In the session, we will feature a keynote speaker to provide context on the current realities (quantitative data) and barriers to LGBTQ+ student success in STEM. The keynote will naturally lead into a panel featuring academics at different levels – postdoctoral studies, early-career faculty, and administration – where lived experiences will be shared. The discussion will include both barriers panel members have faced and strategies, focused on actions, that members have used to overcome these barriers. We feel the discussion will be relevant for chemists across the academic trajectory. The panel will include both a moderator-led Q&A and an open Q&A from the audience.
The Professional Chemist: Recognizing the Winner of the Henry Hill Award
A session recognizing the Henry Hill award winner. This award recognizes persons who have served the profession in the area of professional relations in a unique and distinguished manner.
Working Chemists with Disabilities
This symposium seeks current and/or aspiring chemists to consider participating in this unique autoethnographic session. Presentations should document how chemists with various disabilities perform their jobs in the chemistry field. Describe the work arounds and accommodations that you have been provided to illustrate your success in chemistry. Presenters may be invited to contribute to a digital version of the 1996 ACS publication titled, “Working Chemist’s with disabilities.” It is the expectation of the organizers that the presentations paint a picture of how chemists with disabilities are overcoming challenges and accomplishing success in the chemistry field.
Women Chemists Committee Celebrates 95 Years of Empowering Women in the Chemical Enterprise
Author: Amy M Balija, Chair of the ACS Women Chemists Committee
The Women Chemists Committee (WCC) was established in 1927 as a joint committee between ACS Council and the Board of Directors. Initially named the Women’s Service Committee, the group was instructed to follow five directives to promote, advocate, and inform the Society about issues important to women. While much has changed over the years, the overall goal of the WCC has not altered: to create a more equitable environment for women. Collaborating with other ACS committees, sister organizations, and industrial partners, WCC has hosted symposia, developed national awards, provided networking opportunities, and advocated for equity. The Committee creates a safe environment for its members to cultivate leadership skills to hold prominent offices within ACS and the chemical profession including as an ACS president, ACS directors, upper management positions in industry and government, and professors at academic institutions.
This year, the Women Chemists Committee (WCC) celebrates its 95th anniversary. To continue the year-long commemoration of this milestone, WCC has organized various events for the Fall ACS meeting. As Chair of the WCC, I wish to invite you to our celebrations in Chicago.
The celebration starts on Sunday, August 20th with the 2022 WCC Merck Award symposium. The WCC Merck Award recognizes eight individuals in their 3rd and 4th year of graduate school focusing on organic, medicinal, analytical, chemical biology, computation, or structural chemistry research. This award is open to US citizens studying anywhere and non-US citizens attending a graduate program in the United States or Canada. This year’s recipients are the following: Maria Adrover-Castellano (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor), Maria Camila Aguilera (University of Rochester), Sara Dibrell (California Institute of Technology), Olivia Garry (Princeton University), Rachel Huang (Stanford University), Irene Manning (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), Alena Vasquez (Scripps Research Institute), and Zixi Zhang (University of California, Berkeley).
On Monday, August 21st, WCC will host the WICE (Women in the Chemical Enterprise) breakfast. This ticked event encourages women to network and to advance their careers. Also on Monday, WCC will host a full-day symposium honoring the 10th Anniversary of the WCC Rising Star Award. The WCC Rising Star Award recognizes up to ten women scientists approaching mid-level careers who have demonstrated outstanding promise for contributions to their respective fields. The award is open to all individual ACS members in chemistry and chemical engineering in academic, industrial, government, non-profit or other sectors. During the symposium, presenters will highlight the impact of the Rising Star Award on their career and discuss their technical contributions.
The celebration continues Tuesday with the first half of the symposium “Celebrating 95 Years of the WCC (Women Chemists Committee).” During this symposium, past WCC chairs will discuss projects undertaken during their tenure and the challenges remaining. The final presentation will highlight future projects the WCC will undertake. The WCC luncheon also will be held with ACS President Angela Wilson speaking about the advances of women within the chemical enterprise and how the WCC has impacted the ACS. This ticketed luncheon is popular, so attendees are encouraged to purchase tickets as soon as possible. The winner of the Overcoming Challenges Award, Riley Atrops from California State University Channel Islands, will be honored at the luncheon. The Overcoming Challenges Award recognizes a female undergraduate for her efforts in overcoming hardship to achieve success in chemistry. The awardee receives a monetary prize and money for travel expenses to attend the ACS Fall Meeting.
In the later afternoon Tuesday, the WCC Open Meeting, called “Just Cocktails” will occur. Besides free food and drink, this open meeting provides attendees the opportunity to meet current WCC members, learn about future WCC activities, learn about how to become involved within the Committee, and network with others. Slides highlighting local section ChemLuminary submissions and winners of the WCC mini grants will be highlighted. This meeting is open to all and is free to attend.
To conclude the celebration at the ACS meeting, past WCC award winners will present at a full day symposium entitled “Past WCC Award Winners in Organic and Medicinal Chemistry.” These presenters will provide a technical talk and give a brief highlight how either the Merck Research Award or the Eli Lilly Travel Award influenced their careers. Merck and Eli Lilly representatives will discuss the formation of these awards and how the award impacted the companies.
Updated information regarding the timing and location of WCC activities can be found at https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/meetings/acs-meetings.html. All events are included with the registration unless otherwise noted.
The 95th anniversary celebration does not end after the Fall ACS meeting. Throughout this year, WCC has been highlighting various aspects of women chemists through Facebook. Stories about chemistry mothers, industrial chemists, and international scientists display the diversity with being a woman chemist. In October, WCC will sponsor a virtual Women Chemists of Color Networking Event held during National Chemistry Week. This event will provide attendees the chance to speak with mentors about advancing their careers and how to overcome professional and personal barriers. Information regarding the event will be posted on the WCC website (http://www.acswcc.org) and WCC social media accounts.
Being involved in the Women Chemists Committee is an excellent opportunity to broaden horizons, network with others, and work towards positively impacting diversity, equity, and inclusion. Whether at the national or local level, members can create an inviting environment for all. Information regarding WCC sponsored awards, how to start a local WCC section, and upcoming WCC sponsored events are found at http://www.acswcc.org. Keep in touch through our social media accounts: Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Attention WCC Local Sections, Student Chapters, and International Chapters!
The ACS Women Chemists Committee invites you to be part of its “95th Anniversary Celebration of the WCC” by hosting an event to commemorate this special occasion and the work of women chemists around the world. To help with the event, WCC is offering a limited number of grants (up to $100) for any local section, student chapter, or international chapter that wishes to host an event. Feel free to include the WCC 95th Anniversary graphic with your invite. All events must be held by November 1, 2022. Apply today!
Summer 2022 Councilor Commentary
Author: Matt Grandbois, Councilor
The ACS Council Meeting was held virtually on March 23rd as part of the hybrid Spring 2022 National Meeting in San Diego, CA. Several items were discussed and acted upon by Council that have an impact on PROF Members.
Candidates for President-Elect 2023 were voted upon with Mary Carroll and Rigoberto Hernandez being selected to stand for the Fall 2022 National Election. Both Dr. Carroll and Dr. Hernandez are PROF members, so regardless of the outcome it seems like the Society will be in good hands!
Council approved a petition to amend the duties of the ACS Committee on Chemists with Disabilities (CWD) to include more inclusive language in the description of their duties. This coincided with Council approving the recommendation from the Committee on Committees (ConC) that CWD be continued as an active and critical part of the Society as part of the ConC rotational review process. As PROF Councilor, I supported both petitions with my vote.
Council also approved a petition from the ACS Committee on Budget & Finance (B&F) to establish a quasi-endowment to fund Local Section and Divisional activities. This funding was previously provided as a percentage of ACS revenues, but due to fluctuations in the recent years this new process was proposed to provide more stability in annual funding for grassroots organizations, like PROF, so I supported this petition with my vote.
Council also approved two items that affect our international colleagues. A new International Chemical Sciences Chapter was approved to be established in Switzerland and Council also approved the extension of market testing of a discount program for international dues based on World Bank country income levels. These actions will make the Society more accessible to chemists around the world, so I supported this petition with my vote.
Council approved the 2023 Schedule of Membership proposed by the Committee on Membership Affairs (MAC). This updated schedule did not change anything in terms of dues, benefits, eligibility, or privileges from the 2022 Schedule, but it was drafted to increase clarity and understanding of how the membership tier structure works. These actions will allow members to make better informed choices about their ACS membership, so I supported this petition with my vote.
Finally, Council passed several resolutions honoring recently deceased members of Council and a special resolution honoring the passing of Past ACS President Nancy Jackson. She was a fierce advocate for the Society and helped to promote the chemical profession around the world.
ACS Council will reconvene at the Fall 2022 National Meeting as a hybrid session broadcasted from Chicago later this year. If you are interested in virtually attending this session to learn more about how ACS Council works, please let me know and I can provide you viewing details once they are available.
Have a happy and safe rest of your summer!
Spring 2022 Councilor Commentary
Author: Matt Grandbois, Councilor
The Spring 2022 ACS Council meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, March 23rd at 8am PT. There are several items for action during this session that I believe are of particular interest to our PROF membership. I will briefly describe these items below and I encourage you to reach out to me if you would like to discuss. If you would like to learn more about these items, please note that the full ACS Council Agenda for the Spring 202 meeting is publicly available here.
The Spring ACS Council session is where Council learns of the nominees for ACS President-Elect for the following year. The ACS Committee on Nominations and Elections assembles a slate of four highly accomplished, dedicated leaders that are willing to serve in the ACS Presidential succession. The top two candidates, as determined by popular vote during the Spring ACS Council session, are then brought forward to the open election for all ACS members later in the year. The 2023 ACS President-Elect candidates are:
Frank Blum
Marry Carroll
Rigoberto Hernandez
Ingrid Montes
In addition to the ACS Presidential Election, the ACS Board of Directors will also have open positions in District II and District IV to be voted upon by constituents of those districts later in the year. The candidates for those positions are:
District II
Kimberly Agnew-Heard
Gerard Baillely
Mark Jones
Marcy Towns
District IV
Christopher J. Bannochie
Carmen Gauthier
Lisa Houston (incumbent)
Pamela M. Leggett-Robinson
There will also be 2 open Director-At-Large positions on the ACS Board of Directors that Councilors will be able to vote for later this year. The candidates for those two open positions are:
Milagros Delgado
Malika Jeffries-El
Will E. Lynch
Ellene Tratras Contis
Additional items up for Council action are brought as petitions from Society Committees. As PROF Councilor, I will be voting on these items based on my understanding of how they will impact our PROF membership and the professionalism of chemists across the ACS:
- The ACS Committee on Budget and Finance (B&F) has brought forth a petition for Council action that would amend the ACS Standing Rules to enable the ACS Board of Directors to establish a quasi-endowment that will be used to provide Local Sections and Divisions financial support based upon the endowment payout policy. This change is recommended because the current dues allocation creates a disparity in resourcing that disproportionately overfunds C&EN activities beyond historic spending and diminished funding available to Local Sections and Divisions because of decreasing dues revenue caused by decreasing membership. If adopted, this amendment would allow the earmarking of a subset of funds to provide stable revenue streams to all Local Sections and Divisions and allow for long-term programming and resource planning due to a more consistent projected allocation process.
- The ACS Committee on Divisional Activities (DAC) has brought forth a petition to officially change the ACS Division of Carbohydrate Chemistry (CARB) name to be the ACS Division of Carbohydrate Chemistry & Chemical Glycobiology (CARB) to be effective January 1, 2023. The change is recommended following multiple CARB membership surveys and a facilitated discussion with ACS Divisions that had initial concerns with this change. DAC facilitated a constructive dialogue between the relevant Divisions that resulted in resolution of the issues and full support going forward.
- The ACS Committee on International Activities (IAC) has brought forth a petition to charter a newly formed International Chemical Sciences Chapter in Switzerland. If approved, the Switzerland International Chemical Sciences Chapter will consist of members solely within the Swiss Confederation. This petition is supported by ACS members within the proposed territory and the application fully meets ACS requirements.
- The ACS Committee on Membership Affairs (MAC) has brought forth a petition to extend a market testing program that would discount ACS membership dues for international members based on the World Bank determined country income levels for their respective countries. This extension is requested due to many factors including the impact of the COVID-19 global health that is creating difficulties in properly evaluating the utility of this discounting on international membership rates. MAC requests a 3-year extension through August 2025 to provide sufficient experimental space to evaluate this program.
- MAC has brought forth an additional petition to amend the language of the 2023 Schedule of Membership to remove confusion surrounding terminology and benefits language for the newly established membership tiers. This includes more comprehensive description of the tiered benefits packages and differentiation between graduate students, students, Society Affiliates, Community Associates, retired members, and emeritus members. This change would also remove the “spouse discount” available to members.
As your Councilor, I am very interested in hearing from you and hearing your thoughts, perspectives, and preference on any of the above items up for action. Feel free to contact me at councilor@acsprof.org prior March 23, 2022 so that I can take your input into account prior to my vote on these items. Stay safe and take care!