News Briefs

In the Spotlight: New Lectureship Award Program for Undergraduate Institutions

The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation announces the establishment of a new program, the Jean Dreyfus Boissevain Lectureship for Undergraduate Institutions. The Lectureship provides an $18,500 grant for a primarily undergraduate institution to bring in a leading researcher to give a series of lectures in the chemical sciences. The lecturer is expected to substantially interact with undergraduate students and faculty over the period of the visit. The program provides funds to host the speaker and support summer research for two undergraduate students.

Dr. Mark Cardillo, Executive Director of the Dreyfus Foundation, stated, "The Dreyfus Foundation has long supported undergraduate research as an important part of chemistry education. Further, it has worked to increase the general interest in the chemical sciences. With this program both goals are advanced." Three awards will be made per year. The deadline for this year's program is August 17, 2010.

Related link: http://dreyfus.org

"Create a Chemical Reaction" Featured at Museum of Science and Industry

"Science Storms," a dramatic large-scale permanent exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, opened to the public on March 18, 2010. Science Storms includes an interactive four-story tornado, a large avalanche simulator, and other attractive physical science exhibits. Among the exhibits is "Create a Chemical Reaction," two interactive tables where visitors may generate virtual atoms by placing one out of a pool of discs on any element in an illuminated periodic table. These virtual elements may be brought together in an adjacent reaction zone to produce one of over 300virtual chemical reactions. For example discs that become virtual hydrogen and oxygen can be combined in the reaction zone to create water, with attractive explanatory visuals highlighting aspects ofthe "created" elements and resulting compounds. The table suggests chemicalreactions you might want to try.

"Create a Chemical Reaction" was developed through support from the Dreyfus Foundation's Special Grant Program in the Chemical Sciences.

Related links:

A YouTube video featuring "Create a Chemical Reaction"

Museum of Science and Industry online descriptions of "Create a Chemical Reaction" and

"Science Storms."

Dreyfus Foundation Teacher-Scholar Symposium, October 29, 2010

A one-day Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Symposium, "Research Frontiers in the Chemical Sciences", will be held in New York City on Friday, October 29, 2010. The Foundation anticipates that the symposium will highlight many exciting areas in the chemical sciences as well as promote a network among many of the nation's leading young research chemists. The 2009 and 2010 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholars, the 2008 and 2009 Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholars will present posters of their work. Bracketing the poster sessions will be talks by four senior Teacher-Scholars representing different research areas of chemistry. The speakers for this first symposium are:

Robert Grubbs, California Institute of Technology
Laura Kiessling, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Milan Mrksich, University of Chicago
Alexander Pines, University of California, Berkeley

Symposium in Materials Chemistry at the March 2010 ACS meeting

Some of the nation's leading materials chemists presented their work at the Presidential Symposium "Frontiers in Materials Chemistry: A Tribute to the Dreyfus Brothers," at the American Chemical Society's national meeting in San Francisco on Tuesday, March 23.

Frontiers in Materials Chemistry: A Tribute to the Dreyfus Brothers

Matthew Tirrell and Mark Cardillo, Organizers, Presiding

Welcome

Joseph S. Francisco, ACS President

Introductory remarks

Matthew Tirrell, University of California, Berkeley

Speakers

Tobin Marks, Northwestern University
New materials and processes for constructing highly unconventional organic, inorganic, and organometallic electronic circuitry

Joanna Aizenberg, Harvard University
Advanced materials for mitigation of ice accretion

Omar Yaghi, University of California, Los Angeles
Metal-organic frameworks and the 'gene' for carbon capture

Robert Cava, Princeton University
Stoichiometry, structure and bonding in the new iron pnictide superconductors

A. Paul Alivisatos, University of California, Berkeley
Nanoscale materials for solar fuel generation

David Tirrell, California Institute of Technology
Reinterpreting the genetic code

C. Grant Willson, University of Texas at Austin
Organic materials for microelectronics: a view of the future

John A. Rogers, University of Illinois
Materials for bio-integrated electronics

George Whitesides, Harvard University
Organic materials science