The 245th American Chemical Society Meeting and Exposition took place in Morial Convention Center, New Orleans, Louisiana, on April 7–11, 2013. New Orleans, located in southeastern Louisiana and by the mouth of the Mississippi River, was founded by the French Mississippi Company in 1718 and named for the Regent of France at that time, Philippe d'Orléans, Duke of Orléans. This “sleepless” city with the population of 350 000 people is famous for its distinct French architecture, diverse culture, jazz music, annual celebrations and festivals, and Cajun food. The city also reminds us of damaging Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and people who seriously suffered from the hurricane but have learned to turn the fears and challenges into opportunities.
The American Chemical Society (ACS) has more than 164 000 members, and is the world's largest scientific society. It holds the spring and fall meetings each year, bringing in 15 000 industry, academic and government professionals around the world and providing the biggest platform for thousands of researchers to share their up-to-date scientific and professional information through plenary sessions, symposia, poster sessions, exhibitions, and networking events. Each meeting has its own chemistry-related theme. This year, 27 divisions and seven committees hosted various programs based on the meeting theme of Chemistry of Energy and Food. With over 15 000 attendees, the meeting received almost 12 000 papers and had 4500 poster presentations as well as a number of special events, such as governance and business meetings, division meeting and social events, presidential events, national awards, industrial awards, educational events for students and teachers, professional advancements in New Orleans etc. Symposia covered a wide range of topics, including food and nutrition, medicine, health, energy, environment, and other fields where chemistry plays a central role in preventing and combating disease, and organized by various divisions, such as Division of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (26 symposia), Division of Biological Chemistry (25 symposia), Division of Chemical Health and Safety (six symposia), Division of Chemical Education (39 symposia), Division of Energy and Fuels (31 symposia), Division of Polymer Chemistry (22 symposia) etc. The details on the divisions and their symposia can be viewed at http://abstracts.acs.org/chem/245nm/program/divisionindex.php.
Sunday afternoon was the plenary session, based on the meeting theme of Chemistry of Energy and Food, and organized by thematic program chair Prof. James N. Seiber, Food Science and Technology Department, UC Davis, CA. Four invited speakers from universities and industry shared their expertise in “Chemistry of food flavors: Simply pleasure or beyond?” (Peter Schieberle, Department of Food Chemistry, Technical University of Munich, Freising, Freising, Germany); “Feeding the world through science and technology: A Look into our future food system” (John D Floros, College of Agriculture, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS); “Kitchen as laboratory: building bridges between science and the non-scientist” (Cesar Vega, Mars Botanical, Mars, Inc., Germantown, MD); “Microalgal triglyderide oils: A new source of renewable oil for energy and food” (Walter Rakitsky, Solazyme, Inc., South San Francisco, CA).
Starting from Monday morning, presidential event, organized by the ACS president Dr. M. Wu, had different sessions covering the topics of Understanding Climate Change, Vision 2025: How to Succeed in the Global Chemistry Enterprise, and Water: A Grand Challenge for Science and Society. Those sessions brought in presidents of chemical societies around the world and leaders from industry, academia, government and small business to explore the global challenges and opportunities.
Besides the plenary session and presidential event, a number of symposia focused on the theme of this year's ACS meeting. The symposium on Polymer Composites for Energy Harvesting, Conversion and Storage by the Division of Polymer Chemistry discussed five up-to-date research topics, including fundamental studies of structure-property-performance relationships and applications of these materials in photovoltaics, thermoelectrics, fuel cells and batteries, and energy storage. More than 30 speakers presented state-of-art synthesis, characterization, measurement and modeling techniques applied to polymer composites. Invited speaker Prof. M. Dadman, University of Tennessee, addressed the key processing challenges, such as structural and morphological control and interface characterization, and their solutions using neutron scattering technique. Another invited speaker Prof. D. Carroll, Wake Forest University, presented polymer nanocomposites for thermoelectric applications, which could convert waste heat into electricity power. Computer modeling combined with experiments play crucial and integrated roles, to provide detailed insight into structure, capture the structure–property–performance relationships, advance the understanding of experimental observations, as well as rapidly speed up new materials development. The symposium on Theory and Simulation in Energy and Fuel Production and Utilization organized by the Division of Energy and Fuels reported recent development and implementation of theory and computational modeling approaches for energy research. For example, the presentations included “Structure–reactively relations in heterogeneous catalysts” by R. A. van Santen; “Atomistic theory of Ostwald ripening and disintegration of supported nanoparticles under reaction conditions” by R. Ouyan and W. Li; “Modeling materials and catalytic reactions steps for energy applications: Two examples from DFT calculations” by P. Sautet; “Reactions on flat and stepped rutile TiO2 modeled with DFT” by B. Hammer; “Materials-related aspects of photocatalysis: Insights from quantum simulations” by A. Selloni; “How do metal clusters split water? Towards a theoretical understanding of co-catalysts for water oxidation” by H. Oberhofer and K. Reuter; and “Fundamental research on high-efficient carbon capture in biogas production” by X. Lu.
Education-focused programs and special activities were offered for undergraduate students, graduate students, high school teachers, and chemical professionals by several ACS divisions and committees on education. The events included “Making the Most of Your First ACS Meeting”, “Graduate School Reality Check”, “Networking Social with Graduate School Recruiters”, “Undergraduate Research Poster”, “Workshop: Employment in Chemistry – Academics, Industry, Small Business & Government”, “Undergraduate Speed Networking with Industrial Chemists” etc. for undergraduate students; “Graduate & Postdoctoral Scholars Reception” for graduate students and postdoctoral associates; and “High School Teachers Program” for high school teachers.
The ACS meeting also provided a series of short courses to improve the skills and marketability of chemical scientists. The topics included analytical, biological/pharmaceutical/medical chemistry, computers/statistics/engineering, organic/physical chemistry, polymer chemistry, professional development, regulatory/environmental, and general topics.
For job seekers, the ACS organized not only the on-site and online career fair but also more than 30 career and professional development workshops. These workshops helped job seekers on how to write a competitive resume, win at interview and optimize job performance.
The ACS attendees could also learn the latest scientific and technologic news, technologies and services, and network with peers through the ACS exposition, which hosted more than 250 chemical professionals. The exhibitors showcased services, instruments, books, computer hardware, scientific software, and chromatographic, laboratory and safety equipment. They also organized free workshops to introduce new products and services, help develop skills with new tools and techniques, and highlight innovative applications. The ACS had an exhibit booth featuring their services, products and merchandise. This year, ICDD also participated as an exhibitor.
The 246th ACS National Meeting and Exposition will take place in Indianapolis, IN on September 8–12 and focus on Chemistry in Motion. The meeting will explore chemistry impacts in the transportation industry from fuels to materials designed for use in vehicles. Energy, environment and economic aspects will also be discussed at the meeting.
