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April 7, 2008
Welcome Back New Orleans?
Posted by Noah Shussett on April 7, 2008 in 2008 Spring National Meeting, ACS Meetings
Dear readers of C&EN,
Yes, the weather is beautiful, the Hornets are in first place, and the annual week of debauchery known as Mardi Gras has returned to the French Quarter. But make no mistake, all is not well in New Orleans.
Two Halloweens ago, I came to the Crescent City and volunteered in the recovery effort after Hurricane Katrina. The work–throwing out ruined children’s toys, tearing down family photos with a crowbar, or reading FEMA markings on the front door of someone’s home—was hard to stomach. But helping was something I simply felt I had to do. Just writing about the experience brings back the choking smell and taste of the inside of damaged houses to the back of my throat.
Unfortunately, three years after the storm, not much has changed. Yesterday, I took a tour of the city with Isaiah Warner of LSU, his lovely wife Della, and Father Charles Andrus of Corpus Christi Church in the 7th Ward. As we traversed the damaged streets, I was able to return to places I saw—and worked in—before: Gentilly, Old Gentilly, Lakeview, the Upper 9th Ward, the Lower 9th Ward, and Ponchitrain Park. Swathes of land are sitting untended in these areas; it seems as if you are miles away from civilization rather than in a city. It looks all too familiar. (more…)
Blogging Beckman And Bracher
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Posted by Carmen Drahl on April 7, 2008 in 2008 Spring National Meeting, ACS Meetings
This morning, I paid a brief visit to a Presidential Event–Celebrating Ten Years of Beckman Scholars in Chemistry.
My mission? To bring you a summary of the talk given by Paul Bracher, ChemBark blogger extraordinaire.
Chemistry And The Interweb
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Posted by Lisa Jarvis on April 7, 2008 in 2008 Spring National Meeting
The fabulous world of “the Internets” is coming to chemistry education. Some might argue it is already here. The father-and-daughter comedy team (and chemistry professors) Harry and Laura Pence are, as I type this, leading a session on how social networking can and is being used to teach chemistry. I sat in on part of the morning talks and was intrigued by the healthy crowd the session drew; there seemed to be a lot of professors in the audience trying to figure out how to harness this Web stuff.
A little case study of using Facebook as a discussion tool was presented, with some interesting results. An
My question is this: Does professorial involvement in Facebook make it inherently uncool, subsequently rendering the site obsolete?
Some other interesting tidbits came out of the presentation from Mitch Garcia, of Chemical Forums and Chemistry Blog fame. The UC Berkeley grad student unveiled the stats for Chemical Forums: 21 new users log on each day and more than 6,400 people are registered on the site, which has had 2.1 million unique visitors since its inception. Not bad. Perhaps the chemical space in the lab will be most effective when it is student generated?
Getting To Know Tom Lane
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Posted by Linda Wang on April 7, 2008 in 2008 Spring National Meeting
“Tom, mind if I do a quick experiment with you?” I asked ACS President-Elect Tom Lane after the Women in Industry Breakfast this morning.
He was curious.
Celebrating Two Anniversaries: The Priestley Medal And C&EN
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Posted by Rachel Pepling on April 7, 2008 in Ripped From the Pages, The Editor's Blog
And now for something completely different from the ACS meeting. This week’s editorial touches on the 85th anniversaries of the Priestley Medal and, ahem, C&EN.
If that just whets your whistle for more Priestley coverage, check out our special Priestley anniversary package which includes the annual profile and award address of the current winner (Gabor Somorjai, in case you didn’t know). Any guesses on who the 2009 winner will be?
OK, enough self-promotion. Go back to the meeting.
Top 5 For Monday
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Posted by Lisa Jarvis on April 7, 2008 in 2008 Spring National Meeting
A few things we’re excited to see and do today…
1. Assessing the environmental impact of Hurricane Katrina. (8:20–11:40am, Convention Center, Room 213)
2. Teaching chemistry outside the classroom. (8:30–11:45am, Hilton New Orleans, Jasperwood)
3. What can be done about the looming energy crisis? (1:30–4:50pm, La Louisiane, Ballroom C).
4. Sci-Mix goes virtual: using Second Life to teach organic chemistry. (8–10pm, Convention Center, Hall A)
5. Hello, beignets? They’re not just for breakfast anymore. (Café du Monde,
Grounded At ACS?
Apr
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Posted by Carmen Drahl on April 7, 2008 in 2008 Spring National Meeting, ACS Meetings
I met Stephen Taylor on the shuttle bus ride to the convention center yesterday. He’s a chemistry grad student at the University of Cincinnati working on sensors for small organic molecules, and he gave a talk on Sunday in the Inorganic Division.
Stephen had the misfortune to book his plane ticket to the ACS meeting on Skybus Airlines, one of three airlines that shut down this week. The airline ceased all operations as of Saturday, April 5th, and Taylor told me he received an e-mail on Friday letting him know that he no longer had a flight to New Orleans.
How’d he end up getting to the convention center in time for his talk? “When you’re a poor grad student, you take what you can get,” Taylor said. In this case, that meant taking his car from Cincinnati, Ohio all the way to New Orleans on Saturday. Frankly, I’m impressed that he was able to muster up a genuine smile for my camera. Good attitude, Stephen.
Sound off, gentle readers: Did you have to miss the ACS meeting because of these airline shutdowns? Do you have a crazy meeting road trip story? We’d love to hear it.
An Educational Detour
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Posted by Linda Wang on April 7, 2008 in 2008 Spring National Meeting
I was in a cab yesterday en route to the Convention Center when, on impulse, I asked the cab driver to take me on a detour through one of the FEMA trailer lots.
I just had to see the impact of Hurricane Katrina for myself, even if it was only a glimpse, because walking through the French Quarter, you can’t tell that anything happened here.
My cab driver, whose name is Sam, had his own story to tell. His four-bedroom home was flooded with 10 feet of water, and two-and-a-half years later he is still living in the FEMA trailer parked in front of his house. He says he is one of the luckier ones because people whose homes were completely destroyed are living in FEMA trailers parked in giant parking lots.
Sam is almost finished repairing his house and plans to move back in about month. Then his wife and children, who have been living in Jerusalem since the storm, will also come home.
As we drove by the FEMA trailer lot, I snapped a few photos. I felt guilty.
Despite the detour, I still made it to my next event on time. And along the way, I learned a little bit more about this generous city.
Big Al’s Tribute
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Posted by Steve Ritter on April 7, 2008 in 2008 Spring National Meeting
Feb. 20, 2007, is a date that some inorganic chemists might say will live forever in infamy. That was the day when F. Albert Cotton, an inorganic chemistry professor at Texas A&M University, passed away. Cotton was, simply put, the most influential inorganic chemist to ever have lived.
I qualify that accolade by noting my professors and every other inorganic chemist I have ever come across have said the same thing. And I say it while remembering how I spent the better part of my undergraduate and graduate training toting around, reading, memorizing, and referencing Cotton’s seminal textbook, “Advanced Inorganic Chemistry,” which he coauthored with his own professor, Geoffrey Wilkinson at Harvard University.
The inorganic community was shaken after Cotton died, not only because we lost an icon but also because the circumstances of his death were unusual. Although 76, Cotton was a man still full of vigor. I remember the last time I saw him. It was the ACS spring national meeting in Atlanta in 2006, and he was giving a talk using an overhead projector. Professor Cotton may have been the last person to ever give a talk at an ACS meeting that way.
Cotton reportedly suffered a severe injury in a fall at his home, and he passed away some four months later. Some say he might have been murdered, but a police investigation could only conclude that his death was “suspicious.” That’s all water under the bridge now.
Once they were over the initial shock, the natural instinct of Cotton’s current and former students, postdocs, and colleagues from a career that spanned 50 years was to hold the biggest and most exciting ACS symposium possible in his honor. That symposium is taking place this week in New Orleans. It includes 47 talks in seven sessions held over four days, with the speaker list being a veritable who’s who of inorganic chemists. (more…)
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