DED UN 18 O 98 F http://www.nesacs.org N Y O T R E I T H C E N O A E S S S L T A E A C R C I th N S M 90 Anniversary Issue of The NUCLEUS S E E H C C TI N November 2011 Vol. XC, No. 3 O CA N • AMERI Monthly Meeting 2011 James Flack Norris Award to Prof. Peter Mahaffy Meeting at Astra-Zeneca, Waltham Mala Radhakrishnan An Interview by Mindy Levine ACS Governance A Summary from the Fall ACS Meeting Arno Heyn Award 2011 Award to Harvey C. Steiner 2 The Nucleus November 2011 The Northeastern Section of the American Chemical Society, Inc. Contents Office: Anna Singer, 12 Corcoran Road, Burlington, MA 01803 (Voice or FAX) 781-272-1966. Mala Radhakrishnan ____________________________________4 e-mail: secretary(at)nesacs.org NESACS Homepage: An interview by Mindy Levine http://www.NESACS.org Officers 2011 Monthly Meeting _______________________________________5 Chair: 2011 James Flack Norris Award to Prof. Peter Mahaffy Patrick M. Gordon 1 Brae Circle Meeting at Astra-Zeneca, Waltham Woburn, MA 01801 [email protected] ACS Awards to NESACS Members _________________________6 Chair-Elect Ruth Tanner To be presented at the 243rd ACS National Meeting, San Diego, CA Olney Hall 415B March 27, 2012 Lowell, MA 01854 University of Mass Lowell Ruth_Tanner(at)uml.edu Report from Denver ____________________________________6 978-934-3662 Revamping the MCAT Exams. By Morton Z. Hoffman Immediate Past Chair: John McKew Historical Notes 7 John.McKew(at)gmail.com _______________________________________ Secretary: Virginia C. Chamberlain (1938-2010), James Noel Little (1940-2011) Michael Singer Sigma-Aldrich Summary of Governance Actions __________________________8 3 Strathmore Rd, Natick, MA 01360 nd 774-290-1391, michael.singer(at)sial.com From the 242 ACS National Meeting, August 28-September 1, 2011, Treasurer: Denver, Colorado James Piper 19 Mill Rd, Harvard, MA 01451 978-456-3155, piper28(at)attglobal.net 2011 Arno Heyn Book Award____________________________11 Auditor: Awarded to Harvey Steiner, Art Related Technology Anthony Rosner Archivist Cover: 2011 James Flack Norris Awardee, Professor Peter Mahaffy of King's Tim Frigo University College, Edmonton, Alberta. Professor Mahaffy is also director of the Trustees: Peter C. Meltzer, Esther A. H. Hopkins, King's Centre for Visualization in Science. (Photo courtesy of Professor Mahaffy). Michael E. Strem Directors-at-Large Deadlines: January 2012 Issue: November 15, 2011 David Harris, Stephen Lantos, James Phillips, Ralph Scannell, Myron Simon, Alfred Viola February 2012 Issue: December 12, 2011 Councilors Alternate Councilors Term Ends 12/31/2011 Doris I. Lewis C. Jaworek-Lopes Mary Burgess Patrick M. Gordon Morton Z. Hoffman Lawrence Scott Michael P. Filosa Donald Rickter Kathi Brown Liming Shao Term Ends 12/31/2012 Amy E. Tapper Michaeline F. Chen Catherine E. Costello Jerry P. Jasinski 90th Anniversary Issue of The NUCLEUS Patricia A. Mabrouk Gary R. Weisman Dorothy J. Phillips Marietta Schwartz The Nucleus is published monthly, except June and August, by the Northeastern Section of the American Ruth Tanner Norton P. Peet Chemical Society, Inc. Forms close for advertising on the 1st of the month of the preceding issue. Text Term Ends 12/31/2013 must be received by the editor six weeks before the date of issue. Thomas R. Gilbert Leland L. Johnson, Jr. Michael Singer Alfred Viola Editor: Michael P. Filosa, Ph.D., ZINK Imaging, Inc., 16 Crosby Drive, Building 4G, Robert Lichter Sophia R. Su Bedford, MA 01730 Email: Michael.filosa(at)zink.com; Tel: 508-843-9070 Mary Shultz Kenneth C. Mattes Associate Editors: Myron S. Simon, 20 Somerset Rd., W. Newton, MA 02465, Tel: 617-332-5273, Sheila E Rodman, Konarka Technologies, Inc., 116 John St. Suite 12, Lowell, MA 01852 Email: srodman(at)konarka.com tel 978-569-1414, Mindy Levine, 516-697-9688 (c), mindy.levine(at)gmail.com Board of Publications: Mary Mahaney (Chair), Mindy Levine, Vivian K. Walworth Business Manager: Karen Piper, 19 Mill Rd., Harvard, MA 01451, Tel: 978-456-8622 All Chairs of standing Advertising Manager: Vincent J. Gale, P.O. Box 1150, Marshfield, MA 02050, Committees, the editor Email: Manager-vincegale(at)mboservices.net; Tel: 781-837-0424 of THE NUCLEUS, and Contributing Editors: Morton Hoffman, Feature Editor; Dennis Sardella, Book Reviews the Trustees of Section Calendar Coordinator: Sheila Rodman, email: srodman(at)konarka.com Funds are members of the Photographers: Morton Z. Hoffman and James Phillips Board of Directors. Any Coun cilor of the American Chemical Soci- Proofreaders: Donald O. Rickter, Vivian K. Walworth, Mindy Levine ety residing within the section area is an ex Webmaster: Roy Hagen officio member of the Board of Directors. Copyright 2011, Northeastern Section of the American Chemical Society, Inc. The Nucleus November 2011 3 Mala Radhakrishnan – Corporate Patrons $2000 - or more AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals An Interview Eisai Pharmaceuticals By Mindy Levine EMD Serono Genzyme Corp. “You can really think of chemistry and fellow students understand chem- Novartis like a soap opera,” said Dr. Mala L. istry. As a natural outgrowth of this Johnson Matthey Radhakrishnan, physical chemistry creative perspective, Dr. Radhakrish- Pfizer Inc. professor at Wellesley College and nan began to write chemistry poetry. A Schering Corp. published chemistry poet. “It’s all collection of her poetry, entitled, Strem Chemicals, Inc. about the atoms and molecules getting “Atomic Romances, Molecular Vertex Pharmaceuticals together, and breaking up, and cheating Dances,” was recently published by on each other.” lulu.com and reviewed in last month’s $1000-$1999 While this may not be the typical issue of “The Nucleus.” Boehringer Ingelheim way of looking at atoms and mole- Much of the poetry is based on GlaxoSmithKline cules, Dr. Radhakrishnan has spent stories that Dr. Radhakrishnan used Irix Pharmaceuticals many years thinking and writing about while teaching high school chemistry. Lyophilization Services of NE chemistry in precisely this way. She For example, at the end of the aca- Sundia Meditech first started using such personification demic year, several of Dr. Radhakrish- Yes Bank while teaching high school chemistry nan’s students made a mural entitled, $300-$999 in California through Teach for Amer- “One Half-Life to Live,” which chroni- Cambridge Major Labs ica. Dr. Radhakrishnan found that such cled a soap-opera-esque tale of atoms Girindus analogies helped the students to better and molecules. Merrimack Consultants understand difficult concepts in chem- During graduate school, Dr. Rad- Organix istry. hakrishnan regularly read her poetry at PCI Synthesis When Dr. Radhakrishnan decided open microphone nights in Cambridge. Sigma Aldrich to continue her chemistry education as She became known as the “chemistry Waters Corp. a graduate student at MIT, she contin- poet,” and eventually participated in a Wilmington PharmaTech ued to use such analogies to help her poetry troupe called “Dr. Brown’s Traveling Poetry Troupe.” During this time, poetry “worked the other side of my brain,” said Dr. Radhakrishnan, and provided a much-needed stress reliever during graduate school. Following graduate school, Dr. Radhakrishnan immediately began her current position, as a tenure-track pro- fessor of chemistry at Wellesley Col- lege. Although most newly appointed chemistry professors have prior post doctoral research experience, Dr. Rad- hakrishnan was fortunate to obtain a faculty position without such experi- ence. Dr. Radhakrishnan had been applying to various post-doctoral posi- tions concurrently, but felt like she “likely fit the need of the department at that time.” In her current position, Dr. Rad- hakrishnan does not have much time to compose new poetry, although she “would like to go back to it when I have more time.” Her colleagues at Wellesley are well-aware of her poetry, £continued on page 12 4 The Nucleus November 2011 Biography Monthly Meeting Peter Mahaffy is known for his deep The 918th Meeting of the Northeastern Section of the American commitment helping students, educa- Chemical Society tors, scientists, and the general public see the intricate webs that connect Presentation of the James Flack Norris Award for Outstanding chemistry and science to so many other Achievement in Teaching Chemistry to Professor Peter aspects of life. He was born in East Mahaffy, King’s University College, Edmonton, Alberta Africa, obtained his Ph.D. in Physical Organic Chemistry from Indiana Uni- Thursday, November 10, 2011 versity, and is now Professor of Chem- Astra-Zeneca, 35 Gatehouse Drive, Waltham, MA 02451 istry at the King’s University College 4:30 pm Board Meeting in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and Co- director of the King’s Centre for Visu- 5:30 pm Social Hour alization in Science. He carries out 6:30 pm Dinner research in the areas of chemistry edu- 7:30 pm Award Meeting, Patrick Gordon, NESACS Chair, Presiding cation, visualization in science, and organic chemistry - much of which is Presentation of the Arno Heyn Book Prize to Harvey C. Steiner done with undergraduate student Mary Mahaney, Chair, Board of Publications, NESACS research collaborators. Mahaffy chairs Reflections on James Flack Norris IUPAC’s Committee on Chemistry Introduction of the Norris Award Winner: Education (CCE), is a member of Margaret-Ann Armour, University of Alberta, Edmonton, IUPAC’s Bureau, and he led the Alberta,Canada IUPAC team that worked to obtain UN Presentation of the Norris Award: designation of 2011 as an International Kathleen Browne, Chair Norris Committee, NESACS Year of Chemistry. His recent awards Norris Award Address: for contributions to chemistry and Should Atoms Come First? Teaching Chemistry from Rich Con- chemistry education include a Fellow- texts Peter Mahaffy, PhD, Professor of Chemistry, The King’s ship of the Chemical Institute of University College, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada Canada (CIC); the CIC National Award for Chemistry Education; and Canada’s Dinner reservations MUST be made no later than NOON on October 21st.