CINTACS

In this issue
 

From the Chair	September Meeting Details	Education Group Meeting
CMACS 2000 Update	WCC Initial Meeting	What's in it for Me?
WIIFM Response	CMACS2000 Awards Nominations Solicited	Section Awards Nominations Sought
Wanted, Younger Chemists	National Chemistry Week

Editor Bruce S. Ault
Advertising Sameer Choudhary

CINTACS is published nine times a year (September through May) by the Cincinnati Section of the American Chemical Society. All changes of address should be sent to Emel Yakali at Raymond Walters College, 9555 Plainfield Road, Cincinnati, OH 45236, phone 745-5686 or FAX to 745-5767.

Every member is urged to send in his/her e-mail address. The message should consist of the e-mail address in the "from" area and the full name of the member in the "subject" area of the message format. Send this information via e-mail, to: ACS@UCRWC.RWC.UC.EDU

SUBMISSION DEADLINES

The submission deadline for the November CINTACS is set for Wednesday, Sept.. 22, 1999. Electronic submission is strongly preferred. (except for original photos). All materials should be sent to:

Dr. Bruce Ault
Department of Chemistry
E-mail: bruce.ault@uc.edu

5:30 - 6:00 pm	Registration ($12) and Social (OPEN BAR)
6:00 -7:00 pm	Featured Speaker:  Dr. Stephen Woods,  University of Cincinnati "Obesity Research"
7:00 - 8:00 pm	1999/2000 Kick-off Reception Mixer with Hors d’ oeuvres and Open Bar "Don’t miss an ideal setting to get reconnected with all of your ACS colleagues" Prof. Woods will be available during this time for discussion.
8:00 pm	Adjourn

The Embassy Suites restaurant will be available for dining. Please make reservations with them directly if you would like to stay for dinner. Phone: 733-8900

Reception Reservations: Call the section answering line at (513) 622-2495 or e-mail cintacs.im@pg.com Include your name (complete with correct spelling), phone number and affiliation. Please specify if this is your first Cincinnati ACS meeting when making your reservation. All reservations must be received by noon, Monday, September 27. If you have any difficulties, please call Vicki Libbin at (513)622-2495. As a reminder, if you decide you must miss a meeting after you have made reservations, please call to cancel. If you do not cancel, the Section will have to charge you because it will have been charged by the hotel. Payment will be received at the door. Guests are always welcome; emeritus, unemployed, new, and student members are half price.

Embassy Suites Hotel, 4554 Lake Forest Dr., Blue Ash

From I-71, take Exit 15 (Pfeiffer Road), head west on Pfeiffer Road two blocks to Reed Hartman Highway. Turn right (north) on Reed Hartman, turn left on to Lake Forest Dr.

From I-275, take the Reed Hartman Exit, head south on Reed Hartman about two miles, take a right onto Lake Forest Dr.

The incidence of obesity and its associated physical problems continues to rise in the United States and throughout the world and is highly correlated with the consumption of dietary fat. Conventional treatments, such as dieting and stimulant drugs, while effective for short intervals, provide little long-term benefit. Nonetheless, there is considerable optimism at present based upon advances that are being made in our knowledge of the hormones, neurotransmitters and neural pathways that regulate energy homeostasis. Although food intake was historically thought to occur in response to acute energy demands such as low glucose, current evidence suggests rather that individuals initiate meals according to habit and convenience. In fact, meal patterns vary considerably among individuals, yet most individuals maintain stable body weights and levels of adiposity over long intervals. The explanation is that energy homeostasis is accomplished via control of meal size. The presentation will review current understanding of brain controls over energy intake (food intake) and expenditure (metabolism and exercise). A key concept regards the integration of signals generated acutely in response to food being eaten with signals that reflect the current state of energy balance (adipose stores). Meal-related (i.e., "satiety" signals) are typified by cholecystokinin (CCK), and adiposity signals are typified by leptin and insulin. The principle is that when an individual is underweight, decreased levels of adiposity signals allow larger meals to be consumed, and the opposite occurs during states of positive energy balance. Discussion will focus on differences between insulin and leptin as adiposity signals, as well as where metabolic signals are detected and how they are integrated by the nervous system to maintain energy balance over long intervals. Finally, there will be discussion of the brain neurotransmitters thought to be important in controlling appetite and body weight, including neuropeptide Y, melanocortins and others, and where future therapeutic strategies are likely to be directed.

We are delighted to kick off our monthly meetings with such a current research topic as obesity, and with one of the leading scientists in this field, Professor Stephen Woods. Dr. Woods heads the Obesity Research Center at the University of Cincinnati. He has also been prominent in the news lately on this topic both locally and nationally. In the June 19^th 1999 C&E News, he was one of the lead interviewees in the cover story on obesity research in the world today. Also, his leadership in developing the Obesity Research Center at UC and the subsequent collaboration developed with P&G, was recently highlighted in The Cincinnati Enquirer July 16^th and in other national press releases. Professor Woods received a B.S in Zoology, a B.S. in Psychology and a Ph.D. degree in Physiology from the University of Washington, Seattle, WA. He has held a number of Academic positions at Columbia University, the University of Washington and the University of Cincinnati, and has received a number of scientific awards.

As section chair for 1999/2000, I am pleased to welcome you to a new year for our Cincinnati Section of the American Chemical Society. By way of introduction, I have been an active member of this section for over eight years through the course of two residencies in Cincinnati while working with Procter & Gamble. I have previously been a chairman of a much smaller organization, the Norwich, NY local section, and I am now anxious to work in this capacity with the Cincinnati section, which possesses such a large active membership. Through the leadership of our 1998/1999 section chair, Professor James Knittel, we not only enjoyed a successful and stimulating year, the groundwork for another great year was put in place for the 1999/2000 season. Thus, I express our gratitude to Jim for his extensive effort.

Because of the additional hard work of many other members of our organization, and the financial health of the Cincinnati section, the opportunity for increased membership involvement is perhaps better than ever. For example, one such exciting initiative that has recently come to fruition is the resurgence of a Women’s Chemistry Committee (WCC). This group has built an impressive contingent with over 40 attendees at their kickoff meeting last year, and its leadership has developed a 4 meeting program for this year, in addition to their involvement in our monthly section meetings. We particularly thank two of the founders, and the current co-chairs of this organization, Beth Piocos and Kate Houck, for their efforts to meet the needs of this subgroup of our membership, and we expect this will complement the Iota Sigma Pi activities that have been led by Jeanne Buccigross. Also our educational programs continue to be bright stars for the section. In particular the national chemistry week activities led by Ed Fenlon and the "Kids in Chemistry" programs led by Kathy Gibboney have been very bright stars for the section. Still, we need to keep the momentum going and we are anxious to stimulate more membership participation in our committees and at our monthly meetings. I will be contacting many of you to solicit your participation in some of our committees, but please contact me directly to express your areas of interest as there is always a need and desire for more help and involvement. For example, we are anxious to find more volunteers to help with our educational outreach objectives.

We are also hopeful to see a reverse trend to our declining attendance at our monthly meetings. I think we will be offering a very stimulating series of speakers that should help with these goals, but to continue to be able to offer such programs in the long term, the section needs to be able to count on greater attendance. Improving our communications to the membership will be a goal and we thank Bruce Ault for taking on the editorship of CINTACS and Hank Greeb for continuing as editor of our website www.che.uc.edu/acs/cinacs.html, which will continue to be the key sources of information about our section and upcoming activities. We will also try some meeting format changes that might stimulate additional participation Our program starts with our September speaker, University of Cincinnati Professor Stephen Woods, who has headlined the news lately, both in the June 19^th C&E News related to his obesity research expertise, and our local newspapers in Cincinnati, as he has been instrumental in setting up an obesity research center at UC and a cooperative research program with P&G. The high level of quality of our speakers continues throughout the year as it includes the editor of C&E News, Madeline Jacobs in November and the head of the national ACS committee on Government Relations, Dr. Lewis Flint in December. Other lectures spanning modern issues such as animal cloning, forensic and flavor chemistry are also in the final planning stages.

This will also be an extremely busy year for our CMACS (CENTRAL REGIONAL MEETING OF THE ACS) organizers. However in the tradition of our previous meeting organizers, I’m sure it will prove to be a successful and rewarding effort, culminating with the actual regional meeting in Cincinnati, in May 2000 http://www.cmacs2000.org. Our "hat is off" to the impressive organization of Ray D’Alonzo and his team in the progress they have made already in driving this effort forward, which is again evidence of the high quality and potential for our Cincinnati chemistry Section as we move into the next century. Again, I look forward to working with the membership this year and please do not hesitate to contact me with your suggestions and desires for additional involvement. Let’s continue to work together to make our section an exciting source of activities for all of the members of our profession in the Cincinnati area.

Hal Ebetino
Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals
ebetino.fh@pg.com

While sitting around a table at Hal Ebetino's this spring, planning the program for this year, several comments were made:

• Attendance at monthly meetings took a big plunge a few years back when some of the larger corporations in the area stopped reimbursing their employees for the costs of attending. We haven't recovered from this, though a few companies are beginning to see the value of attendance and are offering reimbursement to their employees.
• Graduate students at universities these days, and young graduate chemists, often don't see the value of participating in the local or national activities of their professional organization.

Then, a few days later, there was an article about "What's In It For Me?" (WIIFM) in the local section e-mail newsgroup. The gist of the article was that folks need to have attendance at local meetings "sold" to them by putting their attendance into the perspective of WIIFM.

To put things in perspective, I've been a member for over 35 years. The idea of asking my employer for reimbursement for local meeting expenses never crossed my mind. Had my employer asked me to attend, or become a liaison, or participate in some official capacity - that would have been different.

Did I get my money's worth from the expenses of attending meetings? That question never crossed my mind. I was first attracted to the ACS because of its high level of activities, the high caliber of the speakers it presented, and the intellectual stimulation provided by conversations before, during and after the meetings. Were the subjects directly relevant to my work? Perhaps once or twice, when a surface chemist was the featured speaker.

So, if the subjects discussed weren't directly related to my work, why attend? At the risk of being repetitious, I attended because I felt I needed stimulation of the grey matter between my ears while hearing of some rather esoteric, strange, or "far out" chemistry. Just to be in the same room as a Nobel Laureate, a well known, internationally recognized author, a person on the leading edge of some branch of chemistry - this is of value.

The second subject of "How to Instill Professionalism in the Younger Generation" is a larger problem, for which I have no immediate answer. Why is it not intuitively obvious that a professional society, is not inherently valuable for the practicing chemist/chemical engineer? Are we too busy to explain these things, to demonstrate these thing? If so, it's a dereliction of duty on the part of my generation - we've been too focussed on "ourselves, our careers, our reputations" to take time and energy necessary to pass values along to the next generation. Can we reverse this trend? Should we try to reverse this trend? I have no answers for these questions, just throw some "platitudes" out as food for thought.

Hank Greeb
72277.706@compuserve.com

In order for the American Chemical Society to remain as a prestigious scientific organization, it must meet the needs of its current members today. And the needs of today’s younger chemists have changed significantly from those chemists a generation ago. We still value intellectual stimulation, but we have other needs and interests. I think the ACS is responding to the changes, but could improve on its stodgy image and communications. Younger chemists have much to learn and benefit from the Society and its established members, if they are willing to invest in the Society professionally and personally.

For the ACS to survive, a little marketing would probably go a long way. I think the organization has been complacent to rest on its scientific equity alone for as long as it has. Meanwhile, too many organizations and activities have successfully wooed members for their time and money. Although I disagree with the blunt tactic of WIIFM, I do think some persuasion is needed to emphasize the existence, much less the benefits and services, of the ACS. You would be surprised how many grad. students or technicians really don’t know anything about the local section. It’s hard to see the value in participating in the ACS if one knows nothing about the ACS.

One of the biggest concerns for younger chemists today is employment because of intense competition. Increased competition has allowed companies and universities to elevate education and non-technical requirements. Good communication skills and a warm fuzzy personality are more important today than in days when the only requirement was to demonstrate excellent technical mastery. Meanwhile, they're seeing the days of lifelong jobs going and of corporate downsizing coming. Surely you must understand that they want intellectual stimulation, but they need a job as well. In fact, perhaps they are more interested and aware of our profession than those graduating chemists twenty years ago. The ACS seems to understand; it’s responding fairly well to their issues.

In my discussion with other younger chemists, I heard plenty of reasons and excuses as to why they don’t attend ACS activities. However, two explanations were voiced repeatedly. One, "no one asked me" (equivalent to "I didn’t know about it.") and two, "when I did go to the meeting, no one really talked to me." These statements ring very true. I rarely see professors accompanying students or a coupe of coworkers at meetings. To me, the second one is most disturbing. New faces at meetings ARE ignored. I know--I was one of them for several meetings. All the prestige, value and scientific stimulation of being an ACS member will mean zippo if new and younger chemists feel unwanted during their first ACS meeting. I encourage all of you established members, when you see an unrecognizable face next time, to engage the person in conversation, include the person at the dinner table discussion, and THANK the person for coming. I think you would be pleased to find out that we younger chemists are less different than you might think.

Susan Ross
Chemistry Graduate Student
University of Cincinnati
rossu@email.uc.edu

The first meeting of the Education Discussion Group will be on October 12 at McCauley High School. Shirley Frey will host the meeting. Teachers will report their experiences from ChemEd99 conference (August 1-5), share NASA materials appropriate for the chemistry curriculum, and set the agenda for the rest of the year. Social time begins at 6:30 PM; the meeting follows at 7 PM. All teachers and others interested in chemical education are encourage to become members of the Education Committee and attend these meetings. Please contact the chair of the committee, Linda Ford, Seven Hills School, 5400 Red Bank Road, Cincinnati 45227, lkford@fuse.net, 272-5360 (W), 281-6529 (H), for more information.

This November marks the 12th anniversary of National Chemistry Week. Last year we had demonstrations in over 20 local libraries, and the museum center. National ACS also nominated us for a Phoenix award. The Phoenix award winners will be announced at the New Orleans National Meeting.

This year we plan to continue our good work but we need YOU to volunteer. The demonstrations are fun, and it's exciting to see kids responding to the chemistry shows. We are looking for newcomers as well as old pros. Volunteers can get more information on times and locations of the demonstrations by contacting Ed Fenlon (ph: 513-745-3361 or email: fenlon@admin.xu.edu) or visiting the NCW portion of the section’s web page (http://www.che.uc.edu/acs/ncw/ncw_cin.html). We plan to offer training to new demonstrators in the fall, look for details here and on the web page at a later date.

The Cincinnati Younger Chemists Committee (YCC) is seeking steering committee members to reenergize and to reformat the YCC and its professional & social networking program. Within the past three years, the Cincinnati YCC has been recognized nationally for its creative events, including its popular company tours, and more recently, for its brown bag lunch sessions on career-related topics for graduate students. To continue this success and to offer these and new events, the YCC would like to initiate a larger, stronger core group to serve as a steering committee. This steering committee would be able to develop its own ideas and program with considerable support from the Local Section and its members to execute its plans. The steering committee is looking for younger chemists (professionals and students between 18 & 35 years old) who would like to:

• learn and promote the chemical profession and careers in the greater Cincinnati area
• meet other people with similar interests
• assist in planning and organizing activities
• get more involved in the Local Section.

If you are curious to learn more about the YCC and/or would like to consider being a steering committee member, please feel free to contact me anytime (see below). Later in the fall (Oct./Nov.), an informal get-together with interested members will be arranged as the first YCC steering committee meeting. I look forward to meeting and working with many of you.

Cheerfully,

Susan Ross, Cincinnati YCC Chair
Dept. of Chemistry
U. of Cincinnati
rossu@email.uc.edu

The 1999 Central Regional ACS Meeting (CMACS) is now history. Next stop - CMACS 2000. The organizing committee is finalizing all arrangements. The technical program is essentially full at this point. Many interesting planned symposia have been included such as recent advances in pharmaceutical analysis, chemical sensors, free radicals in biological systems, chemistry and the law, green processes, chemistry you can drink: beer demystified, dendrimers, combinatorial chemistry, NMR studies of biological systems, and peptides and cardiovascular chemistry.

Covington, KY, the southern side of Cincinnati, is eagerly preparing for our arrival. The new aquarium has opened and construction of the site to hold the world’s largest cast bell is moving at a furious pace so as to be ready to ring in the new millennium. Other social activities will of course be available in Cincinnati including its world famous zoo, science and natural history museum, and Reds baseball (if scheduled to be in town). Of course, no visit to the area would be complete without a relaxing tour of the skyline from the mighty Ohio so please plan to join us for the gala river boat dinner cruise

We will be using the new ACS National registration services for regional meetings for your convenience. http://www.CMACS2000.org, our web site also contains information on electronic abstract submission.

For you industry vendors, you’ll be happy to know that the new Northern Kentucky Convention Center has plenty of room for your exhibit. If you are interested in exhibiting please contact Ron Coleman at coachron4@aol.com.

Lastly, the meeting will feature four regional awards in addition to the High School Teachers Award. They include, Polymer Chemistry, Environmental Chemistry, Pharmaceutical/Medicinal Chemistry, and Chemical Engineering. Regional awards recognize significant Industry innovations. Please read the information about these awards on the web site and give serious consideration towards making a nomination. A separate information packet and nomination form will be mailed to most companies in the central region within the next few months.

The next Women’s Chemist Committee meeting will be held September 18, 1999 in Mason, OH. Registration and social time will begin at 11:30 a.m. followed by lunch. For details on the meeting, please see the WCC web site at:

http://www.che.uc.edu/acs/wccindex.htm.

On April 24, 1999, a group of more than 40 women met to kick-off the formation of the Cincinnati Women Chemists Committee (CWCC). Representing a diverse group of women chemists, from academe to industry and from high school to law, the women discussed important issues affecting them. The pictures below show the highlights of this meeting.

The purpose of the committee is to expand the effectiveness of the Cincinnati Section of the American Chemical Society by offering an alternate venue to the local section meetings, thereby expanding the number of women who may become involved in local section activities. The committee serves it members by providing a stronger network of support and providing a forum for discussion of issues relating to them.

The participants of the kick-off meeting planned to meet four more times in the coming year: two for 1999 on September 18 and November 13 and two in year 2000 (February 12 and May 19). Details about the CWCC are available on the web at www.che.uc.edu/acs/wcc.html. If you would like more information about the CWCC, please contact Beth Piocos at piocos.ea@pg.com or Kate Houck at kate_houck@alkermes.com.

The steering committee who planned the kick-off meeting were: Lisa Clapp, Kate Houck (co-chair), Allison Piedmont, Susan Biehle, Dierdre Viers, Jennifer DiVirgilio-Thomas, Beth Piocos (co-chair), Lisa Anderson, Jennifer Macke. and Tanya Romanova.

Nominations are open for Cincinnati Chemist of the Year, and for the Chemical Technician/Research Associate of the year. Please put on your thinking caps and nominate your colleagues and/or co-workers. Note that the Chemist of the Year must be a member of ACS, but the Chemical Technician/Research Associate does not need to be. For more information, please contact:

Hank Greeb

Hg Consulting, Inc.

72277.706@compuserve.com

Details on the nomination process and the nomination form may be found on the Regional Meeting's website (WWW.CMACS2000.ORG). Questions on the Awards Program may be addressed to:

Dr. Ted J. Logan
Chairman, Awards Program
e-mail: tjlogancin@aol.com

Nomination deadline is 2/15/00.

Formatted and uploaded 23 Aug 99 by cinacs@www.che.uc.edu