American Chemical Society Expanded Its Global Reach

ACS’s efforts to boost its global presence got a big boost this year, with the establishment of seven additional ACS International Chemical Sciences Chapters, bringing the total number of international chapters to 16.

The chapters allow ACS members living outside of the U.S. to stay engaged with the society and at the same time share their country’s contributions to chemistry and chemical engineering. “The world is producing a lot more chemists, and we need to think about our international members and the global chemistry enterprise,” says H. N. Cheng, chair of the ACS Committee on International Activities.

Ricardo McKlmon, marketing manager for innovation and international recruitment at ACS, says that “one of the main goals of having international chapters is to try and engage with members in their geography and provide opportunities for networking and career advancement.” He anticipates the growth of these will continue, and some chapters like India and Brazil are beginning to discuss the formation of regional subsections.

In addition, ACS is also growing its base of international student chapters. ACS has so far certified 24 international student chapters, representing 19 countries. The first student chapter was established at the Technical University of Munich in April 2014.

ACS has also expanded the resources available to its Spanish speakers. For example, C&EN, in collaboration with Divúlgame, an organization based in Spain, provides Spanish translations of some of its content on the Web. And the society is now producing four webinars a year in Spanish, in collaboration with the Chemical Society of Mexico.