HBCS OFFICERS 2009:

Chair,   Dr. Ish Kumar, Fairleigh Dickinson University (Metropolital Campus)

Chair-elect 2010,   Dr. Ze He,  New Jersey City University

Immediate Past-Chair, Mr. Sorin Diaconesc, Labcorp.

Secretary,  Dr. Mihaela Leonida

Treasurer, Dr. Stephen Anderson

Board of Directors

Dr. Robert Mentore

Dr. Kenneth Yamaguchi

Dr. Grace Borowitz

Dr. Irving Borowitz

Dr. Jay Carreon

SUMMARY:

2009 was a year rich in activities at the HBCS. We had four meetings featuring social hour, dinner and lectures by invited speakers.  Topics varied, trying to attract a broad spectrum of participants from our area: students, chemists from companies and academia and chemical engineers.  As a new approach interdisciplinary topics and contacts with scientists from other fields were sought.

The members of the section participated in a series of lectures, and presented their research at different local and national conferences.

In April the 11th edition of the Student Award Night and Undergraduate Research Symposium was organized with an invited speaker and high student participation.

A Preprofessional and Career Fair was organized in February with participation from professional and graduate programs and companies hiring science graduates.

The subsection continued its cooperation with the Sigma Xi chapter of Ramapo College and the chemistry clubs of member colleges (Fairleigh Dickinson University - Metropolitan Campus, Ramapo College, New Jersey City University).

A planning meeting of the Executive Board and the Board of Directors was organized in November, 2009.

HBCS also brings chemistry and community together by organizing events (in March and November) where high schools from the area are invited and their students are introduced to chemistry and life beyond high school. In honor of National Chemistry Week they were invited at FDU where they were told about careers in chemistry and other sciences and hands-on activities were organized as well.

Along the same lines, education of the public about chemistry, HBCS organized two sessions of "The Magic of Chemistry". They were attended by over 600 high school students.

Student members of the subsection participated in the section's activities and in research related activities. The students' academic achievements and research were acknowledged at the Student Achievement Award Night, in April.  Students involved in research presented their results in an Undergraduate Research Symposium held the same day.  Some of the students involved in research presented their results at the Undergraduate Research Symposium organized by the ACS-NY section at Pace University.

Members of the section involved in research presented papers at regional meetings and at the ACS National Meeting and international meetings, some of them having students involved in that as well.

1. A Career and Pre-Professional Fair for undergraduate students was organized on February 13, 2009, at Fairleigh Dickinson University.  Participants: professional and graduate schools and prospective employers for science majors.  Attendance: 60 students.  High school students from the area attended too.  Before the fair, 80 high school students conducted hands-on activities in the chemistry laboratories. A “How to write a resume” workshop was offered to the participants too.

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2. A meeting, jointly with the Sigma Xi chapter of Ramapo College, was held at Ramapo College of New Jersey on April 23, 2009.  Professor Alan Robock  delivered a talk entitled “Global warming is real and what you can do about it”.  Alan Robock is a professor of climatology in the Department of Environmental Sciences at Rutgers University and the Associate Director of its Center for Environmental Prediction.  Prof. Robock has been a researcher in the area of climate change for more than 30 years. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1970 with a B.A. in Meteorology, and from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with an S.M. in 1974 and Ph.D. in 1977 in Meteorology. From 1977 until the end of 1997, he was on the faculty of the Department of Meteorology of the University of Maryland, where he was a Professor and the State Climatologist of Maryland (1991-1997).  He moved to Rutgers University in January, 1998, where he is the Director of the Meteorology Undergraduate Program and a member of the Graduate Program in Atmospheric Science.  He is a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society and President of the Atmospheric Sciences Section of the American Geophysical Union.  Dr. Robock is a Professor II at Rutgers, equivalent to Distinguished Professor at other institutions. Prof. Robock's research involves many aspects of climate change, using analysis of observations and climate model simulations. He has published more than 250 articles on his research, including more than 145 peer-reviewed papers.  He served as Editor of the Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres, 2000-2005, and of the Journal of Climate and Applied Meteorology, 1985-1987.  He was Associate Editor of Reviews of Geophysics, 1994-2000, and is once again serving since 2006. He served as a AAAS Congressional Science Fellow, 1986-1987, and spent subsequent sabbaticals at NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, and in Antarctica and at the Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique, Paris, France.

Attendance: 10 faculty and 40 students.

Abstract of the talk:

2005 was the warmest year on the planet in more than 1000 years. The Earth has warmed by almost 1°C during the past 150 years, and by 0.6°C (1°F) in just the past 30 years. Was this just by chance or caused by human pollution of the atmosphere, especially by carbon dioxide? I will explain why the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report said, "Most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations." I will explain the science behind global warming and describe how global warming will affect us, including sea level rise, stronger hurricanes, and threats to water resources and our food supply. Finally, I will discuss policy options for addressing the problem.

 How the climate will change and the impacts of global warming can be addressed by science. What society chooses to do about this is a political decision, influenced by different values and interests. However, clear understanding of the science is a necessary input to these decisions, and in this talk I will clearly separate the science aspects from the policy aspects.

3. A meeting, jointly with the School of Natural Sciences of Fairleigh Dickinson University, and The 11th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium and Student Award Night (presented to the chemistry senior with the highest GPA from each participating colleges), was held on Friday April 24, 2009, at Fairleigh Dickinson University.  Certificates and books were presented to the awardees and all the student presenters.  30 posters were presented.

Attendance: 80.

Dr. Kathryn Uhrich from Rutegers University delivered a talk on her research entitled “PolyAspirin: from Invention to Innovation”.

Dr. Kathryn Uhrich is a Professor of Chemistry at Rutgers University.  She received a B.S. degree (1986) in Chemistry at the University of North Dakota, and Ph.D. degree  (1992) in Organic Chemistry from Cornell University.  Before moving to her present post at Rutgers in 1995, she held post-doctoral positions at AT&T Bell Laboratories Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her research is funded by National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. Kathryn has received the Johnson & Johnson Discovery (1996), Hoechst Celanese Innovative Research (1996 and 1997), and National Science Foundation CAREER (2000) awards.  She is co-founder of Polymerix (2000-08), recipient of the 2003 recipient of New Jersey's "Best Life Sciences/Healthcare Company”.  Recent awards include the Thomas Alva Edison patent award (2003), New Jersey’s Outstanding Scientist in Biomedical Research (2004), ACS-sponsored Buck-Whitney award (2005) and the New York Academy of Sciences Blavatnik Award (2007).  Currently, she is co-Director of an NSF IGERT program on “Biointerfaces” (2004-08) and on “Stem Cells (2008-12). Her research accomplishments have been recognized and disseminated in hundreds of publications and conference proceedings along with hundreds of invited presentations at local, national and international levels.  In addition, she currently has over one hundred US and world-wide patents and applications.  Her innovative research in polymer chemistry and biomaterials at Rutgers has trained nearly one hundred graduate and undergraduate students.

Abstract of the talk:

Aspirin is a drug that is broadly used by millions of Americans to treat aching joints, headaches, and prevent heart attacks.  The oldest version of aspirin is the poultice prescribed by Hippocrates in the fifth century BC obtained from the bark of willow trees and myrtle.  The latest version of aspirin is PolyAspirin, a plastic version of aspirin that was first synthesized by an undergraduate chemistry student in Uhrich’s lab at Rutgers University.  Since that discovery, several other polymer (or plastic) versions of drugs have been invented, which led to the formation of Polymerix Corporation.  Polymerix works with pharmaceutical and medical device companies to enhance their products; for example, PolyAspirin-coated cardiovascular stents may be more beneficial to patients because the drug is located exactly where it needs to be ? on the stent ? rather than in the stomach.

4. In celebration of National Chemistry Week a Discovery Day was organized at Fairleigh Dickinson University (on November 13).  High school students from schools in the area were invited. They were told about careers in chemistry and natural sciences and performed hands-on activities.

5. Also, in celebration of National Chemistry Week, a meeting was held at Fairleigh Dickinson University on November 13, 2009.  The invited lecture was on an interdisciplinary topic: “Developing Chemical Tools for Deciphering Unknown Biological Functions of Nek2 Kinase Using Chemical-Biology Approaches”. The talk was delivered by Dr. Sanjai Kumar from Queens College, Flushing, NY.

Dr. Kumar obtained his Ph.D. degree in Chemistry in the laboratory of Prof. Rex F. Pratt at Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT. Subsequently, he moved on to do his post-doctoral research work in the laboratory of Prof. Zhong-Yin Zhang and Prof. David S. Lawrence at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, NY. His research at Einstein involved at the interface of chemistry and biology. More specifically he designed and synthesized activity-based probes and inhibitors of protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) and protein kinases (PKs). Currently he is an assistant professor in the department of Chemistry & Biochemistry at Queens College, CUNY. His current research interests include designing and synthesizing small molecule ligands (e.g. biosensors, and inhibitory agents) for use in chemical biology and functional proteomics.

Total Attendance: 75

Abstract of the talk:

Nek2 is a Ser/Thr centrosomal kinase that tightly regulates centrosome cohesion and separation so that accurate chromosome segregation is achieved during mitosis. In animal model, it has been shown that any abnormal activity of Nek2 kinase may lead to a loss of regulation in precise chromosome segregation during mitosis. In fact, Nek2 has been found to be abnormally expressed in many types of cancer cells and is a potential target for cancer therapy. While biochemical, proteomics and microscopic data strongly suggest that one of the main biological roles of Nek2 is to oversee the function of centrosome during the early mitosis and possibly during the entire cell cycle, a precise mechanism by which this is achieved at molecular level remains to be unraveled. We intend to develop novel chemical tools (inhibitors, substrates, and sensors) that will be used for discovering the unknown biological function of Nek2 kinase in human biology and cancer.

6. The Executive Board and the Board of Directors of HBCS meeting was held on November 13, 2009.  The 2010 meetings schedule was discussed.  Names were proposed for the 2010 Board and strategies to attract new members into ACS were outlined. The following members will serve on the Board for 2010: Dr. Ze He ? Chair, Stephen Anderson ? Treasurer, Mihaela Leonida ? Secretary and Jay Carreon - Chair-elect for 2011.  Board of Directors: Ish Kumar, Rob Mentore, Kenneth Yamaguchi, Hanae Haouari, and Sorin Diaconescu.

7. The Chemistry Club of Ramapo College, Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society, and Hudson-Bergen Chemical Society presented “The Magic of Chemistry” show at Ramapo College, on December 11, 2009.  Two sessions were held for the more than 600 high school students who attended.  Presenter: Dr. Ariel Fenster - McGill University, Montreal, Canada.

8. The December monthly meeting, jointly with the Sigma Xi chapter of Ramapo College, was held at Ramapo College of New Jersey on December 11, 2009, in the evening. Topic: “Life is risky business”.  Speaker: Dr. Ariel Fenster, McGill University, Montreal. Ariel Fenster teaches at McGill University, where he is a founding member of the Office for Science and Society, an organization dedicated to disseminating up-to-date information in the areas of food issues, medications, and the environment and health topics in general.  Dr. Fenster is well known as an outstanding communicator and an exceptional promoter of science with an extensive program, developed over nearly three decades.  Over that period he has given close to 600 lectures and public presentations in English and in French across North America and Overseas. He appears regularly on TV and radio to discuss health, environmental and technology issues and has presented numerous science segments for children’s television.  Recently he was seen in French on Radio-Canada's popular daily health show "37,5" and in English on the "Discovery" science show  "What's that all about?" His contributions to teaching, and to the popularization of science, have been recognized by numerous awards.  Among them: the "Award for Excellence in Chemistry Teaching" by the U.S. Chemical Manufacturers Association and the "McNeil Medal for the Public Awareness of Science" from the Royal Society of Canada (inaugural award). Ariel Fenster, who is a native of the wine-growing region of Bergerac, France, holds a Master's degree from the University of Paris and a Ph.D. from McGill University.Canada.

Attendance: 30

9. Also on December 11, the HBCS celebrated the activity of two members who shaped the subsection into what it is today: Drs. Grace and Irving Borowitz. For decades they were active in the HBCS and in the ACS-NY, they held several offices, led by example other chemists, and mentored generations of students and young chemists.