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About 40 LVACS members went to Muhlenberg College for the March 27th Section Meeting with a very special guest speaker: the 2024 ACS President-elect Dorothy Phillips, PhD. Co-organizers for the meeting were Muhlenberg’s WiSTEM and Chemistry & Biochemistry Clubs. Dorothy's talk, "Crossing Roads: Risk and Opportunities," reviewed the challenges she faced during her career progress and how she took risks in order to gain opportunities that might never have otherwise appeared. A good summary of her experiences may be viewed here. Some of the things gleaned from Dorothy's presentation are: bias is something that may be brought to you by others but that you own and control your response to it; how collaboration and the personal touch are always the best approaches and, finally, don't forget to stop and THINK about a question before you answer it. Dr. Phillips gave also gave the group an idea of what she may emphasize when she ascends to the ACS Presidency next year, including ACS Strategic Plan Goal 3: Support Excellence in Education and Goal 5: Embrace and Advance Inclusion in Chemistry. Enjoy the slideshow and many thanks to Sherri Young, the student clubs and their advisors for bringing Dr. Phillips to our Local Section Meeting!

Lehigh University's Rauch Fieldhouse was again the venue for the Lehigh Valley Science Fair (LVSF), March 15-16. LVACS presented 10 winners in the Chemistry and Biochemistry areas with prizes: 2 for 10-12, 4 for 8-9 and 4 for 6-7. The full list of 2024 winners may be viewed here. The event was covered by local news media. The Lehigh Valley Science and Engineering Research Fair started in 1991. It is open to all sixth through twelfth graders in both Northampton County and Lehigh County. Lehigh University sponsors and hosts the fair each year in March. LVSF is a feeder fair of Delaware Valley Science Fair. Top winners at LVSF may have a chance to participate at Del Val. Fourteen winners from Del Val are promoted to The Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair. 

The annual Reading-Berks Science and Engineering Fair (RBSEF) put on an amazing display of grades 6-12 STEM talent March 12-14 at Bollman Gymnasium on the Albright College campus. LVACS was well-represented in the judging panels and we once again presented special awards to the best junior chemist (grades 6-8) and to the best senior chemist (grades 9-12). This year's junior winner was (for the second year in a row!) Morgan Dieter of Muhlenberg Jr HS, Grade 8, for her project "It's the Ripe Time for Produce to Take Action," the design and use of an LED-based color-scanning system for ripeness of produce. Senior winner this year was Paige Hinkle of Wilson HS, grade 11, (last year's Grand Champion and this year's Champion) with her project "How Sugar Substitutes Affect Amyloid-Beta Plaque Aggregation," (paper) (quad chart) done as internship research at Albright. Interestingly, last year's LVACS top senior chemist did a project in Medicine and Health this year and received the RBSEF Grand Champion crown: Sindura Sridhar of Wilson High School. Relive the event!

On Saturday, February 24, 2024, the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Sciences (PJAS) Region 3 90^th Annual Meeting was held at Northampton Community College with approximately 500 7-8 grade and 150 9-12 grade papers presented. There were about 100 judges of whom ten were LVACS members. The fields of study included behavioral science, biochemistry, biology, botany, chemistry, computer science, earth & space, ecology, engineering, mathematics, microbiology, physics and zoology. There were 14 chemistry sessions for 7^th and 8^th grade with topics ranging from “How salty does the water have to be to make an egg float?” to “Does charcoal effectively remove toxins from drinking water?” and 4 for high school with topics ranging from “What effect does pH have on the accuracy of lead detection?” to “Does oil-free makeup actually contain no oil?” A grand total of 165 papers in our favorite subject! From the viewpoint of your webmaster, it was remarkable to experience the energy and preparedness of the students as they presented their projects. He further reports: "As a singular judge in my session, I can say without reservation: ‘we need more judges!’ How about you?" See lvacs.org/meetings-and-events for more opportunities. Your LVACS supports these competitions and offers special prizes to the winners.

The February 15th LVACS Section Meeting at Lafayette College was a joint affair with the Lehigh Valley Local Section (LVLS) of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) participating. Speaker Tom English of Evonik nicely bridged the two fields with his talk "Knowledge and Skills Expected in Fresh Graduates in Industry," appealing to about 25 students in both chemistry and chemical engineering-related majors and an equal number of regular members coming from both organizations. Tom is Head of Pilot Operations in the Global Process Research Group with Evonik Industries AG based in Allentown PA. There was not only a narrative of what chem/chem E jobs in industry are like but a few 'quiz questions' that prospective employees might face to test their knowledge and skills during an interview. Tom and AIChE LVLS Chair Jeremy Schweitzer also summarized some of the history of Chemical Engineering and described the current structure and operations of AIChE as "The Global Home of Chemical Engineers." So take a look at the first joint LVACS - AIChE meeting in quite a few years - let's see if we can change that situation in the future! Many thanks to Mike Bertucci, Chip Nataro and Deb Bastinelli of Lafayette for arranging the meeting and to Philip Elias for inviting the speaker.

Jeanne Berk, Cedar Crest College/LVACS Councilor, Lorena Tribe, PSU/Berks/ACS WCC Chair and Chester Crane, Mussel Polymers/LVACS Chair-elect traveled to Atlanta for the ACS Leadership Development Institute (LDI) the weekend of January 26-28, 2024. Some of their reactions follow. Chester: “We were able to meet and share our successes and plans with the ACS National Leadership Team. I attended leadership, funding, and event planning seminars with other local section leaders from across the country to help with the local chapter program in the upcoming year.” Lorena: “I attended the New Committee Chairs track as the Women Chemists Committee chair, with several very informative workshops and presentations. The Leadership Institute was an excellent opportunity to network with colleagues and meet new ones. Highlights included being in sessions where our own Jeanne Berk was part of the organizing team, discussing MARM 2024 programming for WCC with Joe Houck from the Central PA local section, and checking in with Dan Miller from DOW about programming for the New Orleans and Denver meetings. Our neighboring section, Philadelphia, is hosting a networking event for the Lunar New Year! ACS President Mary Carroll and the members of the board of directors made themselves available for conversations in and out of the formal sessions, as did Chair-Elect Dorothy Phillips.” Jeanne: “It was a wonderful weekend of networking and seeing how ACS helps provide resources to members in new leadership roles.  Having helped run the local section leader track moving over to work with new committee chairs was a great way for new volunteers to learn about their roles and responsibilities, as well as share best practices.” 

All of our LVACS attendees took pride in displaying the poster showcasing the two ChemLuminary Awards we received at the 2023 Fall Meeting for 2022 activities. See some pictures from the event.

Our January 25th Section Meeting at Moravian University attracted 30 LVACS members to hear about how Artificial Intelligence (“LLMs” or Large Language Models) and recent advances in programs employing it such as ChatGPT (“Generative Pretrained Transformer”) and the Wolfram plug-ins are impacting chemistry research and education. After a social hour and dinner hosted by Moravian University’s Chemistry Department, Jason Sonnenberg of Wolfram|Alpha joined the group by Zoom to demonstrate how these models respond to posed chemical problems, what the limitations can be and routes to overcoming some of those difficulties. In his talk, Chemical Superpowers with ChatGPT + Wolfram, Jason told us the key thing to remember is that any result from a query is a probabalistic determination based on a search of text fragments (lots of them!). To improve results from this process of creating a ‘token vocabulary,’ users must optimize their choice of prompts to the program. Asking for chain-of-thought and supplying illustrative examples can be crucial, as well as some rather unexpected observations such as informing the ‘bot’ that it is an expert at these things and that this is an important problem you are asking it to solve for you. But don’t get too mushy: ask for details and comprehensive results. Many thanks to June Thompson, Carl Salter and Stephen Dunham of Moravian University for hosting this fascinating and enjoyable meeting and June Thompson for providing the photos! For more information on the Wolfram plug-in and products available from Wolfram|Alpha, see https://www.wolframalpha.com/examples/science-and-technology/chemistry. February Octagon story.

Philip J. Elias, 2023 LVACS Chair-elect, has been named 2024 Volunteer-of-the-Year for the Lehigh Valley Section by ACS and will compete with other local section volunteers for the title of ACS Volunteer-of-the-Year. Philip graduated from Muhlenberg College (‘22) and has been an engaged member of the LVACS since his senior year. He started volunteering at NCW events and was elected as the section Chair-elect for 2023. In 2023, Philip became the section’s NCW and CCEW coordinator, organizing several outreach events at our local ISE partner, Da Vinci Science Center and with the PA Migrant Education Program’s "Lights on After School" event and STEM Saturdays at the Allentown Public Library. Philip also judged at the Lehigh Valley Science Fair and did demonstrations at Science Fairs within the section such as the Southern Lehigh STEAM Expo and Pocono Mountain West Night of Science for middle and high school students. In addition to these outreach activities, Philip organized the September LVACS meeting at Evonik including lab tours and talks (largest attendance for a section meeting in many years). Philip has grown, over the past 3 years, in his role from participating volunteer to leader of events. He developed the entire program for the September Evonik visit, which brought a company new to the section into partnership with us. He also planned our NCW outreach event at Da Vinci Science Center this year, including all arrangements with Da Vinci staff and ordering of supplies. Thanks, Philip! We’re lucky to have you. See January 2024 Octagon article here.

The newly-elected LVACS Officers for 2024 are: Chester Crane, chair-elect, Sherman Cox, treasurer, Nigel Sanders, secretary and Matt Sonntag, ACS Councilor. Review their bios here. Chester, who has served as LVACS Chair previously (2009), earned his B.S. in Chemistry from Muhlenberg College and his PhD from Penn State University and now works at Mussel Polymers in Bethlehem. Sherman has a BS, chemistry, from Yale College and a PhD, inorganic chemistry, from UCSB and oversaw a major improvement in our accounting practices during 2023 and will be beginning his second year as treasurer. Nigel has a BA degree in Chemistry from Reed College and a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Harvard and will be beginning his sixth year as secretary and webmaster. Matt is an associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Albright College and earned his B.A. in chemistry from Coe College and Ph.D. in physical and analytical chemistry from Northwestern University. As one of our two ACS Councilors, Matt will be representing us on ACS Council at Spring and Fall ACS Meetings. They join Philip Elias, chair, Steve Boyer, past chair, Jeanne Berk, councilor and Ned Corcoran, alternate councilor on your LVACS Executive Committee for 2024. Come out to our meetings in 2024 and meet your LVACS governance team in person!  

REMEMBERING NED HEINDEL
Our November 9th Section Meeting at Lehigh University attracted 50 LVACS members to share their love of chemistry and their recollections of former ACS President and Emeritus Professor of Chemistry, Lehigh University, Ned Heindel, PhD., who died June 27th at age 85. After a social hour and dinner at the Gander Room, we proceeded to Neville Hall for extemporaneous reminiscences of Ned followed by the Inaugural Ned Heindel Memorial Lecture, "Design and Development of Vasopressin V1a Antagonists Derived from a Unique Azetidinone Platform," delivered by two long-time colleagues and collaborators, Neal Simon, Professor of Neuroscience, Lehigh University and Christophe Guillon, Principal Research Scientist, Azevan Pharmaceuticals Inc. We also celebrated yet another of our 2023 student award winners, Tyler Roberts of Lafayette College, winner of the Organic Chemistry Scholarship, henceforth to be known as the Ned Heindel Scholarship in Organic Chemistry. We are all looking forward to future Heindel Lectures, jointly sponsored by LVACS and Lehigh University, about which more information will be forthcoming on this site and in the Octagon Newsletter.  

National Chemistry Week 2023 (NCW; October 15-21) was celebrated in the Lehigh Valley with section-wide events at Da Vinci Science Center and at the Allentown Public LIbrary as part of the PA Migrant Education Program's annual "Lights on Afterschool." On Saturday, October 21st, LVACS members Guido Pez, Kurt Stork, LVACS Secretary Nigel Sanders and LVACS NCW Coordinator and Chair-elect Philip Elias demonstrated The Healing Power of Chemistry at Da Vinci Science Center with about 50 visiting young scientists and their parents with Build-a-Better-Bandage, Warm Up to Some Cool Reactions and Red Cabbage Indicator. Then, on the following Monday, October 23rd, which just happened to be Mole Day (!), Philip and Nigel introduced the H2O2 decomposition to 25 students in the MEP from a wide range of countries. Take a look at the links above: this could be YOU with the magic chemistry wand next year!

Our October 12th Section Meeting at Albright College featured Benjamin Groff of Yale University speaking on the topic of "Steering the selectivity of hydrogen atom transfer (HAT) reactions: bond strengths and polar effects." Ben very nicely positioned his work in the context of our usual notions of pKa and the reduction potential, E, of the H-X bond being cleaved and their joint effects on the kinetic barrier to the HAT reaction. He also gave the numerous student attendees some insight into his own student research journey and what he loves about his current work in inorganic chemistry: all the beautiful colors! We also got a chance to celebrate two more of our 2023 LVACS awardees: our High School Teacher-of-the-Year, Audrey Smeltzer and our Foundation in Chemistry scholarship winner, Elizabeth Sterner: congratulations to you both! Relive the event through a slideshow. Many thanks to Ian Rhile, Pam Artz and the Albright Chemistry Department for a great fall night!

LVACS 2023 Elections draw near!! It's nearly fall and that means time to nominate your colleagues (or yourself!) for a role in LVACS! Mike Bertucci, Nominations Committee Chair and Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Lafayette College, has issued a Call for Nominations to all members and community associates to consider serving your section as an officer or a standing committee chair. Not ready for a officer or chair role? Why not be a volunteer at an outreach event or join a judging panel for one of our annual awards? There are so many ways you can contribute. Interested? Contact us at webmaster@lvacs.org.

The September LVACS Section meeting Thursday, September 14th, broke all records in recent memory: 91 registered with 80 attending as Evonik Corporation hosted us at their 1-year-old Innovation Hub in Trexlertown. Participants, including 28 students, toured the labs and pilot areas while Evonik personnel explained the functions of each area, safety considerations and what it's like to work there. The group then gathered to enjoy a buffet dinner and hear from Michael Popule, VP, Global Process Research on Carbon Capture technologies and Ali Javadi, Senior Scientist, on rheological additives and new fumed silica products. LVACS also took the opportunity to award this year's Chemagination winners (Kendra Montalvo, David Marlwood, Jackson Smith, Reid Bagans, Leonardo Carbajal, Andrea Santiago and Salem Davis) from Muhlenberg High School and their teacher/mentor, Dr. Audrey Smeltzer-Schwab, our 2023 LVACS Teacher-of-the-Year. Here's the full story as published in the October Octagon Newsletter!

August 30th was a night for the Pigs to Fly! 40 LVACS members and guests joined with our Fe-fortified Lehigh Valley AAA club to cheer the 'boys of summer' on to victory (5-3 over the Syracuse Mets) at Coca-Cola Park. Enjoy a few images of our contingent letting LVACS take them out to the old ball game!

Our section members attending the 2023 ACS Fall Meeting in San Francisco were happy to report that of 4 categories (including overall best medium-sized local section) in which Lehigh Valley section was a finalist for ACS ChemLuminary Awards for 2022 activities, your section won 2 Awards! The Local Section Partnership (Marinda Li Wu) Award for the September 15, 2022 meeting at Ben Franklin Technology Innovation Center co-hosted by start-up Mussel Polymers, Inc. and the Outstanding NCW Event for a Specific Audience held October 18, 2022 at Allentown Public Library to celebrate the Migrant Education Program of PA's annual Lights on After School Educational Activities & Health Fair. The awards were given during the Fall Meeting's Awards Ceremony Tuesday, August 15th. 

Our inaugural 50/60/70-year brunch on July 14th at Chris' Family Restaurant shone with pride for chemistry! Everyone that attended thanked the section for doing it. There was a lot of storytelling, laughter, and fun.  The only complaint heard was it was the first time happening, they wished we had done something like it before this! One attendee commented afterward by email: "Thank you and your colleagues for organizing the wonderful gathering of the local OLDIES of the ACS members. I enjoyed the conversation with several of them. I look forward to receiving the group photo and their email addresses. Wishing you all the best for a wonderful summer." Share the moment with these pictures of the event.

LVACS is saddened to report the Passing of Ned Duane Heindel, PhD., on June 27th, 2023, at age 85.
Ned was a 60+ year ACS member, Past ACS President (1994), Emeritus Professor at Lehigh University and a Shining Star of Chemistry to our local section and the world. Memorial plans by the section are being developed and will be reported here soon. Please contribute any remembrances of Ned's long and devoted service to webmaster@lvacs.org. He will be greatly missed. Morning Call obituary.

Great time at Violet Vintage Wine Company in Bernville on June 29th thanks to Lorena Tribe and the LVACS Women Chemists Committee! Cultural Historian Dr. Michelle Mart of PSU/Berks and author of the recent book "Pesticides, A Love Story: America's Enduring Embrace of Dangerous Chemicals," gave us a whole new perspective on the history of ag chemicals while we sampled the fruits of the (hopefully safer) vine. Keep watching for future summer 2023 events...we hear the smell of rosin might be in the air (no, not from the forest fires!) for Aug 30th.

Strategic Plan 2022-2027 Year 1 Progress Update. The LVACS Executive Committee and Strategic Planning Team reviewed progress in the plan goals/strategies developed during last year's Strategic Planning retreat on June 14th 2023. The review showed 3 of the 8 strategies complete and on time and 3 in progress and on schedule. See a Gantt Chart of the progress. Follow the Strategic Plan page of this website for the latest on this important effort.

Southern Lehigh Middle School held a STEAM Expo Tuesday, May 30th from 6-8 pm to bring 25 organizations on the SoLeMS Center Valley campus to demonstrate STEAM in many ways. LVACS had 2 activities which amazed and delighted the students: Spartan Blue Bottle and Siphon Effect, expertly demonstrated, respectively, by Past Chair Lindsey Welch and Chair Elect Philip Elias. Lindsey reported that "We had a steady presence of students and parents at our table. Several parents asked about summer camps and what else we do for youth, so maybe we should talk about that at a future meeting?" No question, Lindsey, we're on it! Our thanks to SoLeMS parent Charu Chaturvedi and Principal Deanna Webb for inviting us to participate in their STEAM Expo.

It was our traditional May social meeting at Yergey Brewing Co. in Emmaus on May 18th with tours of their 'Nano-Brewery' and sampling of the whatever the taproom afforded. Many thanks to Lindsey Welch, past chair, and Jim Yergey, brewer and patriotic LVACS member, for welcoming us to this Hoptileitious event!

Monday, May 8^th was a very special day for science in Monroe County as Mount Pocono elementary students were invited to attend the Inaugural Night of Science at Pocono Mountain West High School, hosted by WHS’s Science National Honor Society. In addition to demonstration tables run by the Honor Society students, several guest groups brought in exhibits and experiments including Lehigh Valley ACS volunteers and East Stroudsburg University’s Chem Club. ESU’s Steve Boyer, Oliver Paszkowski, Carolyn Knowlton, Lennox Lewis and Chris Kloppenburg presented the ever-popular make-your-own slime/bouncy balls; iodine clock reaction; shaving cream/dye swirls and CO₂ color change while LVACS’ Nigel Sanders and Philip Elias demonstrated alginate water pods (popping bobas). Amazing Algae (aka seaweed) also made an appearance in honor of Chemists Celebrate Earth Week. The kids (about 100) had a great time and so did we! See a pictorial summary here.

Earth Day is celebrated globally, and the American Chemical Society (ACS) has turned it into a week-long affair, Chemists Celebrate Earth Week, this year from April 16 to 22. LVACS featured two main events this year.
Earth Day Symposium
This special symposium focused on sustainability of new technologies and their impact on the environment and was co-hosted by the Lehigh Valley Section of the ACS and the ACS Division of Environmental Chemistry. The symposium took place Saturday, April 22, at Cedar Crest College. Specific topics included renewable fertilizers, climate change modeling, community engagement for environmental justice and the future impact of nanotechnology on environmental issues. The speakers were: Sherine Obare, Dean of Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering, University of North Carolina— Greensboro and Chair of the ACS Environmental Chemistry Division; Jonas Baltrusaitis, Associate Professor, Dept. of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Lehigh University; Laura McBride, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Chemistry & Biochemistry, Albright College and Karen Pooley, Professor of Practice, Director of Environmental Policy Design Program, Lehigh University. The Symposium was organized and hosted by Lindsey Welch, Associate Professor, Dept. of Chemical, Physical and Forensic Sciences, Cedar Crest College. The Symposium received local media coverage through Lehigh Valley Live and a spot on Channel 69 TV!
Community Outreach Event
It may have been thundering outside but our LVACS volunteers sure made the inside of Da Vinci Science Center rock with their enthusiasm for science Saturday, April 15th, 2023 for Chemists Celebrate Earth Week! Curiosity and Amazement were definitely everywhere to be seen and heard with education about the Earth and its algae the ultimate winner. The Lehigh Valley ACS local section thanks our member volunteers for taking the time out of their schedules to bring 'science to life and lives to science.' Avi the mole salutes you!

The Annual Undergraduate Research Poster Session was hosted by DeSales University on Wednesday, April 12th, 2023 with 26 students/teams presenting posters for the edification of attending members. The attendance of around 70 topped last year's and approaches some of our best pre-pandemic numbers. After a full 90 minutes of poster-browsing, we enjoyed a tasty dinner and then awarded our best graduating seniors with sincere commendations and a special prize useful for research at the beach! Capping the evening was a engaging talk by Prof. Robert Hickey of Penn State's Department of Materials Science and Engineering entitled "Nanostructured Polymer Muscles." Wish you were there? See the Abstract Book and some pics!

LVACS Chemists Celebrated Research (and Spring!) at the ACS Spring 2023 Meeting in Indianapolis, March 26-30, 2023. Here are some happy LVACS faces at Sci-Mix on March 27th. Got a story from this meeting you'd like to share with the LVACS section? Let us know!

Our March 23^rd Section Meeting at Muhlenberg College combined a tasty social hour and dinner with an excellent talk by Dr. Todd McEvoy, Senior Director of Laboratory Services of Azzur Group, entitled “Developing the Formula for a Rewarding Career in Science.” Todd started out by emphasizing the difference between the usual ‘1^st grade’ self-analysis assignment of “What do you want to be when you grow up?” and the more nuanced “Who do you want to be when you grow up?” Todd continued to explore that question throughout his presentation. Topics included deciding career paths (don't be afraid to change!), self-assessment (why science? strengths, interests, values), traditional vs non-traditional career paths (there’s more out there than you think!), utilizing resources to find the right job (advice + exploration) and, finally, putting it all together. Todd graciously provided us his wisdom gained through his own career experiences and fielded many great questions from our student audience. Review his slides. While you’re at it, learn more about ACS member career growth support and how to chart the next steps in your job search: here !

LVACS participated in our local Science Fairs over the past 3 weeks with exhibit tables at the annual PA Junior Academy of Sciences (PAJAS; Region 3 meeting on Saturday, February 25th at Northampton CC) and Reading-Berks Science and Engineering Fair (RBSEF; March 14-16 at Albright College). Eight of the judges at PAJAS and four at RBSEF were Section members (we could use more next year!). At the 2023 RBSEF (71st annual event: second oldest in the nation!), LVACS sponsored two special awards of $250: to the best chemistry project/poster by a middle school and by a high school student. This year's winners were Muhlenberg MS 7th grader Morgen Dieter for her project "Paper Chromatography: What Makes Those Colors?" and Wilson HS 10th grader Sindura Sridhar for "Iron Deficiency Anemia: A New Supplement for Fortified Foods." There were 450 students from 19 schools in all - a fantastic turn-out! See more event pictures and the awards ceremony brochure.

The February 16^th section meeting at Lafayette went very well with a couple of twists! Thirty-one members enjoyed dinner and attended the meeting and seminar afterwards. For the first time in many years a cash bar was offered as a ‘pilot’ test for future meetings. The Executive Committee will report back to members soon with a decision on this. The meeting and seminar portions were held in a newly renovated set of classrooms on the 5th floor of the Acopian Engineering Center. A very nice new space!  Steve Boyer, LVACS 2023 Chair, presented a brief summary of the Section’s upcoming activities and opportunities for grants and awards. Of special note was the premier announcement of a new LVACS section award: The George Ruger LVACS Student Travel Award, a $150 travel award for students presenting at an ACS Conference. The first deadline for submission is March 7^th, 2023. For details, contact Steve at sboyer11@esu.edu. Also, Prof. Oriana Fisher of Lehigh University presented an invitation to rising seniors to participate in a new NSF grant-supported research experience program called BOUNDS, beginning in the summer of 2023. For more info and an application form visit: https://sites.google.com/lehigh.edu/bounds/home. The speaker, Prof. E. James Petersson of the University of Pennsylvania, told us about an area of biomedical science obscure for many of us: protein aggregation processes often associated with neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. James's talk, Visualizing α-Synuclein in Neurodegeneration: From all-atom simulations to in vivo imaging, was very impressive with examples from his lab’s multidisciplinary approach to the problem including computation, synthesis of α-synuclein bearing post-translational modifications and photochemical probes, single molecule biophysics, structural biology, cellular and animal models for microscopy and proteomics, and development of positron emission tomography (PET) probes for clinical imaging. (Wow and all in ~60 minutes!) The seminar culminated in his discussion of a new molecule that is being tested for improved visualization of alpha-synuclein in PET and other diagnostic scans for neurodegenerative disorders at U. Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine. Four people asked questions before the meeting ended at 8:35pm.

The third week of January was a busy one for LVACS with our January Section Meeting on the 19th at Moravian University and the ACS Leadership Development Institute on the 20th-22nd in Atlanta, Ga.
***About 25 members came to a workshop at Moravian University where Profs. Heidi Hendrickson (Lafayette), Carl Salter (Moravian) and Lorena Tribe (PSU/Berks) demonstrated the concept of using mobile devices to do molecular modeling calculations using web software. The audience found the demo of WebMO quite interesting and engaging. Quite a few were doing the demos on their phones, following along with handouts provided. Most of the interest and focus was on using this as a teaching tool. There were questions about the teaching resources available and how Moravian University implements the program. They bought the software ($1000 permanent license) and host it on an internal server. However, it is possible to run wholly on-line with no up-front outlay and no cost at all if the calculations are simple enough (<30 sec CPU time). Some attendees were also interested in it as a low cost way to get calculations done for research purposes, particularly the possibility to use cloud computing resources and not need to buy your own high powered computer. 
***Meanwhile, in Atlanta, LVACS officers Nigel Sanders, Jeanne Berk and Philip Elias were attending and/or teaching Leadership Development Institute courses sponsored by ACS. The ACS Local Section Activities Committee (LSAC) invited us to present our four ChemLuminary Award-winning events in the "Share Your Story" portion of the Local Section Operations course and in a poster for viewing by all attendees of the meeting. See a few pictures of the event.

The newly-elected LVACS Officers for 2023 are: Philip Elias, chair-elect, Sherman Cox, treasurer and Nigel Sanders, secretary. Review their bios here. Philip, who graduated from Muhlenberg College last spring and now works at Evonik in Allentown, has been very active in community outreach events. Sherman, just retiring in December from a long career at Minerals Technologies Inc. in Hanover Township, has been LVACS treasurer before (in the 1990s!) and brings a wealth of experience in many areas of chemistry and chemical engineering. They join Steve Boyer, chair, Lindsey Welch, past chair, Jeanne Berk and Kelley Caflin, councilors and Mike Bertucci and Ned Corcoran, alternate councilors. Come out to our meetings in 2023 and meet your LVACS governance team in person!  

lvacs.org/news archive: August1, 2020 - December 31, 2023

The Lehigh Valley ACS Section launched this website, https://www.lvacs.org, hosted by MailChimp, on August 1, 2020. The site, replacing one hosted by ACS.org and discontinued in May of 2019, will be used to further inform members of the section's activities and invite the local community to find out more about chemistry and how it impacts their daily lives.

Beginning in August, 2020, the Lehigh Valley Section will begin using MailChimp as its email campaign provider. Mailings to members will include monthly posts about the latest issue of The Octagon Newsletter, the section's journal of record, and more frequent e-newsletters and alerts about upcoming events and social media posts of interest.