Pat Confalone of Wilmington, Del., to chair board of world’s largest scientific society

Washington, December 19, 2016 — Pat N. Confalone, Ph.D., a consultant and retired vice president of DuPont, has been re-elected for a third term as the 2017 chair of the board of directors of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientific society.

Confalone’s priorities include STEM education, entrepreneurship, funding for government research and employment challenges.

Regarding entrepreneurship, Confalone says, “ACS is extending its focus to include start-up companies as we also work through the issues faced by members employed at larger chemical-based industries. Consider the grand challenges facing our planet—including adequate food supply, health care, potable water, alternative energy, battery storage, etc. All have chemistry and chemical engineering as an essential component of the solution.”

An ACS member since 1970, Confalone chaired the Committee on Budget & Finance. He is also a member of the governing board for the ACS Green Chemistry Institute, the Board of Overseers of the Chemical Heritage Foundation, and is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has served on three ACS presidential commissions concerning jobs and innovation, advancing graduate education in the chemical sciences, and entrepreneurship in the chemical enterprise.

Confalone received a B.S. degree in chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard.

He lives in Wilmington with his wife Dianne.

The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With nearly 157,000 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. The American Chemical Society does not conduct research, but publishes and publicizes peer-reviewed scientific studies. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.