January 2022, Vol. 12(1)

• Comment from the 2022 KACS Chair
• Parting Comments from 2021 Chair Ed Thomas
• News about KACS in C&EN
• Kalamazoo College Chemistry Student Group Activities 2021
• KACS Student Award Information
• Editor’s Note – Emails Form ACS
• KACS Calendar

Comment from the 2022 KACS Chair

I would like to thank the outgoing members of the Executive committee, Hershel Jude (2021 past-chair) and James Redwine (secretary), for their excellent support and leadership of the section through the past year, and look forward to the continuing support of Ed Thomas as past-chair, Doug Williams as treasurer, and Lydia Hines as councilor.

While this year will continue to present new challenges, I look forward to leading our section back toward a more normal future with the help and support of the new Executive Committee. 

Together in science,

Ben Maxey, KACS Section Chair 2022

Parting Comments from 2021 Chair Ed Thomas

Dear Members,

I want to thank you for your engagement during 2021. Even though we never met in person as a section, many of you attended our virtual events. These ranged from seminars, awards, and activities during Chemistry Week. We were optimistic we could offer the Bell’s Poster session in November as a live event, but even with the best of intentions we were thwarted by the virus. I also want to give a special thanks to your Executive Committee who kept things running during these tough times.

Lydia Hines – KACS Councilor: Having served in this capacity since 1984, Lydia brought ACS vision to KACS. If there was a question about ACS, Lydia could answer it or find out the answer. She organized and implemented the virtual 2021 awards celebration for high school and college students across our section and keeps KACS High School teachers informed of ACS resources available to them for their professional development. She delivered, in person, 50- and 60-year ACS award certificates to KACS members. Lydia edited and published our monthly KACS newsletter that captured events, and outlined future activities.

Hershel Jude – Past Chair 2021: Hershel took on an active role in a new project and continued a long and important tradition. This year he launched our new website (partially funded by an ACS grant) that unites so much of our business and information in one place. We have yet to explore the full potential of this tool and Hershel is leading the way. He also took over the responsibility for leading KACS chemistry week from Lydia. This virtual event brought many members together; they demonstrated science activities that could entertain and educate students and parents in our section.

Ben Maxey – Chair Elect 2021: Ben was the KACS chair in 2003 and accepted this leadership position again. He was instrumental in keeping the members apprised of the happenings at Pfizer with the production of the COVID-19 vaccine. This was implemented at the viewing of “Mission Possible” on June 10 when he detailed the most recent activities at the Pfizer (Portage) manufacturing site and then again at the speed-networking event for students on September 28. He remained a steady hand through all our 2021 discussions.

James Redwine – Secretary: James did a fantastic job writing the minutes from the KACS Executive monthly meetings. These minutes serve as a record but also helped us follow up on discussion and document decisions we made. James also conducted our annual elections and certified them with the National ACS. James also found his replacement, Jake Kirkendall, to follow in his footsteps as his term expired.

Doug Williams – Treasurer: Doug performed his treasurer responsibilities in a timely and reliable manner. Every month he provided us with the treasurer’s report, kept track of our income from ACS and advocated supporting many of our outreach programs. Doug modernized our accounting system, implemented bonding insurance for his position and made all the KACS financial transactions transparent to the Executive Committee. He also focused on our education outreach programs. He arranged for funding AACT (American Association of Chemistry Teachers) memberships for our Section’s high school teachers and organized a chat room where they could share best practices. He also donated much time to Project SEED, which serves students during summer.

News about KACS in C&EN

Kalamazoo College Chem Student Group Activities 2021

Also in September, we promoted ACS to the K community at K Fest and introduced our club to freshmen and sophomores, who were joining us on campus for the first time. Today, the Kalamazoo College American Chemical Society Club retains over 40 members passionate about chemistry and looking for professional development opportunities. As the term continued, interest in non-virtual gathering decreased, so we made the difficult decision to postpone two highly anticipated events to Winter quarter. We continued to promote virtual activities such as “ChemClash: Rival Reactions” trivia, opportunities to learn about graduate school, and internship/fellowship openings.

Our return to campus in January will hopefully come with more fun events and opportunities, both virtual and in-person. We plan to host our third annual Chemistry Escape Room Challenge: “Outbreak of the Mutated Zombie Drosophila!”. To escape, a team of four chemistry and biology students must solve a series of STEM-based puzzles in 45 minutes or less. Prizes will be awarded to the three fastest teams, which of course includes bragging rights! Also on the agenda for this winter is the Dow Open, which invites chemistry students to join us for DIY putt-putt golf hosted by all STEM clubs in the Dow Science Center. This event is guaranteed to be lively and it’s a fun chance to collaborate with other groups on campus.

We also plan to join the WMU Chem Club at their student center for a Game Night Mixer. Kalamazoo College students are typically pretty excited to get out of the “K bubble” and pizza will be provided, so we expect a good mix of chemists to join us! Heading further off campus, we plan to attend the MSU Battle of the Chem Clubs, where undergraduate chemistry clubs from across the state compete in a variety of chemistry-based games and challenges for the glory of being crowned best chemistry club in Michigan. When we last attended in 2020, our club finished third overall, but finished first in the “speed titration” event, which we spend significant time preparing for. We hope to enter the final three again this year for another chance at the coveted title.

KACS Student Award Information

The Kalamazoo section offers monetary awards to undergraduate and graduate students for travel to ACS meetings to deliver oral or poster presentations. Please visit this page for details on how to apply.

Please send the following by email to the KACS secretary (jkirkendall@kalsec.com)

· A completed application
· A letter of support from your research advisor

Requests for up to $500 will be considered for travel expenses for a student to present his/her work at an American Chemical Society meeting. The next ACS meeting (Spring) will be in hybrid format in San Diego, CA, March 20-24. The deadline for receipt of applications is four weeks prior to the meeting for which funding is requested. A student may receive this award only once per degree being pursued.

Editor’s Note

All ACS members receive frequent mailings from ACS, some of which do contain important and relevant information, such as the item shown below. That is one reason I strongly encourage local ACS members to recommend that undergraduate students, who indicate interest in chemistry as a career, become members of the Society during those years at ~$25/yr – a very worthwhile investment in their professional aspirations.

As an example, the following item appeared in the ACS Matters e-mail publication sent biweekly from ACS to members; I subsequently sent it to the Chem departments at K and WMU for distribution to their chem majors: