Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Events

Gordon College Student Chapter of the American Chemical Society has been very active in it's first year revival after 11 long years. Throughout this year we have:

- Begun tutoring high school students in Lynn, Friday afternoons
- Headed into Boston to volunteer at the Boston Childrens Museum's Science day
- Hosted a lecture and dinner with Terry Collins
- Cleaned up trash on campus for Earth Day
- Ran a Successful fundraiser selling Cookie Jars
- A mingling outreach intended to merge the various departments in the Ken Olsen Science Center
- Sent students to the Esslen Harvard Lecture in Cambridge MA
- Running labs for home-schoolers, New Hope Labs
- Attended the Environmental Protection Agency Networking Forum
- Hosted a lecture by Dr. Van Kirk from Virtex
- Cleaned the Chemistry Labs

We have been very grateful for everything that has been accomplished by our chapter this year. Our hopes are to continuing many of these events in the next year and have high hopes for the future with more involvement with our own campus and collaboration with other ACS chapters in our area.

Terry Collins Lecture

Each year Gordon College brings in a lecturer to talk about Green Chemistry, as it is a favorite topic of the Chemistry Department.
This years speaker was Dr. Terry Collins of Carnegie Mellon University to talk about his most notable discovery for which he won the Environmental Protection Agency's Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award in 1999.
Some of Gordon College's own students, under Professor Dwight Tshudy's direction, work on Dr. Collins' TAML (Tetra-Amido Macrocyclic Ligand) research. Which as he explained in his lecture, is a catalyst that assists in removing harmful contaminants from the environment. With a particular emphasis currently on endocrine disrupting contaminants.

The lecture itself was popular, with an audience of about 100 people, Visitors attended other schools in the area, including Salem State, Endicott College, and Simmons College. The GCACS provided drinks before the lecture, and then attended a dinner with Dr. Collins after. Allowing time for students and faculty to enjoy company and conversation.
The 2011 GCACS Officers!

ACS IYC Event!

To celebrate the International Year of Chemistry, as well as to kick off Green Chemistry Week at Gordon College, the GCACS hosted lunch time snacks between lab hours in Ken Olsen Science Center. The event encouraged community in the science building, as students and teachers from Biology, Physics, Math and Chemistry hung around to snack on homemade cookies
and mingle.

Students and Teachers Mingling at the IYC Green Chemistry Kickoff Event