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.

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.

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!

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 19^th 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!

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)

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.

Congratulations to Amiee L. Modic for being named the recipient of the 2025 James Bryant Conant Award in High School Chemistry Teaching by the American Chemical Society! The purpose of this award is to recognize, encourage, and stimulate outstanding teachers of high school chemistry in the United States, its possessions or territories, at the national level.

Amiee is a chemistry teacher at Duchesne Academy of the Sacred Heart and an active member of the Greater Houston ACS section, serving on Education and Outreach committees (including NCW and CCEW), and promoting chemical education opportunities in the Greater Houston area and beyond.

The 2024 ACS-GHS pre-college awards ceremony took place on Friday, August 2, 2024. It went very well and there was a good turn out for the event. Congratulations to all of our award winners, including GHS High School Scholarship Exam recipients and local Chemistry Olympiad participants. The GHS Local Section Award for Excellence in High School Chemistry Teaching was presented to Heather Burgess of James E. Taylor High School by Aimee Modic. In addition, this year Ms. Roxie Allen who has been the chair of the ACS-GHS Education Committee at the local section for over 10 years passed the leadership of the Education to Mrs. Obiageli Nwosu.

Many thanks to Lisa Houston, Carolyn Burnley, and Eme Abu (Project SEED) for their presence at the ceremony. Special thanks to Roxie Allen for her guidance in planning, set up, and provision of the venue specific to this event, and to Aimee Modic for her co-ordination as well as the organization, and set up, despite the fact that both of them returned from a trip less than 24 hours before the ceremony.

I would like to say a big thank you to Dr. Tai-Yen Chen (scholarship exam) of The University of Houston for making the scholarship exam and results possible, as well as to Dr. Jerry Yang of The University of Houston (Chemistry Olympiad) for his immense contribution towards the mentorship and preparation of our Houston area students who have consistently represented ACS GHS Houston on the national stage. I would also like to thank Falonne Moumbogno for all her support and assistance especially for her help in ensuring that the certificates were readily available at the event.

This year's Project SEED had 9 students over 8 weeks this summer working in different labs and on a variety of projects. Our students were Donovan Miller-Brown, Brooke Daniels, Jeremiah Frasier, Tyler Kirby, Mackey Maddox, Aerial Miller, Raquel Nwosu, J’Lon Owens and Bralon Wilson.

Our mentors this year were Dr. Jakoah Brgoch (UH), Dr. Pieremanuele Canepa (UH), Dr. Melissa Zastrow (UH), Dr. Naihao Chiang (UH), Dr. Jeffrey Rimer (UH), Dr. David Thompson (Sam Houston State Univ.) and Dr. Shawn Liu from Houston Electron Microscopy.

Other coaches working under our mentors were Nakyung Lee, Arslan Akbar, Dr. Wayne Fei, Lihan Fitz, Aashni Khurana, Aris Newton, Harshan Reddy Gopidi, Dr. Uyen Huynh, Oluwaferanmi (Loveth) Isinkaye, Amir Abutali, Sambita Choudhury and Edgar Turizo.

This year Mrs. Carolyn Burnley who has coordinated the program at the local section for over 10 years passed the baton of leadership to Dr. Eme Abu. The transition was smooth and we hope to continue the good work in the coming years! We cannot run a successful program without the help and support of our mentors and coaches, the parents/families of these students, the local section and Project SEED at the National level, and for that we are grateful. We definitely had a blast!