October 15-21 is National Chemistry Week (NCW). This is a week when ACS sections across the country hold outreach events designed to promote the value of chemistry in everyday life. The mission of NCW is to reach the public, particularly elementary and secondary school children, with positive messages about chemistry to:
- Make a positive change in the public’s impression of chemistry;
- Promote a mechanism for effectively mobilizing ACS local sections; and
- Motivate the ACS membership through local section activities.
This year’s theme is “The Healing Power of Chemistry”. Our section will celebrate NCW with an impressive series of events. We will hold events at the Martin Luther King Library in San Jose, the Redwood City Library, Ronald McDonald House, and the Salinas Community Science workshop. We are trying to expand our events to reach students who may not have the opportunity to do much hands-on experimentation. I think this series of 4 events nicely fulfills that goal. The students will make hand lotion, study the effect of pH on Milk of Magnesia, and explore the natural products found in many medicinal plants. We will also have some of the “old” standby favorite experiments: slime, Boo Bubbles (CO2 bubbles), and UV color changing beads. These events are great fun and the students, and their families generally leave with increased enthusiasm about science. If you would like to volunteer at one of these events, please let us know.
The end of the year is also the time when we need to conduct our elections for the Silicon Valley local section members who will serve on the Executive Committee for 2024. We are always happy to involve more chemists in our local section. All you need to do is let someone on the Executive Committee know of your interest. Even if you don’t want to serve as an officer, we would be delighted to have more participation at our committee meetings and events. You can see from our website, and from all the newsletters, that we are a pretty active local section, so there is likely to be something of interest to anyone who would like to get involved. The officer’s names and contact details are all shown at the end of this newsletter if you would like to get more information.
Lastly, the Mosher award committee has announced the 2023 recipients: Bruce and Cynthia Maryanoff. We are always delighted to give the Harry and Carol Mosher award to a distinguished chemistry couple, and the Drs. Maryanoff meet all our criteria. Their amazing accomplishments are outlined elsewhere in the newsletter. The 2023 award will be given in January 2024, so stay tuned for more information.
Respectively submitted,
Natalie McClure
