I have always known that there are different ways of doing things in different countries. Some of these differences are in the little things. For instance, I’ve learned during this trip that the serving sizes of soda and water are tiny com

I woke up this morning in Prague feeling refreshed and ready for the day. So today we all got together for breakfast and had a chance to listen to Madeleine Jacobs, ACS executive director and CEO.  Madeleine is a bright lady who I admire a lot. I would no

Finally I arrived in Prague on Saturday afternoon, a beautiful day to get off the airplane, and faced with a gorgeous city as I heard and read about it.  Yesterday I had dinner with Steve, other people from ACS, and students. We had a good time, listening

Although I have seen a plethora of scientific results in the last few days, I am choosing to write about the less quantitative results of an international experience such as attending this EuCheMS chemistry congress. Steve Meyers gave a great talk today o

The Plenary talk by Helmut Schwarz has by far been one of my favorites of the conference. I really liked the hand-written slides with reactions, thoughts and notes; though I feel empathy for the graduate student who probably had to scan in all of those s

I am currently at the EuCheMS in Prague.  I am fortunate enough to be involved in two programs that have sponsored my trip - the ACS travel award and the Young Chemist Crossing Borders (YCCB).  As everyone is familiar with the ACS, I would like to take th

While listening to Professor Gerhard Ertl’s (2007 Nobel in Chemistry) Plenary lecture on Monday morning I was reminded of one of the most interesting things about chemistry: the fact that processes which occur at the atomic and sub-atomic levels are respo

     One of the talks here was about European women in chemistry. The speaker mentioned several famous female chemists including Rosalind Franklin (for whom there is talk of petitioning the Nobel Foundation for posthumous recognition of her work) as well

Over the last several days, I have been paying close attention to how chemists at every stage of their career communicate during presentations and poster sessions.  A few insights that I have gathered are discussed below.  I have to give the caveat that I

Day one of talks at the 4th EuCheMS Congress in Prague is in the books, and I thought I would share a few pieces of advice for presenters. I think that in the vast majority of cases, the presentation is often perceived as being poor because of a few easil

The first few days of any conference can be extremely overwhelming. The last conference I went to was a Gordon Research Conference - much smaller, and catered to a very specific audience. Almost by default, we were able to interact with celebrity professo

It is really quite amazing how people end up where they do over the course of their careers. Over the last few days, I have had the opportunity to hear about how some of the higher-ups in ACS came to be in their current positions. It has made me realize a