Greater Houston Section

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  • 02 Mar 2025 6:25 PM | ACS GHS (Administrator)

    The Greater Houston Section is proud to recognize Kiresha (Reese) Johnson as our 2025 Outreach Volunteer of the Year!


    Kiresha Johnson has been the Greater Houston section’s CCEW coordinator for the past 7 years. Every year since 2018, except the two Covid years of 2020 and 2021, this amazing volunteer organizes an exhibition booth at the Green Mountain Energy Earth Day at Discovery Green in Downtown Houston to educate the public about Chemistry with kids’ activities designed around the year’s CCEW theme and goodie bags for the kids with ACS CCEW merchandise. We are able to make quite an impact, thanks to her efforts, with several hundred visitors to the ACS-GHS booth every year.

  • 02 Mar 2025 5:43 PM | ACS GHS (Administrator)


    This year's Global Women's Breakfast event, sponsored by the Women Chemists Committee, was a success! Approximately 10 people women attended - we networked and had many lively discussions over breakfast at La Madeleine. The organizers has prepared note-cards on the table with thought-provoking questions related to equity and the challenges faced by women in science. Anecdotes were shared, and we brainstormed some ideas of things we could do and improve. We decided we’d like to do additional, regular breakfasts and make memes or simple cartoons that can draw attention to the issues inhibiting equity.

    For future events, we hope to encourage an even broader range of members attend to share additional valuable perspectives.

  • 11 Jan 2025 6:33 PM | ACS GHS (Administrator)

    2025 Transition Meeting Attendees

    The 2025 GHS Executive Board, volunteers, and interested members attended a hybrid meeting on the morning of January 11th at the University of St. Thomas to review the section's strategic goals and annual plans, assign committee chairs and volunteers, and ensure a smooth transition between board members in new positions. We once again have big plans for 2025, and can't wait to share them with our members!

    Incoming GHS Chair Richa Chandra

    GHS Councilor Amber Hinkle

    Planning in progress!

  • 25 Nov 2024 4:31 PM | ACS GHS (Administrator)


    San Jacinto College South held its Annual STEM Expo on November 14, 2024. About 500 students participated. ACS-GHS representatives Dr. Hongyi Wang and Mrs. Obiageli Nwosu conducted experiments based on electrochemistry, colligative properties and molecular transport for students 2nd grade to 8th grade.


    A hearty thank you goes to Dr. Connie Gomez, the Department Chair, Physical Sciences, and Interim Department Chair, Life Sciences San Jacinto College (South Campus), and Mr. Jeff Robison, Chemistry Lab Coordinator, San Jacinto College (South Campus) for all their help with arranging the event.


  • 21 Nov 2024 4:30 PM | ACS GHS (Administrator)


    On Nov 17, the ACS-GHS Younger Chemists Committee organized a volunteer event at the Houston Food Bank to pack boxes of food for seniors in need. The team worked together to organize and pack nutritious items, ensuring that local seniors receive the support they need. Nine volunteers participated, including a mix of early-career professionals, aspiring chemists, and family members, all coming together to make a meaningful contribution to the community.

  • 07 Nov 2024 9:37 PM | ACS GHS (Administrator)

    The 2024 annual Education Rainbow Challenge was a blast! We had about 200 students from 18 schools in attendance and volunteers from Rice University who helped us with our experiments. See you again next year!


  • 30 Oct 2024 6:08 PM | ACS GHS (Administrator)

    From Aidan Looby, Event Organizer, on behalf of the Greater Houston Section - American Chemical Society in Partnership with Chemical Marketing & Economics:

    National Chemistry Week is a public awareness campaign that promotes the value of chemistry in everyday life. This year's theme was "Picture Perfect Chemistry" and picked to demonstrate how chemistry plays a crucial role in how photographs and images are created. In collaboration with the Children's Museum Houston, over 40 volunteers, and a generous donation of $1000 from the Chemical Marketing and Economics (CME) organization, the GHS-ACS put on 4 activities to showcase how chemistry allows for modern technology like medical imaging and digital photography on your phone.


    The 4 activities included anthotype printing, imaging without light, Play Doh, and a History of Photography. Anthotype printing, often referred to as sun prints, shows how curcumin, a chemical found in tumeric, is a remarkable photosensitizer. When it is in the form of a dye on materials and exposed to sunlight for prolonged periods, the dye bonds more strongly to the material and you are able to produce images. This anthotype print was commonly practiced in the 19th century.


    Imaging without light investigates how we can model images without observing light. All matter is made of very small units called atoms, which are comprised of the nucleus and electrons. The nucleus of certain atoms affected by magnetic fields and radio waves, which is the underlying principle for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a type of medical imaging. In this activity, kids were encouraged to develop images using only magnets. 

    At the Play Doh table, younger children were encouraged to recreate their favorite photograph or whatever their imaginations could come up with, while older children were challenged to demonstrate the chemistry of photography using the Play Doh.


    At the History of Photography Table, Bob Botto showed antique, authentic photographs from the 1840s - early 1900s. The photographs ranged from Daguerreotypes (1830s) to Cabinet Cards (1920s). Promoting the chemistry involved in each type of photograph but also its economical and historical impact on photography. 


    Our volunteers came from local Houston universities such as the University of Houston, University of Houston Downtown, and Rice University. The volunteers were engaged and excited to teach some chemistry to the kid and their families. The event started at 9 am and ended at 2 pm with a conservative estimate of 500 people that visited throughout the day.


    Overall, the event was an overwhelming success and we look forward to next year's National Chemistry Week!

  • 30 Oct 2024 6:00 PM | ACS GHS (Administrator)

    This year's Southwest Regional Meeting (SWRM) in Waco, TX was attended by more than 1230 people. There were 885 scientific presentations in 61 unique scientific sections as well as three plenary lectures and 360 posters.


    SWRM Leadership Group, L to R: Lisa Houston (District IV Director), Bonnie Charpentier (2019 ACS President), Lee Latimer (ACS Director-at-Large), Keith Pannell, Lisa Balbes (District V Director), Bob Kane (SWRM 2024 Chair), Bryan Franklin, Sara Hubbard (SWRM Board Member), Alvin Bopp, Ann Nalley (2006 ACS President), Daniel Varnado (SWRM 2022 Chair), Ruth Hathaway (SWRM Board Member)

  • 30 Oct 2024 4:53 PM | ACS GHS (Administrator)

    Congratulations to Dr. Rafael Verduzco of Rice University for being awarded the Stanley C. Israel Regional Award for Advancing Diversity in the Chemical Sciences! Dr. Lisa M. Balbes (District V Director, ACS) presented the award to Dr. Verduzco at the Southwest Regional Meeting Awards Banquet held in Waco, TX on Oct. 23, 2024.


  • 19 Sep 2024 7:02 PM | ACS GHS (Administrator)

    The ACS-GHS Awards Committee is pleased to announce the winners of the 2024 Local Section Awards. The awards will be presented at our annual awards banquet on Saturday, October 12, 2024.


    L to R: Naomi Halas, Joe W. Hightower Award; Christine Miller, Two Year College Award; Safia Mohamed, Younger Chemist Award; Heather Burgess, Excellence in High School Teaching Award; Carolyn Burnley, Mamie W. Moy Service Award

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