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BOARD, COUNCIL TAKE ACTION Reinstatement fee eliminated, candidates selected for 2000 president-elect, other actions taken Linda R. Raber C&EN Washington t the American Chemical Society national meeting last month in IAnaheim, Calif., the society's council and board of directors took a number of actions to improve society operations, to ensure itsfinancialwellbeing, and to help determine the future leaders of ACS governance. In addition, they heard reports from ACS committees on the state of the society's affairs and plans for the future. The ACS Council got its business out of the way quickly. The vote on the petition to eliminate the $10 fee charged to ACS members whose previous failure to formally resign resulted in their being droppedfromthe membership rolls was carried on voice vote without any discussion. The petition's sponsors believe that the reinstatement fee could be an impediment to a lapsed member's rejoining the society. And collection of the fee contributed very little to societyfinances.The petition proved to be noncontroversial. The second of two petitions acted upon, which also was ratified on voice vote without discussion, addressed an omission in the bylaws by granting the Divisional Activities Committee the authority to recommend to the council the dissolution or the combination of divisions. It was generally considered a "housekeeping" petition and passed swiftly. The only action on the agenda that might have caused a stir also turned out
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not to be controversial. Councilors approved, almost without discussion, raising ACS dues by $3.00 to $108 for 2000. Councilors also selected ACS Director-at-Large Attila E. Pavlath, lead scientist for process chemistry and engineering at the Department of Agriculture's Western Regional Research Center in Albany, Calif., and Alan Schriesheim, emeritus director of Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, HI., to stand as candidates in this fall's election for 2000 presidentelect They also heard the results of Region III, Region VI, and at-large elections for candidates for positions on the board of directors. The two candidates for president-elect were chosen from a field of four nominees selected by the Committee on Nominations & Elections. The four were F. Peter Boer, president of Tiger Scientific, Boynton Beach, Fla.; James A. Bristol, vice president for chemistry at ParkeDavis Pharmaceutical Research, Ann Arbor, Mich.; Pavlath; and Schriesheim. Each nominee was introduced to the council and gave a brief oral statement. Councilors then chose Pavlath and Schriesheim by paper ballot. The two will vie in this fall's election for the three-year presidential succession, 2000 to 2002. Members of the council were notified that current Region III Director Maureen G. Chan, retired technical manager for Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, in Murray Hill, N.J., and George F. Palladino, vice chairman of the chemistry department of the University of Pennsylvania, will
be candidates for Region III director and that current Region VI director, Glenn A Crosby, professor of chemistry and materials science at Washington State University, Pullman, and Stephen J. Rodemeyer, professor of chemistry at California State University, Fresno, will vie for the Region VI director's seat. Director-at-large candidates will be James D. Burke, manager of technical recruiting and university relations for Rohm and Haas, Spring House, Pa.; Valerie J. Kuck, staff member, Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies; C. Gordon McCarty, manager of university relations at Bayer Corp., Pittsburgh; and current Director-at-Large Lura J. Powell, director of the Advanced Technology Program at the National Institute of Standards & Technology, Gaithersburg, Md. The ACS Council heard a report from Director-at-Large Joan E. Shields regarding a recommendation in Boston from the Council Committee on Meetings & Expositions for a $10 increase in the advance member registration fee for 1999 meetings, representing an increase from $225 to $235. At the ACS national meeting in Boston last fall, the council did not support the increase and requested more information. Since then, the board voted to approve the recommendation for a $10 increase. Shields told councilors the increase was necessary given the current financial projections for meetings. She pointed out that given no increase in advance member registration fees, net losses of $2 million will be incurred in the year 2007 alone. She said that nearly 44% of meeting attendees receive discounted registration fees and that this had led to a $46 per attendee shortfall for the Anaheim meeting. The committee will continue to examine the issues surrounding raising the registration fees, but it does not anticipate that the work will be completed by the fall meeting in New Orleans. The ACS Board had a busy session in Anaheim, hearing a presentation on the renovation of Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) facilities in Columbus, Ohio, in executive session. The report will be re-
Council adopts petitions on dues reinstatement fees, duties of Divisional Activities Committee Council action
Proposed amendment
Bylaw affected
Major provisions
Deletion of dues reinstatement fee
Bylaw 1, Sec. 4, last paragraph
Eliminates $10 fee to reinstate ACS membership to those who previously failed to formally resign
Carried
Revise the duties of the Committee on Divisional Activities
Bylaw III, Sec. 3,d,(1)(c)(iii)
Allows committee to make recommendations to the council for combination or dissolution of divisions
Carried
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ferred to the Governing Board for Publishing and the Property Development Committee. Final discussion is expected at the ACS national meeting in August in New Orleans. The board also heard a report from the Office of Technical Programming & Conferences Task Force, which announced plans to convene its first specialty conference on the topic of combinatorial chemistry early next year. Among its actions, the board approved a policy statement on a new law that makes all data collected under federally funded research grants available to the public under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). ACS governance is concerned that the new law is too broad and the proposed changes to Office of Management & Budget (OMB) administrative documents too vague. The board approved unanimously and the society has just sent a letter to OMB Director Jacob J. Lew recommending that OMB and Congress work to delay implementation of the law for one year to allow institutions to establish processes to fulfill FOIA requests and reevaluate research agreements, among other things. The letter is signed by ACS President Ed Wasserman and Jean H. Futrell, chairman of the governing board of the Council for Chemical Research (C&EN, April 12, page 11). Acting on the recommendation of the Committee on Grants & Awards, the ACS Board approved 134 Petroleum Research Fund (PRF) grants-in-aid totaling $4,839,634. It also increased the 1999 PRF grant budget from $16.3 million to $17.0 million to address the unexpectedly large increase in the number of grant applications. ACS is in the process of taking an intense look at graduate education, and the board and council heard several reports of committee activity in thisarea. Jerry R Mohrig, chair of the Committee on Professional Training (CPT), gave board members a glimpse of a soon-to-be-released report on its survey of Ph.D. chemists. The survey was designed to discover how well the Ph.D. degree has served chemists in their professional careers. The survey was sent to 4,000 ACS members who have a Ph.D. as the highest degree. Respondents were divided into two cohorts, one made up of chemists in their mid-30s, the other in their mid-40s. Among the reports conclusions is that, overall, Ph.D.-degree recipients in academia and industry are favorably disposed to their graduate education, although career advising and networking and teamwork opportunities got some of the lower marks.
On average, respondents believed they would have benefited by taking more courses outside the traditional fields of chemistry. And, on average, the industrial chemists surveyed expressed a distinctly lower opinion of their graduate experience than those in academia. The complete results of the survey will be published in the CPT spring newsletter. CPT also reported to the board that it is working on the new edition of "ACS Guidelines for Undergraduate Professional Education in Chemistry." It is the first new edition since 1992. The committee promised that by year's end it will be in the hands of all faculty in the 616 colleges and universities that have ACS-approved chemistry programs. The Society Committee on Education (SOCED) provided the board with an interesting report from its Task Force on Graduate Education. A prima-
ry recommendation of the report is that ACS establish a standing oversight body, with accompanying staff support through a newly established Office of Graduate Education. This office will be charged with addressing graduate education issues across the society. The importance of undergraduates to the future membership of the society was again recognized and affirmed by SOCED. The undergraduate program at national meetings continues to be robust. Some 570 undergraduate posters were presented in Anaheim. This kind of programming and other efforts have resulted in an increase in full membership of younger chemists. In two years, the number in the age range of 20 to 25 has doubled from 3,000 to 6,000. Final 1998 year-end membership of ACS was reported at 158,968, with a 93% retention rate.4
awards wisdom in the 1970s was that polymeric systems could be used to deliver small molecules in controlled-release systems, but not large molecules such as proteins. Langer was thefirstto discover principles enabling the use of biocompatible polyRobert S. Langer, Kenneth J. Germes- mers for the slow delivery of large molehausen Professor of Chemical & Bio- cules such as hormones and vaccines. medical Engineering at Massachusetts Langer joined MIT as an assistant professor in the department of Institute of Technology, nutrition and food science received the ACS Northin 1977. eastern Section's 1999 In 1984, Joseph VacanGustavus John Esselen ti of Harvard Medical Award for Chemistry in School was confronted the Public Interest at cerwith the frustrating shortemonies held on April 8 at age of livers to transplant. Harvard University. The He discussed the probaward is presented annulem with Langer and proally in recognition of outposed that they try to standing achievement in "make new livers." Langscientific and technical er's idea was to take dework that contributes to gradable polymers, make the public well-being. It is scaffolds out of them, and made possible through an grow cells on them. The endowment by the Escells would reorganize selen family in memory of Gustavus J. Esselen II. It was presented themselves and make new tissue, and then the polymer support would disinteto Langer by Esselen's son. Langer received his undergraduate grate to leave only the new tissue. This degree in chemical engineering from technique is being used to create skin for Cornell University in 1970 and completed burn and other wound treatment and to his doctoral work at MIT in 1974. He then make cartilage. Some products have aljoined Children's Hospital Medical Cen- ready received Food & Drug Administrater in the laboratory of Judah Folkman, tion approval. Langer also worked with Henry where he worked on the controlled delivery of high molecular weight molecules Brem at Johns Hopkins University to through polymer matrices. Conventional design a polymer-based drug delivery
Langer receives Esselen Award for chemistry in public interest
APRIL 19,1999 C&EN
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