- ACS Career Fair On-site & Online
- Midwest/Great Lakes Joint Regional ACS Meetin
- Daniel Cohen Receives ACS Division of Organic Chemistry Graduate Fellowship
- Arlington Heights student out to cure gluten intoleranc
- Chicago ACS in the NEWS!
- ACS Chicago Section Interview Keith and Adrian
- Loyola Professor Awarded Chicago Section American Chemical Society Distinguished Service Award
- Jeopardy - IYC-themed Questions
- Naperville teen vying for spot on U.S. chemistry Olympic team
- JUST RELEASED: Morris William Travers: A Lifetime of Achievement
ACS Career Fair On-site & Online
August 28-31
Colorado Convention Center, Denver, CO
The ACS Career Fair in August will be a hybrid event, fully integrating the Virtual Career Fair into the on-site ACS Career Fair held concurrently with the ACS national meeting in Denver. This innovative online/on-site Career Fair will offer job seekers not only more venues to connect with prospective employers, but also more programs to gain the knowledge & skills needed to reach their career goals.
For more information visit the ACS Career Fair website.
Midwest/Great Lakes Joint Regional ACS Meeting
October 19-22, 2011
Sheraton Westport Chalet,
Awards recognizing outstanding members throughout the Midwest and Great Lakes regions will be presented at the meeting. Please nominate volunteers within the Chicago section for the two awards with September 1 nomination deadlines. Online fillable nomination forms are found on the meeting's website, and should be emailed to the respective Awards Committee. The awards seeking nominations are:
ACS Division of Chemical Education Award for Excellence in High School Teaching
E Ann Nalley Award for Volunteer Service
Information about the eligibility criteria and nomination forms on the Regional Meeting website.
Midwest/Great Lakes joint regional ACS meeting website
Daniel Cohen Receives ACS Division of Organic Chemistry Graduate Fellowship
July 26, 2011
Daniel Tzvi Cohen, a fourth year graduate student in Professor Karl Scheidt’s laboratory has been awarded a Division of Organic Chemistry fellowship for 2011-2012. The specific sponsor for Daniel’s award is Organic Syntheses/Organic Reactions. This highly competitive national fellowship is awarded to 12 of the country’s best organic graduate students in their fourth or fifth year. Daniel’s graduate work focuses on the development of annulation strategies in N-heterocyclic carbene-catalysis. Daniel received his undergraduate degree from SUNY New Paltz in May 2007 and he is the fourth student in the Scheidt Research Group to receive the prestigious DOC graduate fellowship (Anita E. Mattson, 2005-2006, Troy E. Reynolds, 2007-2008, Eric M. Phillips, 2008-2009).
Arlington Heights student out to cure gluten intolerance
July 26, 2011
Congratulations to Stephanie Gates for being selected into the ACS Chemical Industry Scholar Program, a highly selective and prestigious initiative aimed at introducing chemistry and chemical engineering students to chemical industry careers.
More than 25 undergraduate chemistry and chemical engineering majors have been named Society of Chemical Industry (SCI) Scholars. Each of these college sophomores and juniors will participate in 10-week internships at SCI member companies this summer.
The SCI, the American Chemical Society (ACS), and American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) developed this summer internship program to introduce chemistry and chemical engineering students to careers in the chemical industry.
“Our industry can only continue to be successful if we continue to attract top young scientists and engineers. The scholars program has become an important tool to achieve this,” said Stephanie Burns, president and CEO of Dow Corning and chairperson of the SCI.
SCI member companies participating include Air Liquide, Air Products, Arch Chemicals, Chemtura, Chevron Phillips, Dow Chemical, Dow Corning, DuPont, Eastman Chemical, ExxonMobil, Honeywell UOP, International Specialty Products, LANXESS, Milliken & Company, Nalco and W. R. Grace.
Each company makes 10-week summer internships available in their research laboratories or manufacturing plants. Students apply through the ACS in a national competition. Panels of volunteer chemists and engineers review qualifications and recommendations to make final selections. This year, more than 250 students with an average GPA of 3.85 applied for the program. Scholars receive a certificate of recognition and a stipend to supplement their internship salary. Students are encouraged to nominate a high school science teacher who sparked their interest in chemistry. Teachers are recognized for their outstanding ability in the classroom and receive a stipend to further their activities.
“I think this program is amazing. One thing that was great was that I learned what job opportunities were out there,” said Joseph Mosley, 2010 SCI Scholar.
Chicago ACS in the NEWS!
July 3, 2011
The Chicago ACS offers its members many benefits and provides many services for the community. Check out our article in the NWI Times to learn more!
ACS Chicago Section Interview Keith and Adrian
June 23, 2011
Check out our current Chicago ACS chair Dr. Keith Kostecka interviewing Dr. Adrian Whitty, Associate Professor at Boston University. Dr. Whitty gave a talk at the June 2011 dinner meeting entitled "Drugging the Un-Druggable: Discovering Small Molecule Inhibitors of Constitutive Protein-Protein Interactions"
Dr. Whitty is Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry, Boston University, where he joined the faculty in 2008. He spent the previous 14 years at Biogen Idec, most recently as Director of Physical Biochemistry leading a group responsible for the structural, biophysical and mechanistic study of drug targets and of protein and small molecule drug candidates.
He obtained a B.Sc. in Chemistry at King’s College, University of London and a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry at the University of Illinois at Chicago, after which he held a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Brandeis University with Professor William P. Jencks. He left Brandeis to join Biogen (now Biogen Idec) in 1993. His research has included elucidation of enzyme mechanisms and enzyme-inhibitor interactions, as well as mechanistic investigations of integrins, immune cell co-stimulatory molecules, and a number of cytokine and growth factor receptors. The unifying theme of his work has been to understand how binding energy is generated through protein-protein or protein-small molecule interactions, and how it is used to achieve biological function and specificity. A major current focus of his research is the development of small molecule inhibitors that block protein-protein interactions.
Loyola Professor Awarded Chicago Section American Chemical Society Distinguished Service Award
June 23, 2011
Ask chemistry students or associates about Professor David Crumrine and you will find that he is a dedicated and energetic Professor of Physical Organic Chemistry. Always willing to help the University, other professors, and especially students, Professor Crumrine has been a role model for educators over the last four decades. Unknown to many of his students and colleagues is the outstanding impact that he has made for his profession. In parallel to his efforts at Loyola, he has worked tirelessly to improve the chemistry profession. It is for this parallel career that Professor Crumrine, was awarded the Chicago Section American Chemical Society (ACS) Distinguished Service Award on June 23. This award recognizes outstanding and dedicated service to the Chicago Section ACS.
Professor Crumrine uses a national-scale footprint to serve Chicago-area scientists in the chemical profession very well. He has for the past 10 years served as a Councilor from the 4,700 members from the Chicago and Northern Indiana area to the 160,000 member national organization. He also serves the chemical profession on the national Committee on Chemical Safety, which promotes and facilitates safe practices in chemical activities. This committee provide advice and counsel to government, industry, and academia, to ensure safety. The committee highlights potential hazards and stimulates education in safe chemical practices.
Professor Crumrine also helps Chicago area scientists through his leadership in the local ACS section where he served in 2008 as Chair. For many years he has applied his educator skills to bring knowledge about chemistry to the Chicago-area public during National Chemistry Week each October. Professor Crumrine has also served the Chicago-area organization in its student activities, technical talks, and administration.
David’s interest in Chemistry was primed partly by his parents who taught Science, Math and some other classes in Ohio. A summer in a high school chemistry program at Northern Illinois University, a second summer research opportunity at Ohio State, and a third summer working for Monsanto convinced him to earn a chemistry PhD at the University Wisconsin at Madison. This was followed by Post-doctoral work at MIT and Georgia Tech.
Working at Loyola University, Professor Crumrine has worked with students and colleagues to author 39 scientific research papers and review articles. David was named in 2004 a Master Teacher of the college of Arts and Sciences at Loyola University and was nominated again in 2009. He joined the Office of Research Services in 1997 where he was in charge of handling grant applications and awards and responsible for several key committees. He was appointed Assistant Vice President for Research until returning full time to teaching as the Chemistry Department Chair from 2002 to 2006. This position afforded him the opportunity to interact with the Chemistry Chairs of other Universities from around the world.
In fall 2010 David was asked to be the Acting Director of CUERP (The Center for Urban Environmental Research and Policy), which produces biodiesel fuel and is involved with sustainability issues. He currently serves on a number of University Committees.
Professor Crumrine has had a large impact on colleagues and friends through his work at every level: local, regional, national, and across the globe.
Professor Crumrine and his wife Sheila enjoy their combined families and share Dave’s 94 year old mother, their 4 sons, two daughters-in-law, and a granddaughter.
Jeopardy - IYC-themed Questions
June 21, 2011
‘I’ll take Chemistry for $200, Alex’ – Watch an IYC-edited excerpt of Jeopardy! The game show Jeopardy!, with more than 9 million viewers, celebrated the International Year of Chemistry by devoting a category of clues to chemistry on June 21.
Naperville teen vying for spot on U.S. chemistry Olympic team
May 16, 2011
Congratulations to Nolan Maloney of Naperville! Good luck competing to be on the US Chemistry Olympiad team.
Twenty of the nation’s top high school chemistry students, representing 10 states, will compete for a spot on the U.S. team bound for the 43rd annual International Chemistry Olympiad, which will be held in Ankara, Turkey, July 9-18, 2011. In 2012, the International Chemistry Olympiad will be held at the University of Maryland July 21-30.
Historically, the U.S. team, which is sponsored by the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientific society, has been a strong competitor at the international event. In 2010, the U.S. team had one of its best years; team members won two gold medals, one silver, and one bronze. In 2009, the U.S. team won a gold medal and three silver medals. In 1999 and 2000, the U.S. team won the top gold medal.
“ACS is proud to announce these 20 Olympiad finalists –– young men and women who have demonstrated profound knowledge and skill in the chemical sciences –– truly they are our scientific promise for the future,” said ACS President Nancy B. Jackson, Ph.D. “In 2011, the International Year of Chemistry, the Chemistry Olympiad holds even more meaning for the scores of young chemists who will gather from around the world. Students will not only compete in graduate-level science with the best and the brightest of their peers, but they will have an opportunity celebrate just how important chemistry is in solving global problems such as creating medicines, providing clean drinking water for all people, and developing innovative materials that inspire new products and new economies.”
Eighteen boys and two girls, chosen from a pool of more than 11,000 high school students nationwide, will spend May 31-June 15 preparing at a study camp at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado. During the camp, the students will receive college-level training, with an emphasis on organic chemistry, through a series of lectures, problem-solving exercises, lab work, and testing.
The 2011 finalists will be mentored by chemistry teachers Kristin Fletcher, Chromatic Technologies, Colo.; Steve Lantos, Brookline High School, Mass.; Kelli Slunt, University of Mary Washington, Va., and peer mentor, Brian Lee, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mass.
At the conclusion of the study camp, a four-member U.S. team and two alternates will be chosen to participate in the international contest that will include teams from more than 68 other countries. Each country sends four contestants and two coaches to the host country for nine days of exams, lectures, recreation, and tours.
The International Chemistry Olympiad originated with Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Hungary in 1968. Soon, other Eastern European countries joined the event; Western Europe began participating in 1974. The first U.S. team competed in 1984, winning one silver and two bronze medals.
The ACS has sponsored the American team annually since the United States joined the Olympiad. Principal funding is through the ACS Donald F. and Mildred Topp Othmer Olympiad Endowment with additional support from the Air Force Academy; Advanced Chemistry Development; Carolina Biological Supply Company; Fisher Scientific; Flinn Scientific, Inc; Wiley & Sons Publishers; McGraw-Hill Companies; Merck Publishing Group; Prentice Hall Publishers; Texas Instruments, Inc.; University Science Books; Sorbent Technologies and Sigma Aldrich Co.
JUST RELEASED: Morris William Travers: A Lifetime of Achievement
May 2011
Chicago's own section chair has just released a new book! Keith will happily sign your copy...send him an email if interested.
Morris William Travers: A Lifetime of Achievement chronicles the remarkable life and accomplishments of Professor Morris William Travers. It covers his entire life and showcases his accomplishments as a scientist, educator, administrator, industrialist, and author. This book further encompasses: the history of his family and his early life; his work in setting up Bristol University; India and setting up the Indian Institute of Science; his work in England from 1914 to 1937; and the accomplishments and affairs of his later years. In addition, this book shows the visionary nature and ideas of Professor Travers and his impeccable sense of honor and integrity in dealing with others.