George Ruger LVACS Student Travel Awards:
$150 for presenters at ACS Regional Meetings and the ACS Fall Meeting

The LVACS Younger Chemists Committee invites student members to apply for these awards for travel to upcoming ACS Regional and National meetings. APPLY NOW! For more on all of our LVACS awards see Education/Awards page.

Philip J. Elias has been named 2024 Volunteer-of-the-Year for the Lehigh Valley Section:

Congratulations and thanks, Philip!

CAN'T MAKE THE MEETING AT MORAVIAN? TUNE IN ONLINE

Section Meeting (Hybrid), Thursday, January 25th; 5:30-8:30pm, Collier Hall of Science, Moravian University
Chemical Superpowers with ChatGPT + Wolfram
Speaker: Jason Sonnenberg, Wolfram|Alpha
Meeting details and registration
Post flyer everywhere!
CONTACT: Stephen Dunham, (dunhams2@moravian.edu) 

The newly-elected LVACS Officers for 2024 are: Chester Crane, chair-elect, Sherman Cox, treasurer, Nigel Sanders, secretary and Matt Sonntag, ACS Councilor. Review their bios here. Chester, who has served as LVACS Chair previously (2009), earned his B.S. in Chemistry from Muhlenberg College and his PhD from Penn State University and now works at Mussel Polymers in Bethlehem. Sherman has a BS, chemistry, from Yale College and a PhD, inorganic chemistry, from UCSB and oversaw a major improvement in our accounting practices during 2023 and will be beginning his second year as treasurer. Nigel has a BA degree in Chemistry from Reed College and a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Harvard and will be beginning his sixth year as secretary and webmaster. Matt is an associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Albright College and earned his B.A. in chemistry from Coe College and Ph.D. in physical and analytical chemistry from Northwestern University. As one of our two ACS Councilors, Matt will be representing us on ACS Council at Spring and Fall ACS Meetings. They join Philip Elias, chair, Steve Boyer, past chair, Jeanne Berk, councilor and Ned Corcoran, alternate councilor on your LVACS Executive Committee for 2024. Come out to our meetings in 2024 and meet your LVACS governance team in person!  

REMEMBERING NED HEINDEL
Our November 9th Section Meeting at Lehigh University attracted 50 LVACS members to share their love of chemistry and their recollections of former ACS President and Emeritus Professor of Chemistry, Lehigh University, Ned Heindel, PhD., who died June 27th at age 85. After a social hour and dinner at the Gander Room, we proceeded to Neville Hall for extemporaneous reminiscences of Ned followed by the Inaugural Ned Heindel Memorial Lecture, "Design and Development of Vasopressin V1a Antagonists Derived from a Unique Azetidinone Platform," delivered by two long-time colleagues and collaborators, Neal Simon, Professor of Neuroscience, Lehigh University and Christophe Guillon, Principal Research Scientist, Azevan Pharmaceuticals Inc. We also celebrated yet another of our 2023 student award winners, Tyler Roberts of Lafayette College, winner of the Organic Chemistry Scholarship, henceforth to be known as the Ned Heindel Scholarship in Organic Chemistry. We are all looking forward to future Heindel Lectures, jointly sponsored by LVACS and Lehigh University, about which more information will be forthcoming on this site and in the Octagon Newsletter.  

2023 Excellence in High School Teaching Awardee Audrey Smeltzer of Muhlenberg HS and Foundation in Chemistry Awardee Elizabeth Sterner of Salisbury HS receive recognition at October Section Meeting at Albright from John Freeman, Awards Chair.

REGISTRATION NOW OPEN!
September LVACS Meeting
***Thursday, September 14th, 4:00-8:30 pm***
Evonik Corporation, 7001 Hamilton Blvd, Trexlertown, PA 18087
Facility Tour and Dinner/Presentations
Details/Registration: lvacs.org/september23-meeting