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Policy

Chemists Meet In Washington, D.C.

Global security is the theme of well-attended meeting in the nation’s capital

by Linda R. Raber
August 24, 2009 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 87, Issue 34

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Credit: Linda Wang/C&EN
The exposition offered visual variety for meeting attendees.
Credit: Linda Wang/C&EN
The exposition offered visual variety for meeting attendees.

Braving the city’s legendary summer heat and humidity, more than 14,000 chemical scientists converged on Washington, D.C., last week for the society’s 238th national meeting. From Aug. 16 to 20, attendees presented more than 8,000 papers covering the spectrum of chemical sciences and technology. The meeting’s theme, “Chemistry & Global Security—Challenges & Opportunities,” was reflected in 120 of the meeting’s nearly 900 oral and poster ­sessions.

Social events included the popular ChemLuminary Awards ceremony that honors technical divisions and local sections. There was also a formal dinner honoring this year’s Heroes of Chemistry. Among other events were the popular Sci-Mix poster session and mixer, a fun run, and a community outreach event with local schoolchildren.

Governance units meeting in Washington included the ACS Board of Directors, nearly all committees, regional caucuses, and task forces. The ACS Council had one of its longest meetings in some time on Aug. 19. Clocking in at just over four hours, councilors discussed, but declined to approve, petitions to amend the society’s governing documents relating to election procedures. They will take these issues up when the council meets next spring in San Francisco.

According to the Committee on Budget & Finance, it looks like ACS will end the year with total revenues of about $462 million, which is $17.8 million less than had been budgeted. The committee expects revenue from operations to exceed expenses by around $11.2 million, which is $528,000 more than budgeted.

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Lane introduces awardees during the ChemLuminary ceremony on Tuesday night.
Lane introduces awardees during the ChemLuminary ceremony on Tuesday night.

That said, ACS is still out of compliance with the board-established financial guideline that roughly measures the adequacy of the society’s reserves. ACS is, however, doing considerably better than it was at the end of 2008, with $129 million in unrestricted assets as of July 31; on D.C. 31, 2008, it had $69 million in unrestricted assets.

The meeting attracted 14,234 attendees—the largest ever at a Washington, D.C., national meeting—including 8,531 regular registrants, 3,152 students, 1,438 exhibitors, 655 exhibit-only registrants, and 458 guests. There were 453 booths, 307 exhibitors, and six workshops at the exposition.

At the Career Fair, there were 43 employers with 326 jobs posted and 983 candidates. The showing by employers was up just a little from the historic low set at the spring 2009 ACS national meeting in Salt Lake City.

On a sad note, at their meeting councilors learned that their colleague and former ACS Board member, Paul R. Jones, 68, died on Aug. 16 in Denton, Texas. Jones was a faculty member at the University of North Texas, in Denton, from 1968 until his retirement in 2006. C&EN will run an obituary as soon as information becomes available.

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