The November meeting at Brandeis was very well attended

Northeastern Section of the ACS

Monthly Board Meeting

Northeastern University, Boston, MA

May 14^th, 2009

Members in Attendance: J. Billo, K. Browne, M. Burgess, M. Filosa, M. Hoffman, L. Johnson, D. Lewis, K. Lee, R. Lichter, J. McKew, D. Phillips, J. Piper, M. Schwartz, L. Shao, M. Simon, M. Singer, M. Strem, R. Tanner, and A. Viola.
The meeting was called to order at 4:40 pm with J. Billo as the Chair
The minutes from March 2009 were approved as presented

The minutes from April 2009 were approved as presented

Chair: J. Billo

• 
  There is a call for nominations for the Northeast Region awards.
  
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  Need tellers for June election counting.
  
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  The June Board meeting is typically the long range planning meeting. Please submit possible topics for discussion.
  
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  Motion by M. Simon:
  
  • 
    Do not have the long range planning meeting due to lack of topics.
    
  • 
    Motion not seconded. Motion withdrawn.
    

Chair Elect: J. McKew

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  Introduced Katherine Lee as the Chair for the NESACS - 2010 National Committee Meeting.
  

Secretary: M. Singer

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  No Report
  

Treasurer: J. Piper

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  The April 2009 treasurer’s report was presented, discussed and approved as presented.
  

Trustees: M. Strem

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  The trust assets are up ~6% year to date.
  

Archivist: M. Simon

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  The search is on-going for a permanent home for the section archives.
  

Councilors:

Councilor

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  No Report
  

Local Arrangements: M. Burgess

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  The April 16^th, Esselen award meeting was held at the Harvard Faculty Club to honor Dr. Chad A Merkin from Northwestern University.
  
  • 
    There were 83 guests in attendance.
    
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  The May meeting, Education Awards meeting will be held at Northeastern University. Recognition and awards will be presented to high school and college students.
  
  • 
    Dr. John Wozney from Wyeth Research in Cambridge will be the speaker.
    
  • 
    80 people are expected for this evening.
    

Education: R. Tanner

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  The James Flack Norris and Theodore William Richards Undergraduate Summer Research Scholarships, 2009
  
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  The Northeastern Section of the American Chemical Society (NESACS) established the James Flack Norris and Theodore William Richards Undergraduate Summer Scholarships to honor the memories of Professors Norris and Richards by promoting research interactions between undergraduate students and faculty. Research awards of $35000 have been given for the summer of 2009. The student stipend is $3000 for a minimum commitment of ten weeks of full-time research work. The remaining $500 of the award goes to the research advisor to use on supplies, travel, and other items relevant to the student project. The 2009 scholarships have been awarded to:
  
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    Danelle Raad, Brown University, Professor Theordore Betley, Advisor, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University
    
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    Elizabeth Neuhardt, Keene State College, The Synthesis and Characterization of New N-Heterocyclic Germylene Complexes of the Early Transition Metals, Dr. Colin Abernethy, Advisor
    
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    Rita Ciambra, University of New Hampshire, Redox Reactivity, Ligand Substitution, and Conformational Changes in a Geobacter Heme Protein GSU093, Ekaterina Pletneva, at Dartmouth College, Advisor
    
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    John Sirois, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Nucleophilic Displacement Reactions in Hindered Allylic Systems, Dr. Donald Boerth, Advisor
    
  • 
    Award winners are required to submit a report of their summer projects by November 2009 for publication in THE NUCLEUS. They are also required to participate in the Northeast Student Chemistry Research Conference (NSCRC) in April 2010.
    
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  The Phyllis Brauner Memorial Book Award:
  The Book Award is a memorial to an outstanding member of the Northeastern Section, Dr. Phyllis Brauner. She served in many offices of the Section, in 1974 became the first woman Chair of the Section, and contributed to the activities of the Section with her bold, innovative ideas and practical ways of carrying them out. She taught at Simmons College and Framingham State College and was an inspiring teacher. Her research and education interests are mirrored in the prize, which is given to a student who excels in the undergraduate oral presentation at the Northeast Student Chemistry Research Conference (NSCRC), as judged by a committee of the conference judges that includes the Education chair. The book is chosen by the student. A presentation bookplate inside the cover honors both Dr. Brauner and the awardee. The book is presented to the awardee at the May meeting of the Section.
  
  • 
    This year’s awardee is Samuel Beal from Wheaton College for his poster presentation at the 2009 Northeast Student Chemistry Research Conference (NSCRC) entitled Chemical Weathering in the Along the Greenland Ice Sheet Margin. His research advisor is Professor Matthew Evans. The book he has chosen is “Earth: Portrait of a Planet” by Stephen Marshak.
    

Education: S. Lantos

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  On April 4 we had the largest turnout in years for the annual Avery Ashdown High School Examination contest (141 students). There were 26 schools participating form across the section, with some new schools including several from New Hampshire.
  
  • 
    The Ashdown Exam is a qualifier for the nationally administered United States Chemistry Olympiad (USNCO). Offered this year to 908 students from across all sections of the ACS, 20 of these top students will compete in an intensive two-week summer study camp at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO.
    
  • 
    I’m pleased to report that one of our own, Danny Chiao from Acton-Boxborough Regional High School (whose teacher is ABRHS chemistry teacher Mr. Baumritter) will be amongst those top twenty students nationwide. Danny will have a chance to be one of four who will ultimately represent the US at the International Chemistry Olympiad (IChO), held this July in Cambridge, UK. Go Danny!
    

Board of Publications: M. Filosa

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  The new Nucleus volunteers are making big contributions to the Nucleus and the Website.
  
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  Tracking well actual vs. budget for 2009.
  
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  Loading podcasts onto the website is an ongoing project.
  

Webmaster: D. Cunningham

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  No Report
  

Nucleus Editor: M. Filosa

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  Good content in place for the Summer issue.
  
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  Summerthing will be listed in the May issue and the summer issue.
  

Membership: M. Chen

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  A new member list was received this month on May 3^rd. There were 111 new members (60 new members, 51 transfers from other sections to NESACS). Welcome letters will be sent toward the end of August to invite them for the September meeting.
  
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  2 new members will attend the May Education Night Dinner Meeting
  

Nominations: J. Billo

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  Mort Hoffman and Michaeline Chan have agreed to be the 2010 Board representatives to the Nominating Committee.
  
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  Nominees were approved by voice vote of the Board.
  

Continuing

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  No Report
  

Fundraising:

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  No Report
  

Esselen Award:

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  No Report
  

Professional Relations:

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  No Report
  

Government Relations: D. Lewis

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  ACS is encouraging all National Meeting attendees in Washington DC to visit their congressional representatives.
  
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  A visit to the local office of Barney Frank is being planned. Contact D. Lewis for more information.
  

Med Chem. Group:

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  No Report
  

NCW: C. Jaworek-Lopes

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  Plans are still being worked on for NCW activities at the Museum of Science.
  

Summerthing: D. Lewis

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  Two Summerthing activities are being planned
  
  • 
    Futures at Fenway Saturday August 8^th.
    
    • 
      First 10 education night awardees to request tickets will receive 2 free tickets.
      
  • 
    Tanglewood Performance Sunday August 2^nd.
    
    • 
      Performance at 2:30 pm, group picnic at noon.
      

NERM: M. Hoffman

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  NERM 2011 will be hosted by the Worcester / Central MA section.
  
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  NERM 2010 will be in Potsdam NY
  
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  NERM 2009 will be in Hartford CT. Details will soon be available on the NERM website.
  

YCC: L. Johnson

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  The NSCCF (Chemistry Career Fair) and the NSCRC (Chemistry Research Conference) were held on back-to-back days on May 1^st and 2^nd. With joint registration for both events, 100+ people registered for the Two-Day Symposium. Sixty plus people registered for the NSCCF and eighty people registered for the NSCRC, which includes 30 people registered for both events (17 of these 30 were NSCRC presenters).
  
  • 
    Attendance for each event was 60-75% of those registered.
    
  • 
    Gregory C. Fu (MIT) gave the keynote address, Asymmetric Catalysis with "Planar-Chiral" Heterocycles. He also attended dinner with two award winners and four representatives from the NSYCC (one award winner was also an NSYCC representative).
    
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  NSYCC Executive Committee Election Results:
  
  • 
    2009-2010 Chair, Raeanne Napoleon, Boston University
    
  • 
    Vice-Chair, Josh McNally, Boston University
    
  • 
    Career Chair, Mariam Ismail, Northeastern University
    
  • 
    Publicity Chair, Amandeep Sangha, Boston University
    
  • 
    Treasurer, Erin Iski, Tufts University
    
  • 
    Raeanne Napoleon and the executive committee (above) will serve through the 2010 ACS National Meeting in Boston, including the coincident German Exchange.
    
  • 
    All award information is available on the website, and 6-10 abstract booklets are available for those on the NESACS Board who would like a copy.
    
• 
  As my last YCC monthly report, I would like to thank the NESACS board and trustees, as well as each of the board members, past and present, who have provided support, advice and wisdom during my tenure as Chair. Thank you!
  
• 
  The Board expressed it’s appreciation to Lee Johnson for his leadership of the YCC.
  

YCC / GDCh 2009 exchange: M. Strem

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  No Report
  

Public Relations: L. Johnson

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  Working on fine-tuning the e-mail list
  
• 
  Boston Globe is expressing an interest in ACS and Teaching Trends.
  

Old Business:

International Year of Chemistry (IYC) Committee

Members: Morton Hoffman (Chair), Ruth Tanner, Christine Jaworek-Lopes,

John McKew, Lee Johnson, Mike Filosa
The following response was submitted on behalf of NESACS to the request of February 9, 2009, from Dr. Judith Benham for potential local section IYC contributions in support of the national efforts of ACS:
1) Exchange Program Between NESACS and the German Chemical Society - Since 2001, an exchange of graduate and some undergraduate students has taken place annually between NESACS and the German Chemical Society (GDCh). In 2001, 2004, and 2007, approximately 12 German students came to Boston for a week to attend research symposia or, as was the case in 2007, the ACS National Meeting; a delegation of German students will come to Boston again in August 2010 for the National Meeting. In 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008, and 2009, approximately 12 students from colleges and universities within NESACS traveled to Germany for a week to partake in student research symposia of the Jungchemikerforum (the YCC-equivalent within GDCh), visits to academic, industrial, and governmental laboratories, and cultural events. Plans have already been formulated with Dr. Kurt Begitt, Deputy Director of GDCh, for a visit to Germany in 2011 by a NESACS delegation.
2) National Chemistry Week - For at least a decade, NCW has been celebrated annually by NESACS with special events for the public (especially children) at the Boston Museum of Science that includes the Phyllis Brauner Memorial Lecture by Prof. Bassam Shakhashiri (University of Wisconsin-Madison). The theme of the hands-on workshops and lecture-demonstrations has always followed that of NCW, which is anticipated to have an international focus ("Chemistry Around the World") in 2011. One approach of the NESACS celebration could be to have some of the international students within the Section be present in their national costumes with some workshops and materials in other languages than English to emphasize the fact that molecules know no boundaries.
3) Connections to Chemistry - This afternoon/evening workshop meeting for high school chemistry teachers, which has taken place annually since 2000 as an activity of NCW, could have one of the workshops explore educational materials available from international chemical societies beyond the ACS (e.g., IUPAC, RSC, GDCh, etc.), which is always highlighted as one of the purposes of the event. The keynote speaker could be a representative of an international society and/or a spokesperson for IYC.
4) Monthly NESACS Meetings - NESACS holds nine monthly meetings (September-May); many of the meetings are devoted to awards, specialized topics, and education themes. If the calendar permits, one of the meetings during 2011 could be devoted to a specific celebration of IYC with an appropriate speaker.
5) Bringing Chemistry to the Community - As part of the volunteer efforts of NESACS to the community, it could be possible for the Section to partner with the state parks within its territory during 2011 to provide chemistry demonstrations on high traffic days in order to present science experiments to a different segment of the community than we normally do. It would be possible to have the demonstrations presented by multilingual people in order to provide an international impact.

• 
  
  

New Business:

• 
  Discussion was held to refocus the Awards Committee to cover the Hill Award, keep the Levin’s Award active.
  
  • 
    Could the Awards Committee also develop a Community College Teacher Award that could be coordinated with the education committee?
    
• 
  The Chair needs to appoint two Board members to the Arno Heyn Award Committee.
  
• 
  A request was received from P. Gordon requesting that NESACS support a medicinal chemistry course being offered thru Simmons and being held in Jamaica.
  
  • 
    Discussion was held about this program being made available to entire NESACS section members, as well as would this set a precedent for funding.
    
  • 
    A reply requesting more information and details will be made to the program sponsors.
    

The meeting was adjourned at 5:45pm

Respectfully Submitted
Michael Singer

Secretary - NESACS

ChemClub Community Activities Grants
ACS President Thomas Lane and the Office of High School Chemistry are pleased to offer ACS ChemClub grants to support community service projects and community interactions aimed at improving science learning experiences. The first round of ACS ChemClub Community Activities Grants will be awarded in the fall of 2009. The deadline to apply is October 15, 2009. Award winners will be announced on November 16, 2009.
Chartered ChemClubs are eligible to receive grants valued up to $300. A special award with a maximum value of $500 will be granted to community activities done in collaboration with ACS student chapters (college chapters).
Grant Eligibility

To apply for a grant:

▪ Your club must be chartered through ACS, with the 2008-2009 final report on file in the ACS ChemClub office.

▪ The activity must involve the community and be chemistry-related. Examples include: science demonstrations at a local elementary or middle school; promoting chemistry in your community; and tutoring programs for chemistry students.

▪ If collaborating on a project with an ACS student chapter, the chapter must have an “active” status. You can request contact information for neighboring colleges with student chapters, verification of status, and assistance with facilitating communication.
How to Apply

The deadline to apply for a grant is October 15, 2009. Submit a proposal for the activity and an itemized budget to the ACS ChemClub Office .

▪ Review proposal criteria and considerations (available May 15)

▪ Proposal template (available May 15)

Reporting Requirements

Once the project is completed, your club must submit the following to the ACS Office of High School Chemistry:

▪ Receipts showing use of funds

▪ A short explanation of the activity

▪ Pictures of the activity (accompanied by photo release forms)
Contact Us

If you have questions or for more information, email or call ACS at 202-872-6383 or 800-227-5558 ext. 6383.

NeRACS
Northeast Region of the American Chemical Society, Inc.
NORTHEAST REGION AWARDS FOR 2009
Awards offered through the Northeast Region
THE ACS DIVISION OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION NORTHEAST REGION AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN HIGH SCHOOL TEACHING

THE ACS REGIONAL INDUSTRIAL INNOVATION AWARDS

THE E. ANN NALLEY ACS NORTHEAST REGION AWARD FOR VOLUNTEER SERVICE TO THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY
THE NORTHEAST REGION AWARD FOR ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE CHEMICAL SCIENCES
The deadline for these awards is August 1^st

Award offered through the National ACS
STANLEY C. ISRAEL REGIONAL AWARD FOR ADVANCING DIVERSITY IN THE CHEMICAL SCIENCES
The deadline for this award is July 1^st
Presentation of awards:
The awards will be presented at the Northeast Regional Meeting of the ACS (NERM), which will be held at the Hartford Hilton Hotel in Hartford, Connecticut, October 7–10, 2009.
For further information and nomination forms, go to http://membership.acs.org/n/nerm/>.

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