The ACS-GHS Awards Committee is pleased to announce the winners of the 2022 Local Section Awards. The awards will be presented at our annual awards banquet in October.

L to R: Christy Landes, Joe W. Hightower Award; Thomas Senftle, Younger Chemist Award; Cindy Welch, Excellence in High School Teaching Award; Ana Sanchez, Two Year College Award; and Ann Cartwright, Mamie W. Moy Service Award

We are incredibly pleased to share that the ACS Greater Houston Section was awarded the ChemLuminary for Outstanding Local Section Younger Chemists Committee (YCC) at the 24th Annual ChemLuminary Awards held during ACS Fall 2022 in Chicago in recognition of our 2021 YCC events. A huge thank you to all our amazing members and volunteers who made this possible.

We were pleased to host Dr. Bridgett Rakestraw, Project Lead/Formulator at CPI Fluid Engineering in Midland, Michigan as our July seminar speaker. Dr. Rakestraw shared her personal career journey and the role that ACS's Project SEED had in starting her on the road to a rewarding career in chemistry, as well as the importance of giving back to the community. Bridgett attributed her success in chemistry to three recurring themes:

1. Perseverance - as her grandmother* said, "If you start something, you've gotta finish it!"
   
2. Representation - the importance of having mentors and role models that look like you
3. Networking...networking, networking!
   

The second portion of Dr. Rakestraw's presentation was a review of lubricants used in automotive air conditioning systems and how changes in government regulation of refrigerants has driven innovation in the lubricants industry. Thanks to Dr. Rakestraw for spending the evening with us and to all our seminar attendees!

*Ethel Johnson, one of the first professional black women wrestlers.

Did you miss this seminar or want to see it again? You can watch the recording below or check out our YouTube channel for this and other recordings!

Congratulations to Greater Houston Section members Dr. Catherine Faler (ExxonMobil), Dr. Megan Robertson (University of Houston), and Dr. Christy Landes (Rice University) for recently being named 2022 ACS Fellows for their outstanding achievements in and contributions to science, the profession, and the Society.

Congratulations to Team USA for winning 1 gold & 3 silver medals at the 54th International Chemistry Olympiad hosted by China. Pictured left to right are members of the team, Jack Liu, silver medal, Nathan Yihe Ouyang, gold medal, Phoenix Wu (Seven Lakes High School, Katy, TX), silver medal, & Gideon Tzafriri, silver medal.

See here for the complete announcement.

Mamie W. Moy is the recipient of the 2023 Award for Volunteer Service to the American Chemical Society. Created in 2001, the award recognizes individuals who exemplify the spirit of volunteerism and have contributed significantly to ACS’s goals and objectives. Mamie is being honored for more than 40 years of volunteer service to the ACS, to education, and to humanity.

Since 2013, Moy has held the post of professor emeritus in chemistry at the University of Houston. Mamie joined ACS in 1967, and in 1984 she served as chair of the Greater Houston local section. She has since served as a councilor for our local section for over 35 years, stepping down into an alternate councilor role in 2022. In 2019, the Greater Houston local section established the Mamie W. Moy Distinguished Service Award to honor of her decades of dedicated service. Congratulations on your well-earned recognition, Mamie!

Read the full announcement here!

The ACS-GHS is sad to hear of the passing of Dr. Robert F. Curl Jr. on July 3rd, 2022. In addition to being a long-term faculty member at Rice University and a Nobel Laureate, Dr. Curl was also our 2021 Joe W. Hightower Award winner and we were very lucky to enjoy his company as the guest of honor at our Annual Awards Banquet last October. GHS Executive Committee member Tom Malloy shared the following comments on Dr. Curl:

Robert Curl

To anyone who knew him, he was just Bob. I met Bob Curl over 50 years ago when I was a graduate student at A&M and would have done a post-doc with him if I didn’t have an offer from MIT. I convinced an MIT student to join Bob’s group, probably out of guilt for not doing so myself.  

Bob was always incredibly generous with his time. Whenever I came back to Houston to visit family, I would stop by Rice to see him, unannounced. If he was in, he would stop, introduce me to the members of his group, give me a tour of his lab and then just sit and talk science. Throughout the years, we met and talked many times. When I saw the Nova program on PBS about buckyballs in the early 90’s, I told my wife that they would get the Nobel prize for that work. It wasn’t long before that came true.  

I returned to Houston and worked for Shell for a number of years and then was on the faculty at my undergraduate alma mater, the University of St. Thomas. Bob accepted an invitation to give a seminar at UST and spent the whole day with our students. He kind of sheepishly had asked me if he could talk about something other than buckyballs but realized that buckyballs were what the audience wanted the hear. My family was thrilled when he went to dinner with us that night. I had many interactions with Bob at ACS events throughout the years. He was always supportive of ACS. 

Bob was a giant in the scientific world, but more than that, just an incredibly nice, generous, gentle man. He is one of the few, outside of family members, whose passing has brought tears to my eyes. I will miss him. 

-Thomas B. Malloy, Jr., Professor Emeritus, Department of Chemistry and Physics, University of St. Thomas

Photo: Mamie Moy, Robert Curl, Jonel Curl, and Anne Hightower at the ACS-GHS Annual Awards Banquet, October 2021

How about these topics: Chemistry Escape Rooms, Chemistry and Art, Digital and Interactive Resources, Drop-wise Chemistry, Fact or Fiction Formative Assessments, Organic Apps, Favorite labs, Round Table Discussions, Taste the Chemistry, and many more. These were just a few of the selections of workshops that several chemistry teachers from the Greater Houston Section, including Jamie Flint, Alicia Doffing, Roxie Allen, Amiee Modic and others were able to attend at the Associated Chemistry Teachers of Texas Biennial Conference in June at Texas A&M San Antonio. The Biennial conference is a 3-day event held during the summers of even-numbered years and provides chemistry teachers from across the state a chance to meet, network, and share labs, activities, and pedagogies.

Check out this awesome Density Conundrum video!

Award-winning attendees, Left to Right: Jamie Flint, Jane Gray, Amiee Modic, Roxie Allen, and Jane Smith (Schulz – DFW)