American Chemical Society to host popular vote for Chemistry Champion communicator

WASHINGTON, Aug. 7, 2014 — Five early-career chemists will compete to see who best communicates science to the public in the final round of the American Chemical Society’s Chemistry Champions contest starting 7 p.m. Pacific time this Sunday, August 10. A panel of three expert science communicators will provide feedback on each finalist’s performance. Both in-person audience members and viewers watching online will be able to vote for their favorite finalist via SMS text and Twitter.

TOPIC: ACS Chemistry Champions Finals live performance

DATE & TIME: Sunday, August 10, 7 p.m. PT; doors open 6:30 p.m. PT

LOCATION: The Kanbar Forum at the Exploratorium, Pier 15, San Francisco. All attendees must RSVP via http://bit.ly/ChChFinal, with entrance guaranteed to the first 150 ticketed attendees.

LIVESTREAM ADDRESS: http://ustream.tv/channel/acslive performance begins at 7 p.m. PT

The three judges are Lydia Franco-Hodges, instructor from The Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science; Sam Kean, author of The Disappearing Spoon and The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons; and Dr. Kiki Sanford, host of This Week in Science www.twis.org. The winning Chemistry Champion will fly to Washington, D.C., to shoot an ACS Reactions video www.youtube.com/user/ACSReactions and meet professional science communicators. 

The five finalists will be selected during a closed-door semi-final round, with the results announced on Twitter via @AmerChemSociety #chemchamps on August 9 by 7:30 p.m. PT. The 10 semi-finalists were chosen from 27 video applicants in June 2014. The semi-finalists’ videos are available for viewing at http://bit.ly/ChChsemivids
ACS Chemistry Champions is not affiliated with the Exploratorium.

ACS is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With more than 161,000 members, ACS is the world’s largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C. and Columbus, Ohio.