World’s largest scientific society to hold regional meeting in Pittsburgh

A special highlight of the meeting is the Society's National Chemistry Week celebration, Oct. 19-25. On Oct. 22 at 9 a.m., five Salute to Excellence awards will be presented for NCW leadership and active promotion of chemistry in the Pittsburgh community. The award recipients are as follows:

Individual
Brian Wachtel, Senior Technician Specialist
Business Development - Tech Support Group
Bayer Polymers LLC

Corporation
Bayer Corporation

Organizations
Carnegie Science Center
Society for Analytical Chemists of Pittsburgh
Spectroscopy Society of Pittsburgh

In addition to the Salute to Excellence awards, the region will also recognize the following:

Julia Winter, The Detroit Country Day School, Detroit, Mich., will receive the 2003 Central region's Teacher of the Year award on Tuesday, Oct. 21, 6 p.m. She has attracted students to high school chemistry through the classroom, club activities, science fairs and other academic competitions, and through organizing a "Chemistry in the Community" course.

Daniel S. Connor, Procter & Gamble Co., Cincinnati, Ohio, and Sudarsanan Varaprath, Dow Corning Corp., Midland, Mich., will receive the Industrial Innovation Award on Tuesday, Oct. 21, 7 p.m. Connor is receiving the award for the development of a highly soluble alkyl sulfate that provides a breakthrough in mainframe surfactant technology for detergent applications. Varaprath is receiving the award for his contributions in understanding the environmental and biological fate of silicones.

On Sunday, Oct. 19, at 7 p.m., John Fenn, 2002 Nobel Laureate in chemistry, will open the meeting and discuss the development of electrospray ionization, a technique that revolutionized the field of mass spectrometry and permitted the analysis of complex molecules such as peptides, proteins and DNA. Mass spectrometry was the technique used to map the human genome.

Other meeting highlights include sessions and poster presentations on cutting edge technology in analytical, bioinorganic, computational, inorganic, organic, physical and polymer chemistry, bioinformatics, nanoscience, surface science, chemical education and history. Presentations include:

Monday, Oct. 20
7 p.m. - Introduction to Forensic Science: chemistry for non-majors
Helen Boylan
Department of Chemistry
Wesminister College
New Wilmington, Penn.
724-946-6293, boylanhm@westminster.edu

Tuesday, Oct. 21
9 a.m. - Atomic level understanding of molecular behavior on surfaces (e.g. semi-conduct/silicon chips, automotive catalytic converters)
John Yates, Jr.
University of Pittsburgh
412-624-8320, jyates@pitt.edu

3 p.m. - A history of polymer science in the Mellon Institute
Gary Patterson
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, Penn.
412-268-3324, gp9a@andrew.cm.edu

7 p.m. - Insight into the decontamination of chemical warfare agents
Tracy Thompson
University of Pittsburgh
412-624-8320, tlt5@pitt.edu

Wednesday, Oct. 22
10 a.m. - French wine and a longer life
John Simpson
Pennsylvania State University
Monaca, Penn.
724-773-3875, v6r@psu.edu
Christi Kolarcik
Pennsylvania State University
Pittsburgh, Penn.
412-922-8612, peachesclk5405@hotmail.com

10:15 a.m. - Poster presentations:
(1) Screening for native phytoremediators in the Pittsburgh environment
(2) Using sunflowers to accumulate cadmium from contaminated environments
Joseph MacNeil
Department of Chemistry
Chatham College
Pittsburg, Penn.
412-365-1216, macneil@chatham.edu

The general chair of the meeting is Mildred "Mille" Perry, U.S. Department of Energy, Pittsburgh, 412-386-6015, perry@netl.doe.gov. The co-chairs for program are from the University of Pittsburgh: Toby Chapman, 412-624-8250, tchapman@pitt.edu; and David Pratt, 412-624-8660, pratt@pitt.edu. For more information about the meeting, visit www.membership.acs.org/P/Pitt/crm.html.