NESACS Public Relations 2014

NESACS Public Relations 2014 Prepared by Jack Driscoll and Jennifer Maclachlan, NESACS Public Relations Committee

1.    National Historic Chemical Landmark (NHCL)- We started working in Jan. 2014 on designating 700 Mass. Ave. in Cambridge (Edwin Land’s laboratory) as a National Historic Chemical Landmark in Jan. 2014. Vivian Walworth filled out all the paper work and followed up with Keith Lindblom of the ACS NHCL. In December 2014, we were informed that the ACS National Historic Chemical Landmarks Subcommittee’s recommendation to designate Edwin H. Land and Instant Photography as a National Historic Chemical Landmark for 2015 was approved by the ACS Board Committee on Public Affairs and Public Relations, which is the final reviewing body for all NHCL nominations. 700 Mass Ave. in Cambridge is the physical site. This is the first NHCL in MA. We were directed by Keith Lindblom to start a NHCL committee and interface with him in early Jan. 2015. Jack Driscoll was asked by Kathy Lee if he would chair the NCHL committee at the NESACS meeting in Dec. See the write up in the Feb. 2015 issue of the Nucleus.

2.    Increased Attendance at NESACS Meetings-Chair Elect Kathy Lee introduced a “symposium-only” option in January 2014 for the 2014 monthly NESACS meetings which resulted in a dramatic increase at the January and March meeting from an average of 50 attendees at each meeting to 150 each! Other monthly meetings yielded an average of 10-20% increase (topic dependent) and the Southeastern Massachusetts and New Hampshire area sub-section meetings brought in members who had not previously attended meetings. More about this in the SEMASS/NH Area Meetings below.

3.    Nobel Laureate Speaks at March 2014 Monthly Meeting - We had a distinguished speaker for March 2014 NESACS monthly Meeting. We filled the room to its capacity of 150 people for 2013 Nobel Laureate. Prof. Martin Karplus. The event is described in the March 2014 and May 2014 editions of the Nucleus. We presented an “ACS Salute to Excellence Award.” To Prof. Karplus.

http://www.nesacs.org/pub_nucleus/2014/Mar14.pdf  &         http://www.nesacs.org/pub_nucleus/2014/May14.pdf

4.    Regional Girl Scout Outreach Event-March 9, 2014- NESACS –Chemistry table staffed by 3 NESACS volunteers: Patrick Dunne, Dorothy Phillips (pictured below) and Ziyan Wu at a regional Girl Scout event  “Changing the World through STEM: Teen Career Expo" located at the Sheraton Framingham Hotel 1657 Worcester Rd. Framingham, MA 01701 on Sunday, March 9^th from 3:00pm-5:00pm. NSYCC Younger Chemists assisted in a workshop with Beyond Benign at this event.

5.    STEM Program at Cape Cod Community College March 29,2014- The Cape Cod council of the Boy Scouts of America, NESACS, PID Analyzers, LLC and Cape Cod Community College hosted a STEM outreach program for Boy Scouts,  K-12 students and families Cape-wide. Dennis-Yarmouth High School chemistry students staffed and ran the NESACS table with hands-on experiments. We had 750 people attend. Jack Driscoll invited his friend, Astronaut Byron Lichtenberg, to be one of the keynote speaker. The other keynote speaker and astronaut, is from Cape Cod, Dan Burbank and was invited by one of our Boy Scout STEM committee members.  This very successful event was described in the Dec. 2014 Nucleus http://www.nesacs.org/pub_nucleus/2014/Dec14.pdf .

Other publicity links:

Boy Scouts event listing

Astronauts set down at Barnstable STEM event

Boy Scout Facebook posting

Cape Cod Science Café blog

Out of this world STEM Journey on Cape Cod

6.    ACS Entrepreneurial Forum- at Hilton Garden Inn, Waltham, MA (8AM-5:00PM). The reception was at Nova Biomedical at 5:30 on April 9, 2014.

On Wednesday April 9, 2014, the ACS Division of Small Chemical Businesses (SCHB) together with ACS National, the Northeastern Local Section (NESACS), Chemical Innovation and Entrepreneurship Council (CIEC), ACS Division of Business Development and Management (BMGT) and Nova Biomedical, presented the 2014 ACS Entrepreneurial Resource Center Showcase East Event, a chemistry-based business pitch competition, featuring a cash prize for the winning pitch. The daytime event took place at the Hilton Garden Inn and concluded with an evening program hosted by Nova Biomedical in Waltham, MA. Eighteen chemistry-based start-ups seeking investments and/or strategic partners gave their pitch on technologies involving materials, scientific instruments, therapeutic candidates, diagnostic devices, and cleantech products. 

The organizing committee included the following ACS National staff members: Michael David, David Harwell, Kenneth Polk and Garretta Rollins and the following member volunteers: Mukund Chorghade, SCHB Chair and Chair NESACS Professional Relations Committee, Jack Driscoll, NESACS Public Relations and SCHB Member and Jennifer Maclachlan, SCHB Public Relations Chair, Chair CIEC Public Relations and Communications and Member NESACS Public Relations Committee. We couldn’t have done it without the assistance of our reviewers, mentors, volunteers and judges.Reviewers: Gianna Arnold, Esq., Partner, Saul Ewing LLP, Dr. Dan Daly, Director, the Alabama Innovation and Mentoring of Entrepreneur Center, Dr. Judy Giordan, Managing Director, ecosVC, Dr. Michael Lefenfeld, President and CEO, SiGNa Chemistry, Jeffrey A. Lindeman, Esq., Founder, J.A. Lindeman & Co. PLLC and Ralph T. Scannell, Ph.D. Mentors: Tony Brazzale, Founder and CEO, Gordian Biotechnologies,Anthony Buzzelli, Retired Partner, Deloitte and Dr. Dan Daly, Director, Alabama Innovation and Mentoring of Entrepreneur Center. Volunteers:  The Manderson Graduate School of Business at the University of Alabama, Dr. Rob Morgan, Director,Steven Beard, Melissa Huynh,  Max Mittenthal,  Vincent Philippe, Michael Royko and Larry Wink. A special thank you goes to Mark Vreeke, Sid White and Judy Giordan of the Chemical Angel Network (CaN) for their support of this endeavor. Judges: Mukund Chorghade, Chris Incarvito, Director of Research Operations and Technology at Yale University, and Ken Polk, ACS Counsel.

Congratulations to Andrew Bond of DeNovX, who gave the winning pitch and was the recipient 0f the $10,000 cash prize! 

This event and what made it a success, was featured  at the SCHB Entrepreneurs’ Poster Session Monday morning August 11, 2014 Moscone Center, South Bldg, Esplanade Ballroom 301 and on Monday night August 11, 2014 at the SCHB poster session at SCI MIX. 

See blog post here

7.    The Cambridge Science Festival –April   2014, Motivate your students' molecules! A Chemistry-Based Workshop Just For Teachers
Broad Institute, 7 Cambridge Center, Cambridge
Friday, April 18 at 5:00pm-8pm

8.    Event Description:
As educators, it is our responsibility to do our best to provide many opportunities that motivate and encourage student curiosity and enjoyment of science. Join us for this educational experience exclusive to teachers for new inspiration, tools, and strategies.
5:00pm: Networking reception with hors d'oeuvres
5:30pm-7:30pm: Show me the Chemistry! followed by Motivating Your Students' Molecules workshop- by Dr. Hazari , Univ. of TN
7:30pm-8:00pm: Networking reception with dessert & coffee

This teacher workshop was organized as a Cambridge Science Festival official event by the American Chemical Society Northeastern Local Section (NESACS) Public Relations Committee: Jennifer Maclachlan and Jack Driscoll.
Cost: Free

Sponsored by PID Analyzers, LLC

See blog post

9.    Science Carnival Public Outreach event at Cambridge Science Festival

We had three ACS tables. See the blog here about the event including photos. NESACS members: Cosmo Sabatino (NESAC PR Committee Member) and Sonja Strah-Pleynet staffed tables at this event along with Jennifer Maclachlan and Al Hazari.

 NSYCC participated in Central Elements at Cambridge Science Festival.

 NSYCC hosted Antony Williams on 4/28 at MIT to address how to present yourself online as a scientist.

10.  SE MA meeting in Falmouth May 2014- Our second meeting of the SE MA subgroup was held on May 15, 2014 at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. The Speaker was Prof. Brian Jackson of Dartmouth College who will talked on “Detection of ppb Levels of Toxic Metals in Food and Natural Waters by ICP/MS”. We had 85 people registered for the meeting in Falmouth, MA.

11.  Chemists celebrate Earth Day CCED photos from the MOS event on 4/13/14 submitted to Linda Wang by Jennifer Maclachlan. Although there is no round-up like NCW, she “considered it for ACS news” and included it in the June 9, 2014 edition of C&EN. See link here (requires ACS login). See screenshot below.

12) NESACS wins three Chemluminary awards out of a total of five that they were finalists for at the 2014 Fall National Meeting in San Francisco! Awards were for Outstanding Collaboration Between a Local Section (NESACS) and a Division (Environmental Chemistry), Best HS Chem Club NCW event and Global Engagement. Read more about it here. Below is the section Chemluminary Finalist Poster that was presented at the poster session prior to the awards ceremony.

       

13) Meeting of the New Hampshire area joint meeting with the Green Mountain Local Section (VT) hosted by Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH. 55 people were in attendance at this inaugural event on October 23, 2014! See photo gallery here.

14) SEMASS Meeting at Bridgewater State University featuring Dan Nocera-Over 150 people attended this Class of 1942 lecture and meeting of the Southeastern Region of NESACS on Tuesday October 28, 2014! See the photo gallery here.

15) On Oct. 25, 2014, “NESACS brings NCW to Cape Cod” marked our 10^th Cape Cod Science Café since the program began in 2011, (“Wicked Sweet”) which was hosted by Camp Greenough in Yarmouth (http://capecodsciencecafe.tumblr.com/ ). Hands-on experiments related to the 2014 American Chemical Society National Chemistry Week theme: Candy~The Sweet Side of Chemistry, were facilitated by Cambridge Science Festival, Green Briar Nature Center, PID Analyzers, LLC, and Cape Cod Middle School Teachers. NESACS won a ChemLuminary award for our collaboration between a local section (NESACS) and a division (Environmental) for this same 2013 event which is now an annual event!

16) NCW at Boston Children’s Museum on Saturday October 25, 2014-Check out the photo gallery on the NESACS NCW/CCED Facebook page here

17)   NESACS celebrates NCW with Bassam Shakhashiri at Museum of Science Boston-Sunday November 2, 2014. Although there was a Nor’easter, it didn’t impact the attendance-in fact it was busier than usual! See the photo gallery here

18) The Future of Chemistry Symposium was revived in 2014 after a brief hiatus featuring Wilhelm Boland, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology. Event was organized by Lee Johnson. Learn more about this exciting day long event here

19) Our “STEM Journey-Great White Sharks to Deep Ocean Exploration”: event  on March 28, 2015 at Cape Cod Community College will have two famous keynote speakers: Greg Skomal (expert on Great White Sharks) of MA Fisheries and Wildlife and Dave Gallo of WHOI who has been involved in finding the Titanic, the Bismark and is working on MH740. We expect > 1,000 people at this event and will have an involvement with both the boy and girl scouts. Included in STEM Journey 2015 there will be a Local STEM Resources expo as part of this event which will include student work including products created with a 3D printer (Mashpee High School), The Borne to Engineer students (Bourne Public Schools), 7^th and 8^th grade Engineering Program at the Lawrence School in Falmouth and others as well as representatives from local STEM programs that include existing programs in schools, from special activities to summer camps etc.. Boy Scouts will have the opportunity to arrive in the morning before the event and complete a badge related to oceanography before participating in STEM Journey 2015. CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS: If NESACS members want to assist with the badge, staff a resource table and/or an experiment table (NSYCC will be staffing an experiment table!) or give a lecture related to oceanography, contact Jack Driscoll, STEM Journey 2015 Chairman at mailto:pidguy@aol.com.

20) Jennifer worked with Doris Lewis, 2014 Norris Committee Chair, to promote the “Norris Award” on Nov.6, 2014 when Dr. Thomas Greenbowe of Iowa State received the Award. The Nucleus article is here. Jennifer developed contacts and initiated publicity at Iowa State University of Science & Technology. Here is one of two links. Here is link two of two from Iowa State. She contacted Linda Wang, of C&EN who agreed to provide some publicity in that magazine. Publicity appeared post award in the December 8, 2014 edition. See link here.  Jennifer also contacted the Division of Chemical Education who posted the announcement on their web site see link here: http://www.divched.org/content/greenboweJFNAward and put it on their Facebook page and tweeted it. We posted it to NESACS Facebook and Linked In once the November Issue of The Nucleus was available online. Event photos are available here. The most recent press is from University of Oregon, where Dr. Greenbowe has just joined as a faculty member in the Winter of 2015.

21)   Cape Cod Regional STEM REGION A few months ago, the number of STEM regions in MA was increased from 7 to 9. A Cape Cod Region (Barnstable, Plymouth and Dukes counties) was created and is established at Cape Cod Community College. A full time administrator was hired in August. They have both State and Federal funding so they can have a full time administrator. Jennifer and I attended the first meeting for the STEM Region in October. Jack will be speaking about the STEM Journey program on March 28, 2015 at the January 2015 Cape Cod Regional STEM meeting. Note that the director of the Cape Cod Regional STEM Network is on our STEM Journey Organizing Committee.

22) Cambridge Science Festival- April 17-26.2015

This is the fourth year that NESACS has been working with the Cambridge Science Festival. It was the first of its kind in the United States, and is a week-long celebration showcasing the leading edge in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. Planning has been initiated for a science café evening event for adult festival attendees and outreach tables at the public event. The theme this year is Einstein since it is the 100 year anniversary of his announcement of “General Theory of Relativity”. The NESACS Younger Chemists Committee will be participating in that event as well as the public outreach event.  Jack has a pencil drawing of Einstein (signed) from1930 that was drawn by the famous Austrian/America artist Joseph Margulies. We can make T shirts for the NESACS volunteers at Cambridge Science Festival using the sketch below! Contact Jennifer at pidgirl@gmail.com if you’d like to participate in NESACS activities at Cambridge Science Festival.

                  Signed Sketch of Einstein in 1930 by Joseph Margulies