ā¢ A KACS Retrospective
ā¢ Meet Your Newly-Elected KACS Officers
ā¢ A āTrip Reportā from Joseph Chemler, Chair-Elect
ā¢ Needed: CCEW Coordinator!
ā¢ Great Lakes Regional Meeting Abstract Submission Portal Now Open
ā¢ āMolecular Baskets as Abiotic Sequesters of Toxic Drugsā Topic of Next Seminar
ā¢ KACS Calendar
A KACS Retrospective
Enjoy a KACS retrospective which should give you/your students/friends/family a smileāThanks to Steve Secreast, KACS chair 2017!
In 2017, and in anticipation of the International Year of the Periodic Table (IYPT) our then-KACS Chair, Steve Secreast, spent time on a beautiful spring afternoon at the Kalamazoo Mall talking to passers-by, offering each of them an opportunity to wear a KACS lab coat (purchased with a grant from ACS) and be videotaped holding up a card showing the symbol of each element in the Periodic Table (all 118 named as of November 28, 2016) while announcing its name. All the folks given this opportunity accepted his offer, and the result is shown in the following link: https://youtu.be/zaZmjnkyEk8
Meet Your Newly-Elected KACS Officers
Nicole Burke, Chair 2025
Nicole Burke’s educational background includes a Bachelors in Chemistry from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from Purdue University. She started her career at Kelloggās where she directed analytical chemistry testing to guide product development. Since 2019 she has worked at Kalsec where she leverages her strong technical background to accelerate the pace of innovation commercialization via technology scouting, open innovation, and project management. After serving as the KACS Chair Elect for 2022, she relocated to the Netherlands in 2023 for a one-year temporary assignment to lead the design and build-out of Kalsecās newest R&D location in Wageningen. After returning to the U.S. in 2024, she resumed KACS responsibilities as Chair Elect. Nicole resides in Kalamazoo with her husband, 5-year-old daughter, infant son, and two bulldogs. In her spare time, she enjoys yoga, baking, and attempting to complete the seemingly never-ending updates to their 100-year-old historic home.
Joe Chemler, Chair-Elect 2025
Joseph Chemler is the biotransformation platform leader at Kalsec, a food ingredient company in Kalamazoo. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, his Ph.D. in chemical and biological engineering from the University at Buffalo and performed postdoctoral research at the University of Michigan. Joseph started his industry career at Pfizer working in the Natural Products group within Medicinal Chemistry as a Senior Scientist followed by working as a group manager at the synthetic biology startup Zymergen. Joseph has been an ACS member since 2007.
Sean Lapekas, Treasurer 2025-26
Seanās passion for chemistry began in elementary school when he received a chemistry set for Christmas. In college, Sean participated in a 3-2 program, receiving a B.A. in Chemistry from Kalamazoo College in 1995 and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Michigan State University in 1996. He has nearly three decades of experience in the pharmaceutical and fine chemicals industries. Sean is a respected expert in the fields of process safety and process R&D, resulting in invitations for distinguished international speaking engagements. In 2016 he was appointed to serve as the inaugural chair of the Pharmaceutical, Food, and Fine Chemical Subgroup that he helped establish within AIChEās Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS), a role he held for 2 years. In 2018, Sean and his wife Shannon relocated back to the Kalamazoo area to accept a position with Pfizer. Sean currently serves as a Technical Services Manager with Pfizer CentreOne, Pfizerās embedded CMO business unit. His hobbies include playing the violin with the Kalamazoo Philharmonia, running, and playing tennis.
Brian Eklov, Alternate Councilor 2025-27
A long-term ACS and KACS member, Brian has served as Chair of the KACS (2015-16), as program co-chair for the 2015 Joint Great Lakes / Central Regional Meeting, as a member of ACSā Committee on Chemical Abstract Services, and currently serves as a member of its Committee on Membership Affairs. He received his undergraduate degree in chemistry from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, did his gradutate work at the University of Minnesota and worked with Dr. Scott Denmark as a post-doc at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. He joined Kalexsyn (NOW Dipharma Inc.) in 2005 and continues his employ at Dipharma Inc. as its President and CEO. Under his leadership, Dipharma Inc. implemented a GMP-compliant Kilolab which underwent a successful FDA pre-approval inspection in January of 2024.
A āTrip Reportā from Joseph Chemler,
Chair-Elect
At the end of January I attended a three-day training seminar, called the ACS Leadership Institute, which was held in Houston, TX.
The Leadership Institute is a packed weekend of education in volunteer management and leadership. The material presented is geared toward enabling volunteers to be more successful as leaders within the ACS and other professional endeavors. The Institute provides the opportunity to learn, hear innovative ideas and approaches, network, and collaborate, all while having fun!
Groups participating at the Institute include the ACS Board of Directors, Divisionsā Leaders, Future of Spring and Fall Meeting Workshop, Graduate School Readiness and Professional Development Boot Camp, Local Section Leaders, Membership Activities Committee, New Committee Chairs, Student Leaders, Younger Chemists Leaders, and ACS staff.
The first day was kicked off by the CEO of ACS, Albert G. Horvath, who welcomed attendees and announced the upcoming 150th anniversary of ACS in 2026! To further the mission of ACS, a rebranding is underway centered around āChemistry is Everything.ā
As the chair-elect, I primarily attended Local Section Leadership Track sessions. The goal of the sessions was to provide local section chair-elects and leaders with tools and resources to be successful. The training included examples of successful activities, an opportunity to generate ideas about an activity and develop it, guidance to obtain help, what grants are available, a forum to connect with other local section leaders, a venue to discuss common concerns, evaluate best practices, and how to measure success. What was most impactful for me was learning about available grants and recommendations on planning and executing successful events. I walked away with many great ideas for next year, which will require advanced planning and collaboration with our local section members. I look forward to continuing to learn this year and use the knowledge I gained from the leadership training.
Needed: CCEW Coordinator!
This is an invitation to our members for someone to offer to be coordinator for the annual CCEW (Chemists Celebrate Earth Week) event hosted by our KACS.
This spring CCEW 2025 will be celebrated from April 20-26; the theme is āGlaciers: Hot Topic, Cool Chemistry!ā We value your participation and look forward to your offer to lead the outreach effort of our KACS as our CCEW coordinator! Your offer to be a coordinator is essential to the success of our program (visit www.acs.org/ccew for program details). Resources from the Outreach Office at ACS will be made available to coordinators starting in April. In the interim, Lydia E.M. Hines will continue as coordinator.
Great Lakes Regional Meeting Abstract Submission Portal Now Open
The following invitation was sent to our Section from the meetingās leadership team:
Abstracts are now being accepted for the 2025 Great Lakes Regional Meeting (GLRM). GLRM 2025 will be held from Wednesday to Friday, June 4-6, 2025 in Appleton, Wisconsin, and is being co-hosted by the Central Wisconsin and Northeast Wisconsin Local Sections.
This yearās theme is Chemistry for a Better Planet. Chemistry has led to hundreds of innovative solutions over the last several centuries and it will continue to do so. Chemistry helps us gain a better understanding of the world around us, in all facets of life: health care, environmental science, and more. Chemistry and the planet are closely intertwined with one another and there are connections at all different levels and scales. With this theme, we hope to encourage curiosity and ingenuity to explore and discover all the possibilities that exist between the two.
Visit the website to find a list of the programming divisions and planned symposia open for submissions.
āMolecular Baskets as Abiotic Sequesters of Toxic Drugsā Topic of Next Seminar
Dr. Jovica D. BadjiÄ, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at The Ohio State University, will present a seminar on the topic of āMolecular Baskets as Abiotic Sequesters of Toxic Drugsā on Monday, March 17 at 3 p.m. in the WMU Chemistry Building Rm. 1260.
Molecular baskets with amino acids at their rim are cup-shaped molecules capable of forming inclusion complexes with a variety of complementary guests in water. Our most recent computational and experimental efforts center on developing baskets capable of including toxic anticancer methotrexate and synthetic opioid fentanyl in their binding pockets. This lecture will describe discoveries related to the preparation of such hosts and the role of noncovalent interactions and hydrophobic effect for their assembly/recognition characteristics in abiotic and biotic environments.