Meetings & Events

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


HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM LVACS!

January 2025 

THINK SUMMER CHEMISTRY!
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.
Speakers: Carl Salter, Professor of Chemistry and William Farina, Laboratory Coordinator and Instructor, Moravian University

Social Hour with appetizers - Collier Lobby 5-6 pm
Dinner - Collier Lobby 6-7 pm
LVACS Meeting and Pool Talk - Mellon Lecture Hall, Collier 202 7-8 pm
Social Hour/Dinner: $20 / $10 students/retirees/unemployed
Reservations: Please contact June Thompson, thompsonj03@moravian.edu by January 17th
Post Flyer Everywhere!
The meeting will be hybrid: connection details will be posted shortly
 
MEETING CONTACT: Carl Salter, salterc@moravian.edu

February 2025

Section Meeting Thursday, February 27, 2025
Science Hall, Albright College
1650 Palm Street, Reading, PA 19604
"Mastering Particle Size Stabilization in Broadly Compatible Dispersions:
Penn Color's Technical Expertise"
Abstract and Bio 
Kyle T. Smith, Group Leader, Energy Curables at Penn Color, Inc.
5:30-6:15 appetizers
6:15-7:15 dinner
7:15 business meeting
7:30 seminar

CONTACT: Matt Sonntag, msonntag@albright.edu

March 2025
 
Section Meeting Thursday, March 6, 2025
Muhlenberg College
Speaker: Valerie Shurtleff, Merck/West Point, PA
Dr. Valerie Shurtleff has been confirmed as the speaker for the March LVACS meeting, to be held the evening of March 6th at Muhlenberg. Val is a Principal Scientist in Discovery Chemistry at Merck, West Point. She has done a lot of interesting COVID-19 work and is also planning to speak a little bit about her career journey. Social hour at 5:30, dinner at 6 and talk at 7. A reception with Muhlenberg students and Val will occur before the social hour.
CONTACT: Sherri Young, sherriyoung@muhlenberg.edu
 
April 2025
 
Section Meeting/Undergraduate Research Posters,Tuesday, April 8, 2025
DeSales University
Speaker: TBA
CONTACT: Sara Hayik, sara.hayik@desales.edu
 

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! 
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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.
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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.

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Newsletter Editor and Webmaster

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

Carl Salter, salterc@moravian.edu
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LEHIGH VALLEY SECTION OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY

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