Four undergraduates, 13 graduate students and four faculty from the University of Maine attended the North East Regional Discussion of the ACS at Worcester State University on November 1, 2025. The students had a really good experience and came back excited about a wide range of things they learned and people they met - including Mary Carroll, the 2024 President of ACS! They attended presentations from industrial and academic chemists and talked with students and faculty at the poster sessions.
The Plenary Lecture, Successful Medicinal Chemistry Strategies to Accelerate Drug Discovery by Dr. María-Jesús Blanco highlighted how past challenges, iterative improvements, and constant adaptation are essential to advancing drug discovery and delivery. Her emphasis on learning from failures, optimizing molecular design, teamwork and team building, and meeting patient needs underscored the complexity and responsibility involved in medicinal chemistry.
Thanks to the UMaine College of Liberal Arts Event and Experiences Fund, the Department of Chemistry, and the Maine Local Section of the American Chemical Society for supporting the trip.
