EDUCATION
U.S. Students Win Medals in International Chemistry Olympiad Two silver and two bronze medals go to U.S. team in competition among high school chemistry students held this month in Czechoslovakia All four members of this year's U.S. team in the International Chemistry Olympiad sported medals on their return from the competition held early this month in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia. Two of the students on the team won silver medals, two bronze. This is the second year the U.S. has sent a team to the competition among high school chemistry students, which has been taking place among students from European countries since 1968. This year, 83 students representing 22 countries took part, up from 76 students representing 20 countries last year. The students compete in written and laboratory examinations that include problems in inorganic, organic, physical, and biochemistry. An international panel of jurors awards points for each section of the competition and ranks the students according to the total number of points they receive. This year, gold medals were presented to the top 10 students, silver medals to the next 21, and bronze medals to the next 30. All other participants received a diploma. Keith Rickert, who will be a senior next year at the Latin School of Chicago, received the best score of the U.S. participants and placed 12th overall in the competition. This is Rickert's second Chemistry Olympiad medal. As a member of last year's U.S. team, he won a bronze medal.
U.S. medalists (from left) Kelson, Rickert, Maynudes, and Whitney Other members of the U.S. team, all of whom competed for the first time, included David Maynudes, who will be a junior at University High School in Los Angeles, and w h o placed 25th overall; Glen Whitney, who graduated this spring from Medfield High School, Medfield, Mass., and placed 44th; and Eric Kelson, a spring graduate of Bountiful High School, Bountiful, Utah, who placed 54th. Whitney will begin studies at Harvard University this fall, and Kelson will matriculate at the University of Utah. Historically, the teams from the Eastern European countries have dominated the International Chemistry Olympiad competitions, and they continued to do so this year. By far the best team overall was that of the Soviet Union, which included not only the student with the best overall score but also two other gold medal winners and one silver winner. The East Germans, West Germans, and Czechs also had two gold medal winners each on their teams. The 10th gold medal went to a Romanian.
students Maynudes (foreground) and Whitney at work in chemistry study camp at Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs in June July 29, 1985 C&EN
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Education Selection of the U.S. team participants began last winter and involved at least 5000 high school chemistry students, roughly twice the number who participated in the competition last year. The U.S. team is sponsored by the American Chemical Society, and initial selection of competitors is made by ACS local sections, almost half of which participated this year. Each section can designate at least five students to take a nationwide exam prepared by ACS, and larger local sections can name up to 13 sudents. Each local section is free to select its students any way it chooses. Altogether, some 500 students took the national exam last April. Based on the exam scores, 20 students were selected to spend two weeks at a chemistry study camp at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs in June. The four-person U.S. team was chosen from the study camp participants. Participation in the olympiad is a valuable experience for all involved, says Mary Beth Key, a chemistry teacher at St. Albans School for Boys in Washington, D.C., who was one of the two adult mentors accompanying the students to Bratislava. The students make contact with their peers from throughout the U.S. and around the world. Once they arrived in Czechoslovakia, the U.S. students were rarely to be found together, she says, but chose to spend their time making friends with members of other national delegations. There are opportunities for informal exchanges of goodwill, such as an informal party for the teams of the U.S. and the Netherlands given by the students from the U.S.S.R. "The valuable part for me was the chance to meet the other people," Rickert says. "I don't really need to go to Europe to take a test." For Key, and for Michael D. Hampton, an analytical chemistry professor at the University of Central Florida in Orlando who headed the U.S. delegation, participation provided a valuable opportunity to exchange ideas about chemical education with educators from many different countries. "I learned a lot," Key says. Rebecca Rawls, Washington 24
July 29, 1985 C&EN
Purdue program enhances academe/industry ties "We understand industry a lot better than we did five years ago—and our students do, too." That's how William E. Baitinger, director of the Purdue University chemistry department's Industrial Associates Program (IAP), assesses the benefits the program has provided. University chemistry departments traditionally have had dealings with chemical companies and other industries, but the relationships typically have been pretty much on an ad hoc basis. Purdue chemists felt a need for a formal organization to coordinate department-industry interactions. Also, Baitinger notes, a number of companies had provided generous financial assistance over the years; it seemed desirable to recognize those contributions and to provide benefits in return. So, in 1981, IAP was established. Now that IAP is winding up its fifth year of operation, Baitinger says that the experiment has been a success. Member companies have come and gone, according to their needs. Currently, eight companies—Dow Chemical, Du Pont, Eastman Kodak, Eli Lilly, Finnigan, IBM, HewlettPackard, and Monsanto Agricultural Products—comprise the active membership. R. Graham Cooks, the Purdue mass spectroscopist who chairs the department's industrial cooperation committee, says IAP
can't properly handle more than a dozen or so companies, but there's still room for a few more. The main goal of the program, Cooks says, is "to enhance our and industry's research capabilities." The emphasis is on establishing parallel academic-industrial relationships similar to the ones that already exist between academic laboratories. "If you're just interested in raising money, this probably isn't the way to go," Baitinger adds. "We want to develop long-term interactions." Baitinger and Cooks stress that the program is intended to be one of mutual benefit. Industry members gain inside knowledge of the people and the work going on at Purdue, as well as "the inside track" in recruiting promising graduate students. Industry scientists benefit from the stimulation of returning to the academic environment. Conversely, Purdue chemists benefit from the contacts established in industry. Graduate students, having the advantage of working closely with industrial scientists, come to appreciate the industry perspective. School and company both benefit from collaborative research on topics of common interest. Member companies pay $25,000 annually to participate in the program. Of that amount, at least $5000 goes to support the chemistry de-
Purdue's Baitinger (left) and Cooks stress mutual benefit of program
