Learning how to *rock* my business on Pinterest

I had the good fortune earlier this month to attend a seminar called: How Pinterest Can Be Your Business’ Secret Social Media Weapon (Morning Program) led by Lisa Kalner Williams, the founder of Sierra Tierra Marketing, an agency that provides social analysis, strategy, and instruction to corporations and individuals. 

I made sure to leave enough time to get "over the bridge" from Cape Cod to Boston with the lane reduction on either side during commuter time. I made it over the bridge and got stuck around Weymouth where traffic hangs up as the road goes from two lanes to three lanes-that's right, the road expands and cars just stop. But I digress...

Here's the serendipitous part: how I found out about this seminar is exactly why social sharing is so powerful. I received an email from a colleague of mine who forwarded me the *Events your friends are attending and picks just for you* email-wondering if we knew about and or were going to a STEM event at Wheelock College. I then signed up for the STEM-ED event as well as joined the waitlist for the Pinterest event. I didn't have to wait long; within a few hours I was notified that I could claim my spot since there had been a cancellation. 

Events for You, From Us April showers bring May flowers, and more events. Our robots picked out a bouquet, just for you. In this issue: Events your friends are attending and Picks just for you

There were thirteen of us participating in this seminar held at WorkBar on Atlantic Avenue in Boston.  Located in the basement of the building pictured on the left is a community workspace which business professionals rent out for this type of event. The WorkBar work space is so ultra modern and hip that if I didn't know better I would have thought I'd stepped through a portal to Cambridge. 
Lisa Kalner began the discussion  by having each of us introduce ourselves and include how we currently use Pinterest and what we hoped to learn at this seminar.
I introduced myself and said I had opened a Pinterest account a couple months ago but only had one board and one pin. I came to the seminar to learn the value of Pinterest with the ultimate goal of utilizing it as a business tool to drive traffic to my blog. I did a couple of live tweets from the event:

Jennifer Maclachlan ‏ @pidgirl 6 Apr

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At #workbarboston at a #pinterest seminar: learning *how my business can rock Pinterest*

Jennifer Maclachlan ‏ @pidgirl  6 Apr

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Savvy #pinterest biz practice: celebrate lifestyle of fans and engage#pinners by increased brand awareness-driving traffic to web/blog

6 AprJennifer Maclachlan ‏ @pidgirl

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@sierratierra Tks for your talk this morning I am so *pinspired*! Started pinning as soon as I got back to #capecod http://ow.ly/a7AIp

6 AprWorkBar Coworking ‏ @WorkBarBoston

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Great to have had @greco @pidgirl @rileywaff @greg_reibman@caitlin_york


 @jennarbee with us this morn at @sierratierra 's Pinterest program!

Retweeted by Jennifer Maclachlan

I really needed the *pinspiration* that Lisa offered in this seminar. It is always really neat to hear how other folks are using social media and to take away the little nuggets of awesomeness that I can apply to my social media repertoire. I have been busy building up my Pinterest boards and have only shared a couple times. I will soon be sending out *this week on Pinterest* tweets and Facebook updates... Out of my now 17 boards the most popular are: Social Media, Industrial Hygiene, Gas Chromatography and Yoga. 

*Happy Pinning* as they say on Pinterest. 

Passport to Chemistry at Cambridge Science Festival

The American Chemical Society, a sponsor of the 2012 Cambridge Science Festival, flew in two employees from the home office in Washington, D.C. and mobilized fifteen volunteers from the Northeastern Section to donate their time Friday April 20  at the Cambridge Science Festival's kick-off event: the Science Carnival hosted by the Cambridge Public Library. Member volunteers ranged from an unemployed chemist, an alternate councilor, first year undergrads and my seven year old daughter who delightfully stamped the chemistry passports of participants!

The ACS Passport to Chemistry program had ten tables which included International Year of Chemistry thematic activities (Environment, Energy, Materials and Health). Among the favorites of the hundreds of children that came through were the *Producing Oxygen Gas* and the *Magic Nuudles*.






After the ooohhh ahhhh moment when the exothermic reaction occurred  at the end of the *Producing Oxygen Gas" experiment and they noticed the baggie was warm to the touch, both the kids and their parents loved it when I said "You're a chemist now! You just did a chemistry experiment!"  and we sent them proudly on their way to the next ACS table for more chemistry! 


We had six children performing the experiment and another twelve waiting at any given time solid from noon until 3pm and I could hear the parents saying to the kids, 
"do you really want to wait for the chemistry or would you like to come back later"-the answer was always wait. Sometimes kids have more patience than we give them credit for. Especially when they are waiting and observing and come to the table for their turn they are ready with questions and to listen to instruction. I marvel at the alacrity of the clock when I am working at one of these events: from noon until 3pm I didn't look up from the table. It was only when my seven year old asked if we could take a break did I realize we were three quarters of the way through the event.  I took her out to Broadway in front of the library to get a hot dog from a street vendor and I told her she had certainly earned that hot dog for all her hard work! 

Chemistry of Food Science Cafe at the Cambridge Science Festival

Jennifer Maclachlan and Sara Risch Washington D.C. February 2012

Calling all foodies, chemists and Cambridge-y types: join us this Monday at the Chemistry of Food Science Cafe. 

www.thinktankcambridge.com

The American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society with over 164,000 members, is flying in their lead Chemistry of Food Webinar expert and world renowned food chemist Sara Risch, to speak at the Cambridge Science Festival's Chemistry of Food Science Cafe this Monday night April 23, 2012 at Think Tank Bistroteque. 


Sara Risch is best known in Boston for her Chemistry of Ball Park Foods Event. In the same spirit of the ball park event, Sara will be talking about the chemistry of the actual food that is being served at the event-so Asian inspired cuisine is both the topic at hand and the food in the mouth. Trust me, you don't want to miss this special evening with the dynamic Sara Risch!

www.cambridgesciencefestival.org

What is a science cafe, anyway? A science cafe is a social and educational forum where the local scientific community and the general public can meet in a relaxed atmosphere with food and drink and offer an informative presentation that engages the public and teaches them about critical issues involving the chemistry, science and technology that impacts everyday life.

If you go: 

Reservations required. Reserve your spot today using the RSVP link here.

Monday  April 23, 2012

Starts at 6:30 pm

Think Tank Bistrotheque

One Kendall Square

Building 300 Lower Level

Cambridge, MA.

Complimentary hors d ’oeuvre’s and soft drinks. Cash bar. 

Awesome networking. 

Educational forum= excellent reason to go out on a Monday night.

Northeastern Section Younger Chemists Committee Presents: Career Symposium 2012

The Northeastern Section Younger Chemists Committee presented the

NYSCC Career Symposium at The Holiday Inn in Brookline on Saturday April 14, 2012.

Three event speakers: Jack Driscoll, Doris Lewis and Patrick Gordon

 Our younger chemists have organized this  amazing event which features invited talks and workshops facilitated by distinguished NESACS members from academia and industry complete with a networking event at Budda C from 5pm-6pm. 

Jack Driscoll-workshop on *Should I start my own business? What are the barriers?*

Jack had the crowd going when he gave his definition of an *entrepreneur* 

Full program is below.

Mukund Chorgade 

Career Symposium 2012

Monitoring & ID of HAPs by fast capillary GC accepted at #ACSPHL

Click here for slideshow

244th ACS National Meeting, Philadelphia, PA

Paper # 282

Program Area: ANYL: Division of Analytical Chemistry 

Symposium Title: (ANYL014) 

New Directions in Analytical Separations

ORAL SESSION

Thursday, August 23, 2012 03:10 PM New Directions in Analytical Separations (01:00 PM - 04:50 PM) Location: Sheraton Philadelphia City Center Hotel Room: Freedom Ballroom G

INSTITUTIONS

1. PID Analyzers, LLC, Sandwich, MA, 02563, United States

2. VICI Valco, Inc., Houston, TX, 77055, United States

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AUTHORS

1. J. N. Driscoll¹ , 2 Washington Circle, #4, Sandwich, MA, 02563, United States 

2. Jennifer L. Maclachlan¹   

3. Stan Stearns² , VICI Valco Inc., 8300 Waterbury, Houston, TX, 77055, United States 

Title: Monitoring and identification of hazardous air pollutants by fast capillary gas chromatography with PID/FID detection

Abstract Body: First passed in 1970, the Clean Air Act (CAA) intended to regulate air emissions from both mobile and stationary sources, The 1990 Clean Air Act Amendment (CAAA) involved a new approach: regulation by industry rather than by chemical; re-focusing the program to one which is technology and performance based. The US Congress generated a list of 189 hazardous air pollutants (HAP's) as a focused guideline to reducing emissions of HAP's from major sources of air pollution (1).

Driscoll et al (2) described a method for the identification of hydrocarbons using gas chromatography to separate and the ratio of the photoionization detector (PID) and flame ionization detector for identification. The FID provides the same response for Hexane, hexane and benzene. The PID response is related to the number double bonds (p electrons) so the PID /FID ratio is 10 for hexane, 20 for hexane and 60 for benzene, so we can used this ratio along with the retention time on a 30 meter capillary for positive identification of particular components. This method, of a single column and PID/FID ratios for identification has been employed in EPA and many state agencies methods instead of using two different columns for identification.

We used a new miniature PID/FID in-series tandem design along with a 30M x 0.32 mm & 5m film column that provides with temperature programming for the analyses. This column will allow us to separate the light hydrocarbons along the SVOC's. We will be using the restistively VICI capillary columns that, because of their low mass, provide rapid heating and cooling of the column.

1.Driscoll, JN,” An Agenda for Fighting Air Toxics”, Environmental Protection, Oct. 1998.

2. Driscoll, J,N, et. al, "Gas Chromatographic Detection and Identification of Aromatic and Aliphatic Hydrocarbons in Complex Mixtures by Coupling Photoionization and Flame Ionization Detectors," J. Chrom., 158 , 171 (1978).

3. Stearns, S. “A direct resistively heated gas chromatography column with heating and sensing on the same nickel element, Journal of Chromatography A, 1217 (2010) 4629–4638”,

Blog post updated 07/18/2012

Wireless indoor environmental quality (IEQ) monitoring in classrooms and laboratories (VOC's, CO, CO2, and T)

Click here for slideshow

PRESS RELEASE FROM ACS PRESSROOM

New Device for Monitoring Classroom Air

Accepted for presentation at 244th ACS National Meeting, Philadelphia, PA

Document ID: 10481

Program Area: ENVR: Division of Environmental Chemistry

Symposium Title: (ENVR008p) General Posters

INSTITUTIONS

1. PID Analyzers, LLC, Sandwich, Massachusetts, US, 02563, United States

2. Suffolk University, Physics Department, Boston, MA, 02041, United States

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AUTHORS

1. Jack N Driscoll¹ , Dr., PID Analyzers, LLC, 2 Washington Circle, #4, Sandwich, Massachusetts, US, 02563, United States , 6176802016, pidguy@aol.com

2. Jennifer L Maclachlan¹ , PID Analyzers, LLC, 2 Washington Circle, #4, Sandwich, Massachusetts, US, 02563, United States , 6176994307, United States, pidgirl@gmail.com

3. Pol Perov² , Dr.

Title: Wireless indoor environmental quality (IEQ) monitoring in classrooms and laboratories (VOC's, CO, CO₂, and T)   

Abstract Body: Poor air quality in school classrooms is a serious problem now since school classrooms can have occupancy levels as high as 40 sq. ft per persons compared to average office occupancy of 140 sq. ft. per person. Other considerations include the number of portable classrooms being used on a semi-permanent basis. Many of the urban schools are old, situated near industrial sites and have poor HVAC equipment. With class rooms that have individually controlled HVAC, improving the air quality could be accomplished by simply monitoring CO2 and using that to control the HVAC system. Of course, most schools do not have that capability.

We have developed an indoor environmental quality (IEQ) sensor package that has the capability to monitor CO2 in the crowded class rooms (high levels of CO2 cause drowsiness), temperature, VOC's from a variety of sources, and a fourth sensor that can be selected. The CO2 sensor is an low power IR sensor with a range of 0-2,500 ppm and the VOC's will be measured with an electrochemical sensor with ppb capability. The third sensor is air temperature. The fourth sensor can be chosen from a variety (30 different) of electrochemical sensors. The Bluetooth wireless datalogger module has four analog inputs that are supplied from the sensor amplifier.

The sensor package power is only a few milliwatts so a battery operated system with the capability to run for 450 hours provides nearly three weeks of data which would be sufficient to evaluate a class room and make decisions about the corrective actions to be taken. The datalogger in the system has Bluetooth wireless capability that can send a signal 200-300 ft. so a PC with a wireless receiver (in the area) can be used to collect the data on a weekly basis without disaturbing the classroom. A variety of classrooms will be evaluated with the sensor package including labs, portable class rooms and lecture halls to evaluate the IEQ.

The IEQ package is compact and is easily moved to different locations since no external power is required. This study could lead to improved air quality in classrooms. If achieved, a positive benefit would be that this can lead to a higher test scores as shown in a number of studies.