Message from the Chair - September 2007

Looking Towards National Chemistry Week

October 21st - 27th, 2007

“The Many Faces of Chemistry”

For many years, the Rochester ACS Section has celebrated National Chemistry Week (NCW). This year marks the 20th anniversary of NCW, which will be celebrated from October 21-27. The 2007 NCW theme is "The Many Faces of Chemistry". The theme's goal is to create awareness of the wide diversity of career opportunities involving chemistry and to recognize and celebrate the many people whose dedication to a chemistry-related occupation improves the quality of life for those around them.

This year, the Rochester Section's NCW team of Calvin Uzelmeier, Deb Janes, and Tim Wilson are beginning an expansion of our NCW efforts with the goal of filling an entire week of activities. Current plans are to have programs at the Rochester Museum & Science Center on both weekends bookending NCW. The first weekend will tie directly into the "Faces of Chemistry" theme, while the second weekend will dovetail with the RMSC's spooky-science program. The hope is to reach a larger audience by diversifying the program.

For this year’s theme, the focus will be on highlighting not only what chemists, professors, technicians and teachers do, but also how chemistry can be combined with almost any other interest to find a career path. Efforts are underway to involve local industries, colleges & universities, patent lawyers, publishers & book editors, conservators from the Memorial Art Gallery, and representatives from the Monroe County Crime Lab. The Rochester Section has also received a grant that will allow us to unite students from RIT's National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) with younger students from the Rochester School for the Deaf and begin a mentorship program between the two schools.

We have also purposely scheduled our Annual Recognition Dinner on the last Friday of NCW at Hawthorne's Restaurant on October 26. Please look for the info for this dinner in this issue of "The CHEMunicator” or on our web page. Plan on joining us as we honor our 50- and 60-year members, the “Rochester Chemical Technician Award” winner, the “Rochester Chemical High School Teacher Award” winner, and the winner of the annual “Rochester Section Volunteerism Award”. This year, we will also be recognizing five students from NTID who recently won National ACS awards. The speaker for the event will be the President of Encore Chocolates, so you won’t want to miss a wonderful chocolate tasting!

You can see the theme in the plans being made – bringing together “The Many Faces of Chemistry”. In 2008, there will be an extra effort to partner with local schools, and the 2008 NCW theme, “Chemistry and Sports”, should provide many opportunities for activities!

Sound like fun? It is! Feelers have gone out to members of the section who have been active in NCW in the past to solicit additional ideas. We can use your thoughts, ideas and energy to be a part of our new, exciting NCW efforts. Whatever time and energy or ideas you can offer, please contact:

Calvin Uzelmeier at: uzelmeier@yahoo.com

Deb Janes at: deborah.janes@kodak.com

Tim Wilson at: timothy.e.wilson@kodak.com

For further information about ACS's National Chemistry Week, visit the official NCW web site.

Please take the time to consider these volunteer opportunities and join us during this special week honoring Chemistry!