Awards ... conferred and received

St Louis, the Award-Winning Section

Recognition Night

Awards Night Banquet

Midwest Award

St Louis Award

High School Chemistry Contest

Outstanding College Chemistry Students

Marcus Award

Regional Science Fairs

Outstanding High School Chemistry Teacher

Distinguished Service Award

Chemical Science and Technology Award

Salutes to Excellence

St Louis Chemical Technician Award (ret.)

St Louis, the Award-Winning Section

In current events, the St Louis Section has added to its trove in 2009. Arindam Roy’s energy, organizing skills, and recruitment of other officers created a continual series of meetings and special events that benefited younger—and not-so-younger—chemists throughout the year. The YCC brought home the 2009 ChemLuminary Award for Best New Local Section Younger Chemists Committee.

Keith Stine, advisor, and Arindam Roy, Chair, represented the YCC chapter at the Washington, DC, national meeting where they accepted the “Best new local section YCC” ChemLuminary Award on behalf of the St Louis Section.

Section members in attendance at ChemLuminary Awards (seated or kneeling, l to r): Alexa Serfis, Keith Stine, Lisa Balbes, Bill Doub, Donna Friedman; (standing): Eric Bruton, Arindam Roy

And here’s a list of the awards our Section has won since we seriously started keeping track in 1980.

St Louis, the Award-Giving Section

Recognition Night

Highlights from the most recent Recognition night are here.

Awards Night Banquet

A report from the most recent Awards Night Banquet and details on the next one, when available are here.

Midwest Award

For complete details on the Midwest Award, including qualifications, current and past winners, and the nomination process, go here.

Saint Louis Award

For complete details on the St Louis Award, including qualifications, current and past winners, and the nomination process, go here.

High School Chemistry Contest

Outstanding College Student Awards

Marcus Award

The Leopold Marcus Award was established by Mr Jack Marcus of Missouri Analytical Company and his wife, Gertrude, in memory of his father, Leopold Marcus. It is administered by the Saint Louis University Department of Chemistry and the St Louis Section–ACS. The Leopold Marcus Award competition is held on the campus of Saint Louis University.

The competition consists of presentations based on the undergraduate research projects of senior chemistry majors at the university. The candidates, chosen by the faculty, each make a 15-minute presentation. The winner of the Marcus Award is determined by vote of the professional chemists in the audience. All ACS members are invited to attend, as are all teachers of chemistry from high schools and other universities as well as chemists from the industrial sector and government laboratories. The winner receives a cash prize of $200 and a letter of citation. The other finalists receive $100 and a letter of citation. The winner, finalists, and other participants receive their awards and citations at the Awards Night Banquet of Chemical Progress Week.

Refreshments are available after the competition.

... and the 2009 winner is ...

Xiaoming Shi was named the winner of the Thirty-Ninth Annual Leopold Marcus Award competition held at Saint Louis University on April 1, 2009. Shi was chosen on the basis of his presentation, Crossing the Blood-Brain Barrier. Nitrosyl Bipyridyl Rhenacarborane Complexes: Synthesis, Characterization, and Use as Drug Delivery Vehicles, carried out under the direction of Dr Paul Jelliss.

In addition to Shi, the other finalists in the competition were:

• Vanichpat Prathuangsuk’s talk, A Host to Study Anion-Pi Bonding, was prepared in collaboration with Dr Mike Lewis.
• Jay Breeden, working with Dr Shelley Minteer, discussed Characterization of Azine Polymer Dyes and the Possibility of Drug Delivery.
• Michael Hankins, who collaborated with Dr Istvan Kiss, presented The Design of an Efficient Pacemaker: Optimal Entrainment of a Chemical Oscillator.
• Justin Sheehy described Thermodynamic Parameters of Naturally Occurring RNA Tetraloops, which he studied with Dr Brent Znosko.

For further information, contact Bruce Kowert at 314-977-2837 or kowertba@slu.edu.

Regional Science Fairs

Judging a science fair is a great, low-impact way to get involved with the community and the section. If you are available and wish to judge any of this year’s fairs, please contact the science fair coordinator.

Details and results for 2010 are as follows:

• Illinois Junior Academy of Science Region 12 Science Fair
  Saturday, March 13th, 9:30 am (organizational meeting), 10 am to 1 pm (judging) at Morris University Center, SIU–Edwardsville
  • Grades 9–12
    • 1st Place: Jialing Zhou, Surface Tension, Grade 11, Governor French Academy, O’Fallon, IL
    • 2nd Place: Rosemary Chapple, Lysine and methionine requirements of chicks fed low protein corn-soybean meal diets, A Three Year Study, Grade 12, Waterloo High School, Waterloo, IL
    • 3rd Place: Joseph Wickenhauser and Connor Henderson, Thermal Energy Displacement of Firewood Fuels, Grade 10, Alton High School, Alton, IL
  • Grades 5–8
    • 1st Place: Tommy Giacobbe, Effects of Metal Types and Electrolytes on Voltaic Cells, Grade 6, Lincoln Middle School, Edwardsville, IL
    • 2nd Place: Thomas Lugge, How Hot is Too Hot, Grade 8, Cathedral Grade School, Belleville, IL
    • 3rd Place: Maddie Hoehl and Madisyn Longnecker, Have you Had Your Vitamin C Today?, Grade 6, St Mary School, Alton, IL
    • Honorable Mention:
      Daniel Gardner, Does Greywater Affect Plant Growth?, Grade 8, Waterloo Jr High School, Waterloo, IL
      Kate Pennington, The Effect of Zinc on Bean Plant Growth, Grade 5, Woodland Elementary, Edwardsville, IL
      Elise Holbert, Teeth Decay, Grade 7, Good Shepherd Lutheran School, Collinsville, IL
      Riley Patterson, World of Water, Grade 5, Good Shepherd Lutheran School, Collinsville, IL
      Olivia Ajero and Erin Huene, Got Gum?, Grade 6, All Saints Academy, Breese, IL
• Missouri Tri-county Regional Science and Engineering Fair
  Saturday, February 27th, 8 am (free judges’ breakfast), 9 am to noon (judging) at College Student Center, St Charles Community College
  • Honors Division, Grades 9–12
    • 1st Place: Kaylyn Bauer, An Investigation of the Use of Biofilms to Retard Water Contamination, Grade 10, Wentzville Holt High School, Wentzville, MO
    • 2nd Place: Sereno Adams, The Crystallography of the Polymorphs and Solvates of Sulfathiazole, Grade 11, Wentzville Holt High School, Wentzville, MO
  • Grades 9–12
    • No awards were given this year. There were no entrants in chemistry-related fields.
  • Grades 5–8
    • 1st Place: Rose Ritter, Conductivity of Household Products, Grade 8, North Middle School, O’Fallon, MO
    • 2nd Place: Amber Roussin, The Power of Flouride, Grade 5, Progress South Elementary School, St Peters, MO
    • 3rd Place: Kalista Zurmuehlen, The Crystal Creation Station, Grade 5, Heritage Intermediate School, Wentzville, MO
    • Honorable Mention:
      Shelby Brown, What Liquid Laundry Detergent Will Clean Different Types of Stains?, Grade 5, Ostmann Elementary School, O’Fallon, MO
      Karlie Swisher, Marvelous Muffins, Grade 5, Orchard Farm Elementary School, St Charles, MO
  • Grades K–4
    • All 52 chemistry-related entrants received a congratulatory letter and a purple participation ribbon.
• Greater St Louis Science Fair
  Tuesday, May 5th, at Greensfelder Pavilion, Queeny Park
  • Elementary (grades K–5)
    Participation Awards distributed to chemistry-related projects. Three people needed for about one hour each between 3:00 and 8 pm. No judging involved.
  • Secondary (grades 6–12)
    Judging 3–8:30 pm. Please volunteer for at least 2½ hours. Free dinner for judges (5–6 pm). Judges must be present at 8:30 to pick winners.
    • Results for 2010 will be posted here as soon as they are available.

Outstanding High School Chemistry Teacher Award

1. A letter of nomination, which should include information on the qualifications of the nominee with respect to:
   • quality of classroom teaching
   • ability to motivate and challenge students
   • extracurricular work with students, such as student projects and science fairs
   • efforts made to keep current with developments in chemistry and teaching through professinal activities and continuing education
2. Two letters seconding the nomination from anyone you consider appropriate, such as a science colleague, principal, former student, or parent of former student
3. The official nomination form, which provides background biographical and educational data on the nominee.

Submit an original and five copies of the nomination packet by November 15 to the High School Chemistry Teaching Award coordinator.

... and the winner is ...

Eric Knispel, 2010 Outstanding High School Chemistry Teacher

Eric Knispel of John Burroughs School

written by Mary Harris, mharris@jburroughs.org

Eric Knispel joined the John Burroughs School faculty in 2002. He teaches chemistry at the sophomore and eighth grade levels. He has had exotic experiences teaching chemistry in Africa (as a Peace Corps volunteer in Zimbabwe and at a private school in Tanzania), as well as on a Navajo Indian Reservation in New Mexico. He used his talents to “make things work” with a limited budget in those situations. Here, he uses those talents to have his sophomores make biodiesel in the laboratory and then use the fuel to power putt-putt boats. These boats are made by his students using equipment from the Industrial Technology program. They race the boats in water troughs in the chemistry laboratory to experiment with gas laws.

Eric and the Industrial Technology teachers, with high school students, have used the same biofuel to power a high-mileage vehicle for a state competition. This fall, Eric has also taken the biodiesel laboratory production to a larger scale by building a fifty-five gallon processor on campus where he converts used cooking oil into biodiesel to fuel school vehicles. Students will soon be involved in this green chemistry innovation on campus.

On the eighth grade level, he has introduced several new topics into the curriculum, such as the conservation of energy and an “Element Experts” project. He has really made a difference with the ideas associated with energy in this curriculum. The celebration of elements on the Periodic Table is one of the most popular events in science at this level. Each student is given an element to research and each must organize a PowerPoint presentation to inform the class. He works with their computer teacher to make sure all references are cited, and color schemes, movies, and animations are appropriate.

Eric is a member of the American Chemical Society, and his school website (science.jburroughs.org/eknispel/chemistry.html) contains the syllabus for each of his classes as well as pictures of his students doing various labs. He supplies appropriate pictures of laboratory set-ups for his students to download and use in writing laboratory reports. In his non-school life, he is active in his church and serves on its board of trustees. He and his wife, Brenda, have two small boys.

Past Winners include:

St Louis Section–ACS Distinguished Service Award

St Louis Chemical Science and Technology Award

To submit a nomination, contact the Chemical Science and Technology Award coordinator.

The incumbent Chemical Science and Technology award winner is ...

Meet Adrienne Mazdra, 2010 Chemical Science & Technology Award winner

Congratulations to Adrienne Mazdra, this year’s winner of the Chemical Science and Technology Award.

Adrienne graduated from St Louis Community College in 1992 with an AAS in Chemical Technology. She worked for Petrolite Corporation as a Chemical Laboratory Technician from 1992 to 1998. In 1998, she was hired by St Louis Community College to coordinate laboratories in the Chemistry Department at the Florissant Valley campus.

As Chemistry Laboratory Coordinator, Adrienne has a multitude of responsibilities. In a typical semester, the Department offers seven sections of Fundamentals of Chemistry, five sections of General Chemistry I, two sections of General Chemistry II, Organic Laboratory, as well as Chemical Technology classes. Each of these courses has a lab that Adrienne reviews with for feasibility, accuracy of write-up, equipment and chemicals required, and instrumentation. Adrienne is responsible for prepping each of these labs and for operating, maintaining, troubleshooting, and repairing the chemical instrumentation.

Adrienne handles many other duties, from stocking labs to managing the budget. She has been active in local ACS activities, including the Battle of the Burets and other educational events such as the Career Awareness Fair. She is technically proficient, a team player, a mentor, and has made many contributions to the scientific community at large. In all regards, a fantastic choice.

Well done, Adrienne!

Previous St Louis Chemical Science and Technology Award Winners

Salutes to Excellence

The Salute to Excellence Award is used to recognize an individual, process or company that has made a positive impact on the place of importance of chemistry on everyday life. The St Louis Section has presented several of these awards over the years.

Dr Lincoln Diuguid
presented November 11, 2000

Dr Lincoln Diuguid, shown in an advertising brochure for DuGood Chemicals

The St. Louis Section of the American Chemical Society is proud to recognize the positive impact on the everyday life of a practitioner of chemistry by awarding the Salute to Excellence award to Dr. Lincoln I. Diuguid. After receiving his BS from West Virginia State College in 1938, he went to Cornell University and received his MS in organic chemistry in 1938, and a PhD in organic chemistry in 1945.

His research interests have taken him from the chemical process of reacting aviation fuel with formaldehyde to yield unsaturated C-9 alcohols that are later used to make dinonyl phthalates, to making a unique form of glass from the reprocessing of materials used in the manufacturing of beer, to identifying the chemical compound in antifreeze (benzothiazole) that causes corrosion of copper pipes in baseboard heaters. In the early 1970’s, Dr Diuguid’s research interest centered on his developing a method to determine the level of the thyroid hormone triiodothyronine (T₃) in serum. He continues to pursue his research interests at his company, DuGood Chemicals, Inc, at 1215 South Jefferson Ave.

In 1997, he presented a talk on Potential Anticancer Derivatives of Benzothiazole, Pyridine, Piperdine and Satonic Acid at the Midwest Regional Meeting, Tantara, Osage Beach, MO.

St Louis Science Center
presented March 10, 2001

The St Louis Science Center was created by the merger of the Museum of Science and Natural History with the McDonnell Planetarium in 1983. The roots of the St Louis Science Center can be traced back to 1856, when the Academy of Science of St Louis was founded by a group of physicians, a lawyer, an engineer and a businessman. Its purpose was to maintain a museum collection and library, publish a journal, and interact with other scientists.

The museum moved from Lindell Blvd to Oak Knoll Park in 1958 and became known as the Museum of Science and Natural History. In 1971, voters in St Louis City and County approved the formation of the St Louis Metropolitan Zoo–Museum District. The ownership of the museum was then transferred from the Academy of Science to the new subdistrict.

The St Louis Science Center serves as a bridge between scientist and layperson, encouraging an understanding of ecology and the environment, humanity, technology, and the space sciences, and how they interrelate. By fostering an active interest in science and mathematics, the Science Center prepares people to make decisions that may shape the future and meet society’s need for scientific literacy. By enhancing the scientific literacy of those who visit, the Science Center has given non-scientists a better appreciation of chemistry, the chemistry around us and that everything is made of chemicals.

Dr William Knowles, 2001 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry
presented March 2002

William S Knowles was born on June 1, 1917 in Massachusetts. He did his undergraduate work at Harvard, his graduate work at Columbia University, followed by a research position at Monsanto.

After a brief stint in Dayton, OH, he was transferred to St Louis in 1944, where he has been ever since. While here, he showed that it was possible to use transition metals to make chiral catalysts for hydrogenation, thereby obtaining the desired mirror image form of the final product. His research quickly led to an industrial process for the production of L-DOPA, a drug that is still used in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. In 2001, he received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for this work.

Marie Sherman
presented December 2002

Marie has a BS in Chemistry from Iowa State University and a MS in Chemistry from St Louis University. She worked at Eastman Kodak before moving to St Louis and Monsanto. She has been teaching chemistry at Ursuline Academy since 1967.

Marie has been a member of the ACS St Louis Section for 18 years, and has presented “Chemistry Is Fun“ programs for the past 15 years, giving about 25 programs per year at area elementary/middle schools. Marie serves on the Board of Publications for the Journal of Chemical Education, and has been a reviewer for this journal for many years. In 1989, she helped to found the Polymer Ambassadors, a group of pre–high-school teachers who promote the use of plastics and polymers in classroom activities.

She has given many presentations for teachers at National Science Teacher conventions, at Science Teachers of Missouri conferences, TIE conferences and the annual Interface conferences. She has received numerous awards, including the Regional Catalyst Award (1986), the National Catalyst Award (1996), and Outstanding Missouri Science Educator (2002).

Eric Ressner, Editor Chemical Bond
presented December 2003

Eric Ressner was smitten by chemistry in high school in spite of Mr B, who was a much better soccer coach than chemistry teacher. He received his BS in Chemistry from Clarkson College in Potsdam, NY, and his PhD in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of Kansas. An elective in molecular biology led him to a postdoc in Virology at SUNY Stony Brook.

Two teaching positions, at Colgate University and at Seton Hill College, helped him learn chemistry a lot better than he ever did as a student. He’s been plying his trade as a technical writer at Sigma since 1985. A stint as editor of the Chemical Bond seemed like a natural fit ... and he stayed for eight wonderful years!

Lisa Balbes, Founding Webmaven
presented November 2004

Dr Lisa Balbes received BAs in chemistry and psychology from Washington University in St Louis, and her PhD in chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She then spent several years at Research Triangle Institute conducting protein and small molecule modelling studies. In 1992, she founded Balbes Consultants (formerly Osiris Consultants), offering a range of services including technical writing, information architecture, web site design and maintenance. Her work has been published in Drug Discovery and Development, Scientific Computing and Instrumentation, The Alchemist, Genetic Engineering News, Chemistry, and Reviews in Computational Chemistry, among other places.

For the past decade Dr Balbes has been involved in ACS activities in a variety of capacities. She was chair of the St Louis Section of the American Chemical Society in 2002, was Webmaven from 1996 to 2004, and is currently Career Services coordinator and a presenter for the Division of Career Services. Starting January 2005, she will also assume the duties of the St Louis Section Treasurer.

In addition to her ACS responsibilities, Dr Balbes has been on the Executive Board of the St Louis Web Developers’ Organization since 1997, is Chair of Washington University’s APAP-St Louis South Committee, and Chair of the Corporate Sponsor Committee for the St Louis Chapter, Society for Technical Communications.

Lisa lives in Kirkwood with her husband Mark, and their two boys, Jack (13) and Alex (11). In her spare time, she does all types of needlework, and in 2000 won second place in the American Needlepoint Guild national competition.

Lisa is being honored for her service as local section Webmaven from 1996 to 2004.

The St Louis Section Chemical Technician Award has been retired as of 2005. The illustrious previous winners are still illustrious, however, so it seems a shame to retire their honors along with the ongoing award.

A chemical technician is a person whose training includes successful completion of an Associate or Bachelors Degree in chemistry or a chemistry-related curriculum, or equivalent knowledge gained by experience. The primary work of a chemical technician is conducting experimentation and/or correlating information to assist in the solving of chemical problems.

The award was presented to a chemical technician in the St Louis area who had demonstrated a high degree of professionalism as a chemical technician. Criteria included technical skills, safety and housekeeping, relationship with co-workers, presentations, reliability, communication skills, contribution to team efforts, and additional professional activities.

St Louis Chemical Technician Award Winners