Younger Chemists Committee Report 2003 |
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| Submitted by Lauren K. Wolf, Chair NSYCC 2003-2005 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I. Overall Evaluation | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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For the Northeastern Section Younger Chemists Committee (NSYCC), 2003 was a
very pivotal and successful year.
Dr. Amy Tapper, Chair of the Committee from 1999-2003 stepped down early in the
year to pursue other local section positions and interests. We are proud to
announce that Amy is now Chair-Elect of the NESACS for 2004.
As such, the YCC goals for 2003 primarily involved finding new officers, growing the committee, becoming more organized, and continuing all of the wonderful programs established in years past. These goals were all accomplished readily. New officers were put into position from a variety of universities and backgrounds (see below). The Northeast Student Chemistry Research Conference (NSCRC) 2003 subcommittee also saw its largest, most diverse membership since the start of the conference in 1999. The annual Career Symposium, German Exchange Program, and NSCRC were all continued successfully, attracting new members and giving the new NSYCC officers ideas for future program improvements. In addition, the NSYCC hired a graphic artist to design a new, more organized website. The design and content took four months to finish, but we are happy to announce its completion as of January 2004 (see www.nsycc.org). The new site highlights all of the annual activities organized by the YCC, providing photos, schedules, and other detailed information from past programs. Younger chemists will be able to register for upcoming career fairs and submit abstracts for upcoming student research conferences through the website. The site also features a current news page where younger chemists can get updated information on monthly activities (such as the NESACS monthly meetings) and a “Sign-Up” for new members to be added to our mailing list. |
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| II. Officers and Members | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Annual Report is submitted by the NSYCC Chair each year. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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NSYCC Officers Lauren K. Wolf – Chair Department of Chemistry Boston University 590 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, MA 02215 lkwolf[at]chem.bu.edu (617)353-3241 Ivan Korendovych – Assistant-Chair Department of Chemistry Tufts University 62 Talbot Ave., Medford, MA 02155 korendovych[at]nsycc.org (617)627-5745 Sonia Taktak – Treasurer Department of Chemistry Tufts University 62 Talbot Ave., Medford, MA 02155 sonia.taktak[at]nsycc.org (617)627-5745 Aida Herrera – Career Chair Department of Biological Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139 herrera9[at]mit.edu (617)253-5772 Slava Azev - Webmaster Department of Chemistry Tufts University 62 Talbot Ave., Medford, MA 02155 webmaster[at]nsycc.org (617)627-2042 YCC Mentors Dr. Amy Tapper – Past YCC Chair Genzyme Drug Discovery and Development 153 Second Ave. Waltham, MA 02451 amy.tapper[at]genzyme.com (781)434-3518 Dr. Michael Strem – Chair of German Exchange Steering Committee Strem Chemicals, Inc. mstrem[at]strem.com Dr. Ruth Tanner – Chair of NESACS Education Committee University of Massachusetts - Lowell Ruth_Tanner[at]uml.edu Dr. Morton Hoffmann – Past NESACS Chair Boston University hoffmann[at]bu.edu YCC Members Northeast Student Chemistry Research Conference (NSCRC) 2003 Subcommittee |
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| III. Activities | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Schedules, photographs, and detailed information about each
of this year’s activities are available on the new NSYCC website,
www.nsycc.org.
Career Symposium 2003: Alternative Careers in Chemistry The annual YCC Career Symposium was held on February 14, 2003 from 3:30-5:30pm prior to the NESACS monthly meeting at the Holiday Inn in Newton, MA. This year’s theme was selected to introduce younger chemists to a variety of non-traditional careers in chemistry. These careers require the knowledge and skills of a chemist, but exist outside of the traditional laboratory setting. In today’s competitive job market, it is important for younger chemists to know about such career alternatives. The speakers at the symposium were Jack Cunniff (Thermo Finnigan – Regional Sales Manager), Vinkey Moroak (Biogen – Clinical Project Manager), Michael Strem (Strem Chemicals – President), Melissa Huang (Rhodia Chirex – Business Development Manager), Darlene Vanstone (Geltex Pharmaceuticals – Senior Patent Counsel), and Christopher Doona (US Army, Natick – Leader of the Combat Feeding Innovative Team). Each of these speakers shared their personal career experiences and answered questions from the attending students. The informal atmosphere of the symposium, coupled with the interesting “how I got here” stories from the speakers, made the symposium a great success. In the future, however, the YCC will invite fewer speakers and allot more time per speaker, as there wasn’t enough time to take all student questions. There were 20-30 younger chemists in attendance, many of whom stayed for the NESACS monthly meeting and dinner. NESACS-YCC/GDCh-JCF Exchange Program During the week of February 23, 2003, twelve graduate and undergraduate students from the Boston area traveled to Germany to participate in the 3rd annual NESACS-YCC/GDCh-JCF Exchange Program. The Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh)-Jungchemikerforum (JCF) (German Chemical Society Younger Chemists Committee) graciously hosted our students for the second year in a row in order to celebrate Germany’s “Year of Chemistry.” The program, taking place in Munich and Dresden, was as follows: |
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| Saturday February 22: | Depart from Boston in the evening. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sunday February 23: |
Arrive in Munich in the morning. Sight-seeing in Downtown Munich – informal tour by JCF-Munich representatives. Lunch at traditional Bavarian restaurant near Marienplatz. Evening trip to famous Hofbrauhaus. Group Dinner at the Ratskellar (Rathaus). |
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| Monday February 24: |
Morning tour of laboratories and NMR facility at Munich Technical University, Garching. Afternoon International Career Symposium at the University. Speakers include Dr. Elsa Reichmanis (ACS President 2003), Dr. Stefan Buchholz (Degussa AG), and others. Group Dinner at traditional Bavarian restaurant sponsored by Degussa. |
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| Tuesday February 25: |
Morning trip to Munich Deutches Museum (science museum). “Behind-the-scenes” tour of chemistry exhibits in museum Afternoon free time. Evening lecture by Dr. Elsa Reichmanis at the Ludwig Maximilian University. |
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| Wednesday February 26: |
Bus trip past Alps to Wacker-Chemie GmbH (Burghausen). Morning lectures on Wacker production. Tour of plant and Siltronic facility at Wacker. Lunch hosted by Wacker in private dining room |
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| Thursday February 27: |
Morning/afternoon free time. Evening welcoming lectures for the Euregionale student research conference held at Dresden Technical University. Evening Euregionale student research poster session. Dinner buffet for Euregionale participants at the University. |
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| Friday February 28: |
Morning student oral research presentations at Euregionale. Afternoon student research poster session. Evening student party/dinner buffet hosted by JCF. |
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| Saturday March 1: |
Morning student oral research presentations at Euregionale. Euregionale awards presentation. Afternoon group sight-seeing tour of downtown Dresden. Evening farewell dinner at Pulverturm in downtown Dresden. |
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| Sunday March 2: | Return to Boston. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Boston-area students who
participated were selected based on their accomplishments in research, their
interests, and a recommendation from their advisors. The steering committee,
consisting of Dr. Amy Tapper, Dr. Michael Strem, Dr. Ruth Tanner, and Dr.
Morton Hoffmann, helped to coordinate the exchange and select the students. Four
of the students gave oral presentations at the Euregionale student research
conference in Dresden. The remaining students presented posters. They
represented the Northeastern Section well and were nominated in three of the
four possible award categories at the Euregionale. A report was written by two
of the participating students and was published in The Nucleus (the NESACS
monthly newsletter). The article, as well as photographs and programs, can be
found on our new website under “German Exchange 2003.” The program was particularly successful this year in that it inspired one of the participating students, Jarred Blank of Boston College, to apply for a postdoctoral fellowship. Jarred was selected for the Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship and will begin his study in Muelheim, Germany at the Max-Planck-Institute in March 2004. Northeast Student Chemistry Research Conference (NSCRC) The Fifth Annual NSCRC took place at Boston University on Saturday, April 26, 2003. The event, located in the Metcalf Center for Science and Engineering, attracted approximately 80 participants from schools in the Boston area. Of these participants, record percentages of students from both Tufts University (15%) and Boston College (10%) were in attendance. As the host institution, Boston University had the largest representation (40%). The event featured 6 graduate/undergraduate oral presentations and 44 poster presentations. Free online journal subscriptions, donated by the ACS, were awarded to the best graduate and undergraduate presentations. These awards were as follows: Best oral presentation Ivan V. Korendovych (Tufts University) “Iron complexes with pentadentate macrocyclic ligands as potential enzyme mimics” Best graduate poster presentations Karen M. Miller (MIT) “Asymmetric Catalytic Reductive Coupling of Alkynes and Aldehydes” Patrick M. Donovan (Boston College) “Naphthoannulation: A New Procedure” Best undergraduate poster presentations Andrew B. Dykstra (Boston University) “Investigation of Sequence Variation and Posttranslational Modification of Light Chains Isolated From Patients Diagnosed With Light Chain-Associated Diseases” John Beierle (Boston College) “Synthesis of Louisianin C” In addition, the Brauner Undergraduate Book Award, sponsored by the Education Committee of NESACS, was presented by Dr. Ruth Tanner of UMass-Lowell. The award went to an undergraduate student who gave an oral presentation at the conference: Christopher Crafts (Merrimack College) “Fabrication and Deployment of Solid-State Microelectrodes in Natural Systems” A slideshow about the NESACS-YCC/GDCh-JCF German-Exchange Program and 2003 Trip to Munich and Dresden was given by 6 of the 12 American participants in this year’s exchange. The presentation featured pictures from the trip itself and information on how students in the area can get involved in the exchange program in 2004 and 2005. The keynote address, entitled “Nanowires as Building Blocks for Nanoscale Science and Technology: Building a Big Future from Small Things,” was given by a post-doctoral student, Deli Wang. Deli gave the address in place of Dr. Charles Lieber of Harvard University, who fell ill the day before the conference. To show appreciation to Deli for giving the keynote address, the NSCRC committee presented him with a desk clock engraved with the name and date of the conference. The NSCRC 2003 was a great success in terms of attracting new students and improving organization. The Science and Engineering Center where the conference was held, however, is not really adequate for an event of this size. Next year, the YCC hopes to find a larger, more attractive venue to support twice the attendance. In order to achieve this increase in attendance, we would also like to organize a more professional advertising campaign. In addition, we would like to obtain financial support from area companies to sponsor cash prizes for student posters and talks. |
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| IV. Budget | |||||||||||
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February Career Symposium |
$200.00 |
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NESACS-YCC/GDCh-JCF German Exchange Program |
$5247.60 |
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| The 5th annual NSCRC (co-sponsored by Education Committee) | $2129.02 | ||||||||||
| Website (www.nsycc.org) Design | $1000.00 | ||||||||||
| Total Expenses | $8576.62 | ||||||||||
| The source of all funds was the Northeastern Section of the American Chemical Society (NESACS). | |||||||||||
| V. Future Plans | |||||||||||
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The NSYCC has begun organization of
our 4th annual Career Symposium, to be held February 12, 2004 at
Boston College. The theme of the symposium will be “Careers in Communicating
Science and Chemistry” and will feature a professor from Tufts University, a
Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer, and a scientific staffing professional.
Each speaker will discuss different aspects of communicating science and
chemistry to students, the public, and potential employers. We have also begun plans for the 4th annual exchange between the NESACS-YCC and the GDCh-JCF. This year, we will host 13 German students during the week of April 18, 2004 in Boston. The students will visit the Whitehead Institute, the Museum of Fine Arts, Harvard University, and a Northeastern pharmaceutical company. In addition, they will take in the Boston Marathon, a Red Sox game, and a performance of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The last full day of the week’s exchange (April 24th) will coincide with the 6th annual Northeast Student Chemistry Research Conference (NSCRC). The German students will participate in the conference by presenting research posters and talks. The keynote address of the conference this year will be given by Dr. Stephen J. Lippard of MIT. Closing remarks and awards will be presented by ACS President 2004, Dr. Charles P. Casey. The NSYCC has also planned the first Northeast Student Chemistry Career Fair (NSCCF), to be held during the week of the exchange on April 23, 2004. The event will feature morning workshops on resume writing and interviewing skills, given by ACS Career Services. During the afternoon job fair, student attendees will be given the opportunity to meet representatives from Northeastern companies to discuss employment. Beyond April 2004, the NSYCC plans to participate in National Chemistry Week 2004 and hold Summer and Fall social/networking events. We will strive to become an organization that younger chemists in the region recognize and respect. We want to become a stronger presence in the NESACS and represent the interests of younger chemists in the Northeast. We will continue to work to help students and young professionals along their career paths by involving them in national and local society events. The NSYCC will also support the professional advancement of younger chemists by working to form a network with representatives from companies in the Northeast, connecting them with our members. |
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