Meetings & Events

Upcoming Events
(click anywhere on calendar image above to view the latest event information)

December 2024

HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM  LVACS!

January 2025 

Section Meeting Thursday, January 23, 2025
Collier Hall of Science, Moravian University
Swimming Pool Chemistry, or How to Green the Rio Diving Pool
So your chemistry career has taken off, and you now own a home with a swimming pool.  Do you know enough chemistry to take care of your pool?  Absolutely!  With a basic knowledge of acid-base chemistry and solubility equilibria, plus some chlorine chemistry, you can understand the key principles of pool maintenance.  We'll discuss the key ideas in pool chemistry--pH, chlorine sanitation, and calcium concentration--take a look at a new chlorination system involving electrolysis, and reflect on how it all went wrong at the diving pool at the Rio Olympics. Students encouraged to attend, because swimming pool chemistry is a great way to see basic chemical principles at work in real life.
Carl Salter, Professor of Chemistry Moravian University
William Farina, Laboratory Coordinator and Instructor Moravian University

Meeting will be hybrid: details will be posted shortly
YEARLY MEETING AND EVENT SCHEDULE
The section holds regular meetings about 8 times per academic year, September-November and January-May. There are also special events scheduled throughout the year such as celebrations around National Chemistry Week (incorporating Mole Day, October 23) and Chemists Celebrate Earth Week (incorporating Earth Day, April 22). Recurring meeting themes include: student poster session, careers night, industry tours, high school teachers night and awards night. LVACS participates in many local Science Fairs throughout the year. Family events typically take in local sports (LV Iron Pigs AAA baseball) or tour/sample at wineries/microbreweries.

Keep watching this page for timely announcements of our next events! 
*|END:WEB_VIDEO|*
January 25th Section Meeting at Moravian University Explored AI and Chemistry
https://youtu.be/MN5hxD3d7MM
Wolfram|Alpha's Jason Sonnenberg's talk with LVACS in January 2024 "Chemical Superpowers with ChatGPT + Wolfram" explored how ChatGPT is a much smarter “chemistry assistant” when given access to Wolfram|Alpha and Wolfram Language. The resulting Wolfram GPT can generate chemical structures in two- and three-dimensions which the ChatGPT 3.5 and ChatGPT 4 can not. Additionally it can also pull from expert-curated chemical data and propagate experimental uncertainty in chemical conversions and computations. Wolfram|Alpha & ChatGPT 3.5 are both free resources, while Wolfram GPT & ChatGPT 4 require a subscription from OpenAI.
*|END:WEB_VIDEO|*

A lecture by Lauren Zarzar of Penn State University entitled “Color from Colorless Materials.” Lauren is an assistant professor of chemistry and an affiliate of the Materials Research Institute. The Zarzar Lab studies stimuli-responsive materials, the behavior of active matter, and laser fabrication methods to synthesize and pattern both inorganic and organic materials. https://www.zarzarlab.com/. In this lecture, Lauren explained why interference (structural) color can arise from even microscale structures (~ 100 microns) by Total Internal Reflection, such as when water droplets of different sizes form by condensation on a clean, low energy surface.

Like to Post or Suggest Future Meetings?

Have an event you'd like to post
or an idea for a future LVACS section meeting or event?
Please submit the event information to the webmaster on
the attached form or simply let us know your idea!

Newsletter Editor and Webmaster

Nigel Sanders, webmaster@lvacs.org
+1 (610) 597-5645
Program Chair / Chair-elect

Chester Crane, crane@musselpolymers.com
Follow Us

Want to find out about our meetings faster?

Be sure you're on our mailing list and visit our social media early and often!
LEHIGH VALLEY SECTION OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY

Terms of use
Security
Privacy
Accessibility