach to the general public that improves the public's awareness of chemistry and its contributions to the quality of daily life. Lee is certainly a worthy recipient of the award.
James Shoffner was named the 2003 Ralph H. Metcalfe, Sr. Chair at Marquette University. Each year this position brings a prominent scholar from an historically underrepresented group to the university and allows them to highlight their contributions to their field. Jim has been particularly active over the years as a mentor to young people in the field of science.
The College of DuPage recently honored their outstanding faculty for 2003. Our Chair, Susan Shih, was among those honored. Quoting from their web page, "Shih co-authored a laboratory manual for the Principles of Chemistry sequence. She holds her students to high academic standards, combining an effective teaching style with knowledgeable counseling skills. Shih serves on many college committees and has been involved in three successful proposals for National Science Foundation grants. She serves as a mentor to part-time faculty. Shih last year was elected to serve as Chair of the ACS Chicago Section, one of the largest sections in the nation."
Our Public Relations committee has been more active this year. For the Great Lakes Regional Meeting, e-mail was used extensively to announce the meeting to potential attendees. Six e-mail messages were sent to chemists on a list provided by the National ACS. A mailing of a brochure on the meeting was also done using an ACS mailing list for the Great Lakes Region. Articles were published on the meeting in the Chemical Bulletin, which goes to 5500 ACS members in the Chicago Section. The meeting was featured in the May 5, 2003, issue of Chemical and Engineering News and a registration form was included in this article. In addition, several press releases were sent to the local media. For Chemistry Day, many calls were made to media contacts and English and Spanish version brochures were distributed. Science teachers in the Chicago Public Schools system also received this information.
The Section web site continues to be a powerful means of communication with our members and the scientific community at large. A new web address was created for the convenience of our members and guests: www.ChicagoACS.org, though we continue to avail ourselves of the web server provided by the ACS National. Our Late Breaking News page gets information out to our members much more quickly than possible using the Chemical Bulletin. A PowerPoint presentation of the year in photographic review was added to the 2002 Section Annual Report, and the report was posted on our web site for easy access by our members. On-line meeting registrations continue to be a well-accepted convenience for our members. Each meeting has a web page devoted to it, including a description of the speaker, the topic, and the meeting location with a map and the menu for the evening. An archive is maintained listing monthly meetings with speakers and topics extending back to 1980, with links to web pages describing meetings wherever available. The archive also includes annual reports and lists of Section officers and chairs for the past three years. "ChemShorts for Kids" is a compilation of over one hundred and twenty science experiments suitable for performing with young children. New experiments are added to the web page ten months of every year, all through the tireless and inspired efforts of a Section member, Kathleen Carrado. Full web support was provided for the 2003 Great Lakes Regional ACS Meeting and the Chicago Section's activities celebrating National Chemistry Week. We have also added a page "In Memory" of Section members no longer with us.
On Tuesday, August 5, a group of 28 people, including members of the Board of Directors of the Chicago Section and their friends and guests met for dinner and an evening out to enjoy a program entitled "A Comedic Tour of the Universe" presented by the Galileo Players. This was an evening of improv and comedy with a scientific theme, and provided a means for a number of our board members to meet each other in a more social setting. This team-building adventure was highly successful, and a similar activity will be planned for the coming year.
The Finance Committee headed by the Section Comptroller wrote a new finance manual for the Section. In July 2002, concomitant with the advent of switching to a calendar fiscal year, the Section adopted QuickBooks software for maintaining the financial records. The new finance manual serves to illustrate the manner in which these records are maintained, and provides specific instructions as to how entries are made. It is useful for the experienced and novice user. In addition there is a summary description of the various endowment and reserve funds maintained by the Section, and the responsibilities of the individuals who deal with Section finances.
The Section Trustees have also written guidelines detailing the responsibilities of the trustees in managing the Section's endowment and the investment strategies that are currently in use. In addition, the Trustees presented a program on Section Finances as a Topical group meeting and also held a tutorial for some individuals who had expressed an interest in serving as a Trustee.
For many years National has recommended that the Section change from an academic fiscal and programming year to a calendar fiscal and programming year. Such a change would put us in synchronization with National and the majority of local sections and divisions. Three years ago we initiated such an effort. This involved major revisions to our bylaws and policy declarations as well as complex changes to some programs whose dates could not be altered such as the presentation of the Willard Gibbs Medal. Once the documentation was modified, the physical change began in July 2002 with the start of the six-month transitional fiscal year and an eighteen-month transitional programming year. December 31, 2003 saw the end of the transitional period. The officers and committee chairs who took office on July 1, 2002 completed their terms on December 31, 2003, and the Section is very grateful for the additional time and effort they provided.
As a result of the calendar change, many changes also had to be made to the Board manual to bring procedures and dates into compliance with this new calendar. The 2003 manual can be found at the end of this report.
Early this year the Bylaws Committee finished a re-write of the Section's Bylaws and Policies. The goals of this committee were:
- Bring the Section Bylaws into compliance with the requirements of the ACS National.
- Update both our Bylaws and Policies to reflect the change of the term of office of our officers and committee chairs from an academic year to a calendar year.
- Incorporate other changes, as needed, to our Policies to reflect the reality of current practices and committee functions.
The revised Bylaws were submitted to the ACS National in January 2002 and accepted by them on May 22, 2003.
The Membership committee proposed a change in the Section policy with regard to Local Section Affiliate status. This change opens Affiliate membership to more individuals and will hopefully attract more individuals, especially high school teachers, to join the Section.
During the past few years, the Chicago Section ACS has participated in the "Chemical History of Chicago Project" funded in part by the Camille & Henry Dreyfus Foundation and by the Northwestern University Library Board of Governors. Robert Michaelson, Head Librarian, Seeley G. Mudd Library for Science and Engineering, Northwestern University Library, Evanston, Illinois contacted the Chicago Section ACS for permission to microfilm early issues of The Chemical Bulletin, minutes of the Chicago Section through 1925, and some of the historical data from the years 1887 through 1951. The microfilming was done by Preservation Resources, Bethlehem, PA, which retains the master copy. Copies are also in the Chicago Section ACS offices, and Northwestern University Library. The final microfilming of The Chemical Bulletin, through the 1960 issues should be completed in 2004. Harriet Lightman, Bibliographer for History, Northwestern University Library, has written an article for publication, based in part on some of the early archival material as gathered by Dudley French.
Currently, the Chemical Bulletin has had the same amount of advertising for several years. This level of advertising put a strain on the Chemical Bulletin production budget and limits the number of pages that can be produced without a major deficit. We have depended on word of mouth or on e-mail solicitation since the reopening of our Section office last year. The e-mail solicitation has been done by our office manager, using the advertisers' list found in the National ACS meetings booklet for the current exposition. While this has brought in one or two new ads from time to time it has not produced the results the Chemical Bulletin staff was looking for. Informal discussions began on how to increase the Chemical Bulletin advertisers. It was decided a more direct approach would be used at the next National ACS Meeting in New York. Several Chicago Section members presented exhibitors at the National Meeting with Chemical Bulletin Brochure Packages and discussed with them the benefit of advertising in the Chemical Bulletin. The brochures contained a complimentary issue of the Chemical Bulletin, a letter from the current editor, and a current rate sheet. This was packaged in folders with a business card of our office manager. While results did not provide the volume of advertisers the Chemical Bulletin staff hoped for, this method of solicitation continues to hold promise and we plan to use it at the next PITTCON Meeting held in Chicago this year. In addition, the packet has been distributed to some local companies with positive results.
The main goals of the Chicago Section YCC last year were to increase Local Section awareness of the committee and to develop ideas for more extensive involvement in the community. We continued to organize occasional "Happy Hours" at various locations in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs. These were publicized via our growing email list and in the Chicago ACS Section's Chemical Bulletin. We also attempt to keep our webpage on the Chicago section website updated. We continue to participate in an annual career fair. We were not able to execute any large-scale educational or outreach events this year, but it remains one of our goals for next year. Several "Happy Hours" were held throughout the year at various restaurants in the Chicagoland area. Typically, 2 - 10 people attend. There were two dinners held, both at casual, low-cost restaurants which were attended by 10 people each. We will continue to organize these occasional informal get-togethers, because the people who attend appreciate the opportunity to meet other area Younger Chemists. YCC chose one dinner meeting of the Chicago Section to promote attendance of younger chemists, particularly those in area graduate schools and in industry. Letters were sent from the Chair to chemistry departments in the Chicago area. Other advertising included the Section website, email list, and flyers at the workplaces of committee members. We were able to fill a table at the dinner meeting, and recruited a few new members at the same time. The YCC, with assistance from the Section office manager, organized a booth at the Great Lakes Regional ACS Meeting. The booth highlighted various recent activities of the Section, the Gibbs Award, and committees of special interest to the attendees (such as Education and Employment). As the Chicago YCC has done annually, several of us volunteered to man the Careers in Chemistry booth at Harper College Career Fair in Palatine, IL. This event is mostly attended by high school students and their parents, all of whom are interested in learning what "real" chemists do on a day-to-day basis, and what types of careers are available for someone with a chemistry background. We provided pamphlets on various careers and copies of C&EN for the students to peruse.
As demonstrated in this annual report, the Chicago Section has been extremely active in 2003, with a wide range of programming and member services, including many new ones. We plan to continue serving our members and the community at large to the extent of our abilities.
--- Written by Susan Shih.
