American Chemical Society celebrates the 20th year of National Chemistry Week

National Chemistry Week, an American Chemical Society (ACS) program that has demonstrated chemistry’s central role in everyday life to millions of students, celebrates its 20th anniversary this year with events scheduled around the United States Oct. 21 – 27.

The theme will be “The Many Faces of Chemistry,” emphasizing chemistry’s many roles in improving public health, protecting the environment, providing innovative new products, and making life longer, healthier and happier.

Previous themes of National Chemistry Week (NCW) have focused on chemistry’s role in food, health and wellness and even art. Careers in chemistry are diverse, powerful and important. This year, students will have an opportunity to learn about various professions during NCW.

Scheduled activities include:

career fairs sponsored by ACS Local Sections throughout the country.
a poster contest for students in kindergarten through 12th grade.
a ‘Chemvention’ contest for college students that focuses on chemical inventions and demonstrations.

In other areas of interest:

ChemMatters, a magazine for high school students, will devote its October issue to National Chemistry Week.
Celebrating Chemistry, a newspaper for elementary school students, will feature hands-on activities related to careers in chemistry and popular themes and activities of previous National Chemistry Weeks.

NCW is an outreach program of the American Chemical Society. It brings businesses, schools and individuals together with local sections of the American Chemical Society to promote chemistry and to raise awareness of chemistry’s contributions to our everyday lives and to the nation’s economy.

Please visit http://www.chemistryweek.org for more information on NCW events. Visit the following sites for fun kids’ activities: http://www.chemistry.org/kids; WonderNet; and Kids & Chemistry.

National Chemistry Week traces its origins to 1987, when the ACS launched National Chemistry Day to promote the importance of chemistry to the public. Within two years, the event became so successful that ACS expanded it into a full week of activities, held biannually. In 1993, National Chemistry Week became an annual celebration. It is a community-based program of the Department of Local Section and Community Activities.

The American Chemical Society — the world’s largest scientific society — is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

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— John Simpson