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ACS GCI Industrial Roundtables Host Reception Celebrating Green Chemistry in Industry

ACSGCI
Honored Contributor
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On Wednesday evening of the 19th Annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference, the ACS Green Chemistry Institute® (ACS GCI)  Roundtables hosted the 5th Annual ACS GCI Roundtable Poster Reception, dedicated to green chemistry in industry.

The event was welcomed by all four of the ACS GCI roundtables: Chemical Manufacturer’s (ChMR), Formulators’ (FR), Hydraulic Fracturing (HFR), and Pharmaceutical (PR). While the conference convenes a broad audience of more than 400 people, the Roundtable Reception hosts a more focused audience of about 120 people drawn largely from industry but includes selected esteemed colleagues from government and non-government organizations, and academia performing highly relevant research.

The room was filled with government officials (US EPA, USDA, Department of Commerce, etc.), industry professionals, and academics in attendance whose work is dedicated to addressing challenges in the chemical industry and developing green chemistry solutions. The evening is centered around the invited poster presenters, whose work is on display throughout the evening to inspire collaborations across the value chain to develop innovative, more sustainable products and processes in various sectors of the chemical industry.

This year’s reception was sponsored by Pfizer, Solvay, HESI, and Johnson & Johnson. The night began with opening remarks from ACS GCI Director David Constable, John Tucker, a senior scientist at Amgen and co-chair of the ACS GCI Pharmaceutical Roundtable, Juan Colberg, a director at Pfizer and co-chair of the ACS GCI Pharmaceutical Roundtable, and Diane Grob Schmidt, ACS President and adjunct professor at the University of Cincinnati. The remarks were followed by recognition of the Pharmaceutical Roundtable’s 10 year anniversary—all year the Roundtable has been hosting events (such as a research symposium in Basel, Switzerland, technical sessions and a reception at the Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference, and technical sessions at ACS National Meeting in Boston). To celebrate at the reception the Roundtable unveiled their 2015 update to their 2007 publication, Key Green Chemistry Research Areas—a perspective from pharmaceutical managers, and Berkeley “Buzz” Cue (a current adjunct professor at the University of Massachusetts-Boston and co-founder of the Roundtable) cut the ceremonial anniversary cake.

Reception.jpg(L to R) Tom Burns of Novozymes and Phil Sliva of Amway (co-chairs of the Formulators' Roundtable), Juan Colberg of Pfiizer (exiting co-chair of the Pharmaceutical Roundtable), John Tucker of Amgen and Stefan Koenig of Genentech (current co-chairs of the Pharmaceutical Roundtable), Julie Manley of Guiding Green LLC (Roundtable Coordinator), and Berkeley "Buzz" Cue. Credit - Peter Cutts Photography.

Overall, with food and conversations flowing for hours, the night was a hit. With the objective being to expand attendees' network in order to advance the research, development, and marketing of industrially relevant, greener alternatives, over 90% of the event's survey respondents indicated that the reception met or exceeded this objective. With new partnerships already underway from the reception, we are already looking forward to next year's event, in Portland, Oregon in conjunction with the 20th Annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference, June 14-16, 2016!

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To read other posts, go to Green Chemistry: The Nexus Blog home.