Division News

Author: Matt Grandbois, Councilor

The Spring 2023 Council Meeting of the American Chemical Society will be meeting for a hybrid session on Wednesday, March 29^th starting at 8:00am ET hosted out of Indianapolis, IN during the Spring 2023 ACS National Meeting. There are several items that will be up for action both leading up to, and during, this meeting that I believe are impactful to PROF members. I summarize these items below and state my current intentions as your elected Councilor, but as always, feel free to review the full Spring 2023 Council Agenda available on the ACS website or contact me to discuss these issues:

• Due to the election of a member of ConC to the ACS Board of Directors, a special election is currently ongoing to fill this vacancy for a one-year term (2023) with the results to be announced during the Spring 2023 Council Meeting. Al Hazari (East Tennessee) and Daniel Rabinovich (Carolina-Piedmont) are standing for election. Neither candidate is a PROF member, yet both are incredibly well positioned to serve in this capacity as excellent and experienced leaders within the ACS. Due to his connectivity to the greater international community, I intended to vote for Daniel Rabinovich by the close of the election on March 2.
• Candidates for 2024 ACS President-Elect have been selected and will provide remarks as part of the open town hall scheduled for Sunday, March 26^th at the ACS National Meeting in Indianapolis. Due to an unforeseen circumstance, one candidate withdrew earlier this year leaving three candidates that will be reduced to 2 candidates by Council vote this spring:

• Mary K Engelman (retired, Eastman Chemical)
  • Dorothy J Phillips (retired, Waters Corporation)
  • Florian J Schattenmann (Chief Technology Officer, Cargill)

All three are outstanding candidates with more than sufficient experience and professional qualities to fulfill their duties within the ACS Presidential Succession. None of the candidates are PROF members, yet I personally know all three of them and can attest to their leadership capabilities. I do not have a plan of action yet, as I will form it after listening to their remarks as part of the Spring 2023 Town Hall.

• Nominees for District III and District VI Director-At-Large positions on the ACS Board of Director include several PROF members and recently active members of PROF leadership. Past Chair Janet Bryant is standing for District VI and former PROF EC member Benny Chan is standing for District III. Only members of their district will be eligible to vote, so I encourage all PROF members to review the election slate and take an active position to elect your District representative to the ACS Board of Directors.
• In addition to District representatives, 2 Director-At-Large positions will be elected by ACS Councilors later this Fall for a three -year term (2024-2026). These candidates include:

• Wayne E Jones jr. (incumbent)
  • Daniel Rabinovich
  • Carolyn Ribes (incumbent)
  • Joseph P. Stoner

Both candidates Ribes and Stoner are PROF members, with Joe being the most recent recipient of the PROF Henry Hill Award. PROF membership greatly influences my voting as your Councilor, yet I would be amiss to diminish the wonderful leadership and qualifications of both candidates Jones and Rabinovich. As voting will not occur until latter in the year, I would welcome hearing from PROF members on their thoughts prior to the Fall 2023 ACS National meeting.

• The ACS Committee on Nominations & Elections (N&E) is actively seeking candidates for ACS President, District Director, and Director-at-Large for the 2025 calendar year. Submissions are requested to go through the ACS Nominations Intake Form.
• The ACS Committee on Council Policy (CPC) has submitted a petition for action that would amend the duties of CPC within the ACS Standing Rules to act as the “conduct committee for Council” that would enable them to take action to remove ACS Councilors if there was sufficient evidence that such an action would be necessary to mitigate adverse impact on the Society. I am currently sitting on CPC as an elected Member and from my position I do support this petition with the intention of voting to approve it as it mirrors similar mechanism for the ACS Board and provides a mechanism for future action if needed. Without this amendment, there is no way to remove a Councilor if grossly negligent or if they conduct themselves in a way that significantly impacts the ACS in negative way.
• The ACS Committee on Committees (ConC) has submitted a petition for action that would amend the name and duties of the ACS Committee on Environmental Improvement within the Standing Rules. The proposed change would replace “Improvement” in name and duties to “and Sustainability” to better reflect this Committees mission and focus. If approved, the newly named Committee on Environment and Sustainability (CES) would continue to focus its efforts on environmental improvement through leadership promoting sustainability. I believe this is a good change and will be voting to in favor of this petition.
• There will be a special discussion on the floor of Council related to the current efforts of ConC to evaluate the ACS Committee System. An external consulting agency has been employed to help survey and provide recommendations to ACS on how to improve this system to better serve the current and future membership of ACS. Please contact me if you have opinions about this topic so that I can incorporate them into remarks I will give on the ACS Councilor floor.
• The ACS Committee on Nominations & Elections (N&E) has submitted a petition for action that would amend the Standing Rules to provide a “Plan B” in the case of a force majeure impacting the ability of a significant number of Councilors to cast their votes during a Council meeting. This language has been used an approved by CPC over the past few meetings, so this petition is merely to have this provision codified into the Standing Rules. As such, I plan to vote in favor of this petition
• The ACS Committee on Membership Affairs (MAC) has submitted a petition to change the 2024 Schedule of Membership. These changes include
  • removing access of printed copies of C&EN (digital access will remain) to student members
  • provide Society Affiliates access to a discounted Standard Membership as means to enable marketing of this adjacent potential membership base
  • expand the disability waiver to eliminate the requirement of any span of time that a Member has experienced a disability and reduce the number of years of dues payment down to one in order to qualify.
  • Remove the age requirement of 70 years of age from the Emeritus membership eligibility making this membership class accessible to any member who has paid due for at least 35 years.

This petition has been assembled with advice from the ACS Committee on Chemists with Disabilities (CWD) and Senior Chemists Committee (SCC). Furthermore, the ACS Committee on Budget & Finance has review this and found that this change would have a significant negative impact on the Society’s finances, but MAC has expressed that this will have a significantly positive impact on membership. I expect there to be much debate on this as it gets to the fundamental question of how much should ACS governance activities be supported by CAS/PUBS vs. membership dues. Due to this complexity, I have not yet formed my opinion on this vote.

• Finally, the ACS Committee on Constitution & Bylaws (C&B) have put forward a petition to add International Representation to the ACS Board of Directors by creating one International Director elected by ACS members that live outside of the United States and Canada who are not members of other Local Sections. The term and duties of this newly created position will be consistent with other members of the ACS Board. It is important to note that this petition is supported by all current members of the ACS Board. As representation of ALL ACS members is critical for a functioning professional society, I plan on voting in favor of this petition.

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 March 15, 2023 so that I can take your input into account prior to my vote on these items. Stay safe and take care!

Author: Gloria Thomas-Fuller, Awards Chair

The American Chemical Society Division of Professional Relations invites nominations for the following awards:

• Henry A. Hill Award — recognizes people who have served the profession in a unique and distinguished manner.
• Lou Sacco Award — recognizes persons who have served the Division of Professional Relations in a meritorious and exemplary manner over a significant period of time.

Nominations should include a letter from a primary nominee that explains the candidate’s qualifications for the award according to the criteria. (The Henry A. Hill award requires a secondary letter of nomination. A second letter is optional for the Lou Sacco Award.)  Please also include the candidate’s resume or CV.

Send nominations to awards@acsprof.org by January 18, 2023.

Author: Matt Grandbois, Councilor

The Fall 2022 ACS Council meeting is scheduled to be held as a hybrid session on  Wednesday, August 24^th. The Council meeting will be hosted at Sheraton Grand Chicago Riverwalk Hotel, in Sheraton Chicago Ballroom IV-VII starting at 10:00am CT. There are several items that will be up for action that I believe are of particular interest to PROF members and will expand upon below. If you would like to learn more about them, please note that the full ACS Council Agenda for the Fall 2022 meeting is publicly available here. Also note that if you are interested in attending Council as an observer, please reach out to me and I will provide you attendance/viewing details.

During the Fall ACS Council Sessions, candidates for the elected Council Committees are voted upon to begin their terms during the following year. This includes elections for the ACS Committee on Council Policy, the ACS Committee on Committees, and the ACS Committee on Nominations & Elections. 

The ACS Committee on Council Policy (CPC) is responsible for maintaining and supporting the activities of Council, developing long-term strategies for the functioning of Council, and making recommendations for changes in the governance documents that define the activity of Council. Five candidates will be elected to begin service to this committee starting in 2023. The candidates up for election to CPC are (the 3 current PROF members are highlighted in BOLD):

• Raychelle Burks
• James Carver
• Deborah Cook
• John Engelman
• Greg Ferrence
• Anne Gaffney
• Lydia Hines
• Will Lynch
• Barbara Sitzman
• Frankie Wood-Black

The ACS Committee on Committees (ConC) is responsible for assisting Committees and advising the appointment of Chairs and Members of Committees to the ACS Board and President. Members of ConC must be voting Councilors for the duration of their term. Five candidates will be elected to begin service to this committee starting in 2023. The candidates up for election for ConC are (the 3 current PROF members are highlighted in BOLD):

• Rodney Bennett
• Bill Carroll
• Ella Davis
• Carmen Gauthier
• William Greenlee
• Alan Hazari
• Tom Lane
• Donivan Porterfield
• Daniel Rabinovich
• Jason Ritchie

The ACS Committee on Nominations & Elections (N&E) is responsible for reviewing and populating election ballots for President-Elect, District Director, and Director-At-Large. The Committee is also responsible for supervising and conducting elections across the Society. Five candidates will be elected to begin service to this committee starting in 2023. The candidates up for election for N&E are (the only current PROF member is highlighted in BOLD):

• Mark Benvenuto
• Michelle Buchanan
• Alan Cooper
• Debbie Crans
• Kelly Elkins
• Harry Elston
• Martin Perry
• Robert Pribush
• Ellene Tratas Contis
• Kathryn Uhrich

In addition to the elections described above, four petitions are being presented to Council for action (i.e. to be discussed and voted upon). These include:

1. Petition to move of description of duties of N&E to the ACS Standing Rules. No substantial changes are being sought, but instead this petition is aimed at providing clarity to existing language. Given this cosmetic change, I support this petition. 
2. Petition to amend the duties of the ACS Committee on Divisional Activities (DAC) to formally empower this Committee to take action in the event that an interim Executive Committee must be appointed, or an election needs to be facilitated due to inactivity by an Executive Committee. This petition would also formally empower DAC to provide recommendations to Council regarding the combination or dissolution of an ACS Technical Division. These proposed formal duties are consistent with the current operations of DAC, but they are a significant change to the duties as described in the ACS Governing Documents and I expect this to incite much debate. 
3. Petition to rename the ACS Northeast Tennessee Local Section to instead be the ACS Tenness-Virginia Highlands Local Section. This proposal is supported by Local Section leaders and by 95% of their members based on a recent vote, so I support this petition. 
4. Petition to change the application process and dues for the ACS Committee on Corporate Associates (CA). Currently, corporations must submit dues payment in advance of being admitted to joining CA. This petition proposes to change payment to occur after invoice upon admittance to the Committee. Also, corporate dues are currently based upon the number of scientists employed the member corporation, but this petition proposes changing this to be based upon a more easily defined metric: the company’s annual revenue. Finally, this petition also proposes to change the process for addressing corporate members that have not paid their dues by empowering CA to provide recommendation to the ACS Board of Directors to remove the corporate members to only be reinstated upon approval by the Committee. Collectively, these changes are aimed at providing a net improvement in the governance of this ACS Committee, yet there are aspects of these changes that I expect will cause significant discussion leading up to Council. 

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 August 22, 2022 so that I can take your input into account prior to my vote on these items. Stay safe and take care!

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 95^th 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 20^th with the 2022 WCC Merck Award symposium. The WCC Merck Award recognizes eight individuals in their 3^rd and 4^th 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 21^st, 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 10^th 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 95^th 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.

Author: Matt Grandbois, Councilor

The ACS Council Meeting was held virtually on March 23^rd 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!