Green Chemistry South Of The Border

Where do you find presentations on green chemistry combined with ACS President Katie Hunt doing karaoke? At the Pan-American Advanced Studies Institutes (PASI) on Sustainability & Green Chemistry! PASI, in its fifth year and organized annually by ACS, was held at Latin American University in Mexico City from May 29 to June 10. During these 13 days, 55 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows from 12 countries engaged in lectures, laboratory experiments, poster sessions, and discussions of case studies in the challenges of moving toward sustainable business and manufacturing practices.

Jorge A. Vanegas, director of the Center for Housing & Urban Development at Texas A&M University, addressed the development of sustainable urban, suburban, and rural communities; Terry Collins, director of the Institute for Green Oxidation Chemistry at Carnegie Mellon University, discussed sustainability ethics; Hunt presented industrial examples of sustainable innovations; and Paul T. Anastas, director of the Center for Green Chemistry & Green Engineering at Yale University, highlighted the connection between green chemistry and sustainability.

Students learned how industry is addressing sustainability through presentations by Kurt Brandstadt of Dow Corning, Carlos Cruz-Ramos of Rohm and Haas, and Werner Hinz of BASF. Eric Beckman, director of the Mascaro Sustainability Initiative at the University of Pittsburgh, engaged students in brainstorming exercises to demonstrate the link between innovation and sustainability. Ken Doxsee of the University of Oregon outlined the evolution of the green chemistry curriculum at that university.

PASI participants also experienced the cultural and historical side of Mexico City through trips to see the Ballet Folklorico, the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and the Pyramids of TeotihuacÁn.

The National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, and ExxonMobil Foundation provided support for the program, and Sigma-Aldrich donated the chemicals used in the green chemistry laboratory experiments. Carmen Doria Serrano and Jorge IbÁÑez of Universidad Iberoamericana hosted PASI on the university's campus. ACS staff member Kathryn E. Parent of the Green Chemistry Institute and I, representing the Education Division, served as organizers. The 2008 Summer School is tentatively planned for July 9-17 at the Colorado School of Mines

Mary Kirchhoff is director of the ACS Education Division.