ACS At FLAQ 2008

THE COLEGIO de Químicos de Puerto Rico (CQPR) hosted the 28th Congress of the Latin American Federation of Chemical Associations (FLAQ 2008) jointly with the annual 67th PRChem Conference & Exhibition in San Juan, P.R., on July 27–Aug. 1. This scientific event provided scientists and students a venue to collaborate and exchange ideas, build global networks, and display the latest technology advances.

ACS partnered with the Brazilian Chemical Society, CQPR, and the Royal Society of Chemistry to host the Biofuels & Biobased Products Chemistry & Environmental Impacts Symposium. This one-day symposium offered a collaborative forum for speakers to present their biofuels research and raise issues of global importance. Representing a wide spectrum of expertise, the 11 speakers came from across the world (six from the U.S., three from Brazil, and two from the U.K.) and from their respective fields in government and academia. Paulo C. Vieira, of the Federal University of SÃo Carlos and a former president of the Brazilian Chemical Society, opened the symposium with his plenary talk on Frontiers in Biomass Conversion & Biobased Products, and James N. Seiber from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service concluded the symposium with his plenary talk on Bioconversion/Bioenergy Chemistries: Opportunities & Challenges. Main topics discussed at the symposium were feedstocks used for biofuels and alternative and renewable fuels.