NEWS OF THE WEEK ACS N E W S
BOARD SETS AGENDA FOR COMING YEAR Approves 2003 budget, designates two landmarks, converts catalysis award McClelland
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T ITS MEETING ON DEC. 8
in Arlington, Va., the ACS Board of Directors ap proved a 2003 budget with rev enues of $403 million and ex penses of $404 million, designated two new National Historic Chem ical Landmarks, and established
ACS BOARD, 2003 CHAIR Nina I. McClelland, director-at-large a EX-OFFICIO DIRECTORS Eisa Reichmanis, president3 Charles P. Casey, president-elect3 Eli M. Pearce, immediate past-president3 John Κ Crum, executive director3 DISTRICT DIRECTORS Anne T. O'Brien, District I Diane Grob Schmidt, District II
Madeleine M. Joullie, District III Paul R. Jones, District IV E. Ann Nalley3, District V Stanley H. Pine, District VI DIRECTORS-AT-LARGE James D. Burke3 Dennis Chamot Stanley C. Israel15 C. Gordon McCarty James P. Shoffner a Executive committee member. b Two-year term on executive committee.
the Gabor A. Somorjai Award for Creative Research in Catalysis. The board will be led for the third year in a row by Nina I. Mc Clelland, president of Nina I. McClelland LLC. The board elected Stanley C. Israel, dean of science at Southwest Texas State University, San Marcos, to the board executive committee for a two-year term, and E. Ann Nalley a chemistry professor at Cameron University, Lawton, Okla., for a one-year term. Others on the ex ecutive committee include the chair of the board, members of the ACS presidential succession, ACS Executive Director John Κ Crum, and James D. Burke, who was previously elected to a twoyear term. The board grappled with diffi cult economic circumstances for the second year in a row The so ciety anticipates ending 2002 with a net deficit of $1.9 million in its core programs, just under the bud geted deficit of $2 million. Chem ical Abstracts Service and the two
ACS national meetings turned in better-than-budgeted perform ances, and that, coupled with sig nificant cost reductions in society programs, offset to some extent a disappointing year for both ad vertising and investment revenues. The board voted funding of $500,000 for the ACS Matching Gift Fund and $96,460 to support the recommendations of theTask Force on Minorities in Academe. The board also accepted the rec ommendation of the Board Task Force on bsues Relating to the Di visions & Local Sections Funding Petition to phase in over four years a temporary funding mechanism, should the petition be adopted. Two new National Historic Chemical Landmarks will be rec ognized in 2003—one at GrafTech International, Parma, Ohio, for the discovery and development of high-performance carbon fibers, and the other at ResearchTriangle Institute, ResearchTriangle Park, N.C., for the discovery of two chemotherapeutic agents, camptothecin and paclitaxel. And the board converted the ACS Award for Creative Research in Homogeneous or Heteroge neous Catalysis to the endowed Ga borA SomorjaiAward for Creative Research in Catalysis. The award, which had been supported by Shell Oil Foundation, is now supported by the Gabor A. Somorjai Endow ment Fund.-RUDY BAUM
AGBIOTECH
USDA Fines ProdiGene; Industry Reacts To Farm Interests
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SDA, in conjunction with FDA, has fined ProdiGene $250,000 for violat ing the Plant Protection Act by acci dentally contaminating a Nebraska soybean harvest with corn engineered to produce a pharmaceutical product. As part of a settle ment, the Texas-based "biopharming" firm neither admits nor denies any wrongdoing. ProdiGene will have to pay more than $2.7 million to cover the government's cost of buying and destroying 500,000 bushels of soybeans. The firm will also post a $1 million bond and has agreed to
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higher compliance standards, including additional approvals for field tests and harvest of genetically modified materials. The incident led to immediate reactions last month from supporters and detractors of biopharming (C&EN, Nov. 25, page 6). The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) had instituted a voluntary moratorium in late October on planting such crops in major food-producing regions, but it recent ly revised its position after an exchange with Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-lowa). Grassley wants to ensure that Iowa farm
ers are not "unjustly left out of corn-based pharmaceutical crop production," which he sees as a potential multi-million-dollar op portunity. He says BIO's ban was a response to "the demands of special interest, not the demands of science," and he worked with Iowa State University to release a white pa per on safe biopharming practices. BIO now states that these plants can be safely grown and harvested when there are "appropriate production, confinement, and handling practices" and compliance with FDA and USDA regulations.—ANN THAYER
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