Congratulations to the 2016 awardees!
Binghamton Section
Alison Sheridan-Brennan
Alison Sheridan-Brennan has been a key asset to Outreach in the Binghamton area for over a decade and has been active in ACS-sponsored Outreach programs for nearly 20 years. Alison has coordinated the Binghamton Local Section's NCW and CCED Illustrated Poem Contests for the past several years. She has served as an event judge and volunteer coordinator for the Southern Tier Regional of the NYS Science Olympiad. Alison is the co-founder and co-coordinator of the Greater Binghamton You Be the Chemist Challenge. Alison has partnered with a number of others over the past decade to offer high quality teacher workshops.
Central North Carolina Section
John Dennis Ergle
Mr. Ergle has been one of the coordinators for NCW for many, many years. He is the lead coordinator this year. This responsibility is enormous and we appreciate this effort and his efforts over the years to support the local section.
Chattanooga Section
Harriet Hamilton
Dr. Harriet Hamilton has served as the Chemistry Olympiad Chair for the Chattanooga ACS Section since 2010. As the chair, she is responsible for contacting all the high schools in our area and recruiting students to take the test. For the second round of the test, she also has to setup lab experiments. This requires some extensive preliminary work and several weekends to prepare and administer. Dr. Hamilton has graciously served our section, the local high school students and the ACS for 5 years in the this position. We are grateful for her dedication, leadership, and commitment to education.
Chemical Society of Washington Section
Kim M. Morehouse
Kim has been involved in outreach activities for the Chemical Society of Washington for many years. For over 10 years Kim has served as the Coordinator for National Chemistry Week and Chemists Celebrate Earth Day. He is also the CSW representative to the Chemathon program, a competition for high school chemistry students, held at the University of Maryland. He has worked with the ACS headquarters staff for the USA Science and Engineering Festival, volunteering at the event as well as recruiting other volunteers. Kim is the go to person for recruiting volunteers for many of the sections programs.
Chicago Section
Avrom Litin
Avrom’s long track record of service to the Chicago Section includes nearly two decades of heavy involvement with National Chemistry Week outreach events, and a decade of participating in Illinois State Fair outreach. Avrom’s currently serving on the Committee on Community Activities. He has an unparalleled passion for educating the public on the subject of chemistry, and he always looks for new opportunities to do so – be it through working with the youth, teachers, or legislators. Watching Avrom work an outreach event is truly inspiring – with his friendly and encouraging demeanor, he makes chemistry approachable to the attendees.
Cincinnati Section
Donna Wiedemann
Donna has worked this event since 2000 and has led the event the past 10 years. Not only has she provided the necessary leadership and planning but also worked with the city of Cincinnati to make the Earth Day a successful regional event. Donna has committed much of her personal time for planning, preparation of materials, and actively seeking volunteers to help out during the event. The impact of Dr. Wiedemann’s volunteer contributions is immeasurable, and she is most deserving of this award.
Detroit Section
Mark DeCamp
Dr. Mark DeCamp is being recognized for his longstanding service (17 years in 2015) as the Coordinator of our U.S. National Chemistry Olympiad Program. Each year, he reaches out to Detroit area high school teachers and succeeds in attracting ~35 schools to participate, with 200-250 students involved. His dedication to this outreach effort has benefited thousands of young adults.
Georgia Section
Heather Abbott-Lyon
Dr. Heather Abbott-Lyon is an assistant professor at Kennesaw State University (KSU) and has coordinated the Chemistry Olympiad for the Georgia Local Section for several years. She has progressively increased the breadth of her reach in just 5 years from 344 students and 17 schools in 2010 to 850 students and 29 schools in 2015. This includes a 25% increase from 2014. Heather has also served as an active participant for a number of other outreach events hosted by the section in 2015.
Illinois Heartland Section
Victoria Nguyen
Victoria has been heavily involved in outreach in the Illinois Heartland Local Section. She is the Section's chair of the Younger Chemists Committee. She also coordinates both the Earth Day and the National Chemistry Week Poetry Contests. Victoria co-created and is now the main coordinator for the Battle of the Chemistry Clubs, where local undergraduate and graduate students from across the Section can meet and engage in friendly competition over their chemistry skills. This spring will be the third year of the competition. She will also be stepping into the role of Chair-Elect for the Section in 2016.
Joliet Section
Salim Diab
Salim is a winner! He coordinates volunteers and outreach for the Joliet local section. His charisma, personality, and the way he explains chemistry make him an ACS treasure. My daughter is very shy and has a disability. Salim gave her the opportunity to help in one of his library demos, which has changed her life. She is now interested in participating and in science. He demonstrates care, gives her a chance, and makes her smile. Thank you Salim, your work and love for chemistry is awesome.
Kalamazoo Section
Angela Willson
Angela has been an indispensable member of the KACS Executive Committee as a treasurer, and we are thrilled to have her back for a second term! Angela has also participated in a number of outreach events, including Chemistry Day at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum, and Angela has become a favorite at local schools for her dynamic and engaging demonstrations and activities.
Kansas City Section
Michael Ducey
Dr. Ducey served as the General Organizing Chair for the 2015 Midwest Regional meeting of the ACS. This highly successful meeting saw over 600 participants and nearly 50 volunteers engage in a wide variety of technical sessions, special symposia, and undergraduate specific programming. Dr. Ducey is also involved in a number of other science outreach activities including as co-director of Chemathon (an annual chemistry and physics competition), Super Science Saturday (a day that brings the joy of science to over 1500 members of the greater St. Joseph, MO community), and the science center at Vacation Bible School in his church.
Lehigh Valley Section
Carl Salter
Carl Salter, Ph.D., is a Professor and Chair of the Moravian College Department of Chemistry in Bethlehem, PA where he performs research with undergraduate students and runs the Moravian College High School Spectrometer Loan Program. Carl’s service to the Society includes speaking at local section meetings, and performing physics and chemistry demonstrations involving liquid nitrogen—and also making ice cream - throughout the Bethlehem School District, where he is well known and respected. In addition to the ACS, he is also a member and key organizer of the Molecular Computation and Visualization in Undergraduate Education (MoleCVUE) Association and its conferences.
Mark Twain Section
Frank Salter
Frank volunteers at the Illinois State Fair every year at least the past 4 years. He has performed his chemical and physical demonstrations to literally thousands of people of all ages. He also visits elementary schools with is box of science goodies. He also volunteers at the science family fun nights at Quincy University. He is the most entertaining presenter of science experiments I have ever witnessed.
Mid-Hudson Section
Lynn E. Maelia
The Mid-Hudson ACS committee on volunteer activity has this year unanimously agreed to nominate Lynn Maelia as our volunteer of the year. She has demonstrated a real commitment to the local ACS and has been instrumental in numerous outreach activities in the past few years. She has coordinated activities for local middle and high school science teachers to help them incorporate chemistry into their curriculum by giving them a number of activities to share with their students. She has also worked with the WCC and local girl scouts, as well as head the Chemistry Olympiad for the past few years.
Midland Section
Dave Stickles
We are fortunate to have had Dave as an active volunteer in the section for at least 25 years. He is involved with our technician's group, has been a fixture on the Board of Directors, and has handled our Sci-Fest/NCW programs since they started. He helps prepare, execute and plan Outreach efforts, including Kids Day at the Mall, Education Day with the Saginaw Spirit, demos for ACS Day at the Fair, and Scientific Wonder and Artful Genius. Dave often fills in when last-minute assistance is needed; he is a reliable and essential member of our Kids and Chemistry team.
New Haven Section
Kathryn Kuhr
Kathryn has established our YCC from nothing and by her own initiative. She had previously organized the ACS student chapter at her university. She volunteered to be our Secretary when our Secretary moved out of state.
New York Section
Ping Furlan
Throughout her involvement with the ACS-NY section, Dr. Ping Furlan has developed a CCED Hands-on Program for Boy Scouts, a hands-on program for a local school Family STEM Night and for the New York Hall of Science (NYSCI)’s Teen STEM Chemistry Night. Through “green” focused fun activities, these programs actively emphasize the importance of environmental concerns via green choices and inspire local youth in appreciating science. Moreover she co-Chaired the NCW – NYSCI Program, the largest outreach effort of the NY Section. Dr. Furlan generously provides her time and energy to influence youngsters towards pursuing a career in the Chemical Sciences.
Northeast Tennessee Section
Gregory Love
Dr. Gregory Love has been a long-time volunteer for ACS local section and in the chemistry education community. He was the 2008 Chair for NETS-ACS local section and has been the Chair for Awards Committee since 2007. Being a Lecturer in Chemistry at East Tennessee State University, he participates in the Science Olympiad as a coordinator. He also coordinates the Awards Banquet, including requesting nominations for Outstanding Student awards and arranging the venue to provide certificates for NETS-ACS sponsored science fairs. He has also helped judge NETS-ACS awards for the ETSU science fairs as part of the Awards Committee work.
Northwest Louisiana Section
Brian Salvatore
Brian is among the first people alerted and stopped the EPA’s misguided plan to open burn 16 million pounds of abandoned military propellant at Camp Minden. He served on the Dialogue Committee to evaluate all alternatives and one was selected. This became a model for Redford and Holston to stop the open burning of obsolete military munitions. Brain commits himself to improving the local public schools’ academic education. He has founded two mentor programs which resulted in real transformative changes in the science curriculum. He is on the ACS Project SEED Committee and is mentoring two high school students.
Ole Miss Section
Edward Movitz
With all of the members in our local section, one individual continues to work tirelessly with almost every event hosted by the local section. If we could ever state that one particular person can truly make a difference in the operations, the outreach activities, and the public view of our local section - that person would be Mr. Edward Movitz.
Philadelphia Section
Thomas Straub
Dr. Straub has served as Chair of the Philadelphia Section's Education Committee for many years. Tom is an energetic and able leader and mentor. As Chair of our Education Committee, Tom has responsibility for three annual events and executes each one with great attention to detail and great success. The events are an annual public chemistry show entitled the “Herb Bassow Memorial Chemistry Demonstrations”, an annual awards program for excellence in undergraduate chemistry studies, and the Section’s participation in the National Chemistry Olympics.
Portland Section
Jim Tung
As Chair-elect, Jim has applied for multiple grants from the ACS (and received most of them), for several different projects, but most especially he has taken the leadership role in creating the Oregon Science Startup Forum.
San Antonio Section
George Negrete
Dr. Negrete is very involved in the outreach program for the San Antonio section. With the section coordinator for Project SEED, he was able to work with UTSA to provide funding for six students as well as serving as a mentor for one of the students. Due to his selfless actions, the section was able to serve ten Project SEED students this summer. He is a very valuable member of the local section, and he participates is many of the local section activities as well as bringing some of his students to the meeting. He deserves this award.
South Carolina Section
Jennifer Kelley
Jennifer Kelly has been the leader in outreach activities in the South Carolina section, and is a worthy nominee for outreach volunteer of the year. She organizes major outreach events every year in support of NCW to reach non-science major college students and a wide audience of K12 students. She also hosts workshops and luncheons to engage high school science teachers in an area of the state that contains much of the so-called educational “Corridor of Shame”. She actively sponsors women in chemistry activities to mentor new science students and organizes professional development activities for students across the section.
South Florida Section
George Fisher
For over 20 years Dr. George Fisher and his Barry University Chemistry Club students presented chemistry “Magic Shows” and demos to 500-800 third through fifth graders at ~8 elementary schools/year. 3rd- to 5th-graders have been targeted as an age at which young students can become more excited and enthused about science. The chemistry behind each demo/experiment is explained along with examples of how chemistry can be applied to everyday lives. As NCW Coordinator for South Florida section, he also organizes annual NCW outreach to public where ACS student chapters present chemistry demos and hands-on activities to hundreds of children and parents at local science museums.
Southern Indiana Section
Laura Caroline Brown
Laura has been highly active in her efforts to make organic chemistry concepts accessible to the general public. She has directed these efforts to the re-design of an organic chemistry-themed exhibit housed at WonderLab, a local children’s science museum in Bloomington, IN, to fit into a new exhibition entitled “The Amazing Brain”. In addition, she developed materials for elementary and middle school students, and presented them to a group of teachers at a “Science in a Snap” institute, hosted by WonderLab. Laura has been the treasurer of the SISACS since 2013, and will continue her service in 2016.
St. Louis Section
Lisa Balbes
Dr. Balbes has been an ACS volunteer career consultant since 1993, providing career management information to literally thousands of scientists. She is an ACS certified master facilitator, and an internationally invited speaker on career management and development for scientists. She is the author of Nontraditional Careers for Chemists: published by Oxford University Press (2007). She has served her local section as chair (2002, Outstanding Local Section), Treasurer (2005-2006), career resource coordinator (2003–present), Scout clinic coordinator (2004–present) and Councilor (2007–present). Nationally, she was recently elected to the Committee on Nominations and Election (2014–2016).
Toledo Section
Joanna Hinton
Joanna coordinated 10 summer library outreach programs to coincide with Summer Reading Theme of Super Heroes; led 9 of them; wrote and prepared all materials. For STEM in the PARK, Joanna organized, coordinated and volunteered outreach to over 400+ kids and equal or more adults. She did 6 NCW library outreach programs this autumn; recruited volunteers for events; wrote thank you notes and recognized volunteers. She organized Oct 19 - Partnership Outreach Event at Library for science literacy: Open Book by Sara Everts on Chemical Weapons. Additionally, Joanna coordinated all other programming events, which are open to the public. She's phenomenal!
Virginia Section
Colleen Taylor
Colleen established a mentoring program to assist sophomore or junior chemistry majors in their understanding of careers in Chemistry and how they may reach their professional goals. The mentors provide a valuable link between the undergraduate student and the professional community. She ran a successful pilot of this program in the spring with 10 student/mentor pairs and scaled up the program this past fall. I believe this program provides a valuable opportunity for students attending the colleges and universities in the VA Local section to gain insights into the many career options available to them.
Wyoming Section
Elliott B. Hulley
Elliott has been very involved in the governance of the local ACS by participating in meetings, helping to set up ACS talks, and traveling to El Paso, TX to help set up a joint meeting with the Southwest region. He has also been very active in the ACS Student Affiliates at the University of Wyoming. He has helped to coordinate ACS picnic activities, earth day demonstrations, and other student events on campus.
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