CINTACS Newsletter of the Cincinnati Section of the  American Chemical Society  Vol. 39, No. 7 - April 2002

CINTACS is published nine times a year (September through May) by theCincinnati Section of the American Chemical Society. All changes of addressshould be sent to Emel Yakali at Raymond Walters College, 9555 PlainfieldRoad, Cincinnati, OH 45236, phone 745-5686, FAX 745-5767, or email mc.acs@uc.edu.

SUBMISSION DEADLINES

The submission deadline will be approximately August 1, for the September 2002 issue.  Electronic submission is strongly preferred,except for original photos. All materials should be sent to:

Dr. Bruce Ault
Department of Chemistry
University of Cincinnati
Cincinnati, OH 45221
Phone: 513-556-9238
FAX: 513-556-9239
E-mail: bruce.ault@uc.edu

Congratulations to Susan King of Hamilton High School, to Don Gloeckner, Talawanda School District, and Doris Parsenios of the Seven Hills Doherty School on their Chemistry and Science Teaching awards!  From inspiration provided by teachers of this caliber, we obtain the future chemists, chemical engineers, and scientists of the United States!  And, congratulations to all the students, teachers and parents of the winners of the Oesper competition and Chemistry Olympiad (The winners of these awards are not revealed until the April meeting).  Finally, last but far from least, congratulations to NCW Elementary School contest winners Melissa Gross, Sara Smith, Denisha Mitchell, Ameera Perkins, and Joy Cordell, their teachers and parents.  Be sure to welcome these folks at the meeting.

Kudos to Tim Cassady and the awards committee for selection of the teaching awards, to John Williams for the Chemistry Olympiad & Oesper Award testing, and to Richard Sunberg for the Elementary Contest work.   Judging entries, giving tests, assessing qualifications is one of the “behind the scenes” tasks which is often overlooked.  (If you’d like to help with any of these endeavors, please contact these people.  I’m sure they will welcome you with open arms.)

Our speaker this month is John Fortman, from Wright State University.  He has been giving lectures on the ACS speakers bureau for many years, and comes with high recommendations.  His topic is very appropriate to the current NCW theme of “The Chemistry of Color.”

If you’re particularly observant, you may notice that this meeting has been moved from its original date.  We reserved a Wednesday, more typical for an ACS meeting, but the paperwork fell through the cracks and we wound up on the short end of the stick.  Thanks to some fleet footed negotiations by Jim Hershberger, we were able to obtain the excellent accommodations at Miami University on Monday, April 15.  As a result we’ll be celebrating “Tax Day” as well as our more typical K-12 Student and Teacher’s appreciation night.

Mark your calendar for the May “party night” May 15 at Vinoklet Winery.  This promises to be a gala event, with wine tasting, a tour of the winery and vineyard, good food, and a discussion of wine making by a world-class connoisseur of wine.

See you at the meeting!

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Featured Speaker

Professor John Fortman, Wright State University
"The Science of the Arts"

Chemical demonstrations will be used to relate chemistry and physics to the fine arts.  Areas illustrated will include: color in pigments for painting and light for stages; stone and metals for sculpturing and architecture; transmission of sound through air for music; and science in literature, theater, movies, and television.  The results of adding pigments, colored lights, or colored filters will be contrasted.  The need for a light component of the same color as the pigment in order for our eyes to sense a given color will be demonatrated.  Rapid motion of images and/or colors will be done which result in summation effects in our eyes.  These phemonena will be related to stage lighting and television picture tubes.  Sound will be shown to depend on (1) a wave disturbance, (2) the density of the media, (3) the pathway of the gas motion, and (4) the structure of the material in the instruments.
 

About the Speaker

John Fortman is Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at Wright State University where he retired in 2001 after 36 years of teaching freshman and inorganic chemistry.  In 1998 he was appointed the Robert J. Kegerreis Distinguished Professor of Teaching and won seven different teaching awards over the years at Wright State.  In 1998 he received the CMA Catalyst Award for Outstanding Teaching of College Chemistry.  Dr. Fortman received his B.S. from the University of Dayton in 1961 and his Ph.D. in physical inorganic chemistry from the University of Notre Dame in 1965.  He has published over 50 papers in chemical education in addition to his research publications.  With Rubin Battino he has produced three sets of videotapes which contain over ten hours of chemical demonstrations for use at middle school through college levels.  For over 25 years he has done chem demo outreach shows for middle and high school students in the Dayton area and continues to inspire and fascinate over 7500 students each year with at least 15 shows.

He has done workshops on teaching and demonstrations around the country.  He has designed alternative courses for general chemistry, elementary chemistry and chemistry for elementary education majors.  His course for non-science students was cited as a model in the 1990 AAAS report on "The Liberal Art of Science: Agenda for Action".  The alternative general chemistry course was developed while he was a member of the General Chemistry Task Force of the ACS Division of Chemical Education  and starts with organic and biochemistry moving through materials and finishing with energy while empathizing applications and bringing in only those principles that are needed as they are necessary.  The course has been characterized as being taught inside-out, upside-down, and backwards.  His interests in addition to demonstrations and course content and organization include the use of analogies and videotaped material.

John has been an ACS member since 1962 and is currently Councilor for the Dayton section and member of the Committee on Constitution & Bylaws after serving for five years on the Local Section Activities Committee.  As an ACS Tour Speaker he has given over 200 talks over the past ten years,  visiting  150 of the 189 different local sections  and doing each of the 28 speaking tours at least once.  He has presented in 49 of the 50 states.

Program
 

5:30 p.m.	Organic Discussion Group, “Synthesis of Flavanoid Analogs, Structure and Function”  Rasim Tanbug, PMC Specialty Chemicals (Bystrom Room)
5:30 p.m.	Board of Directors Meeting (Whitelaw Reid)
6:00 p.m.	Registration, Reception (soft drinks, hors d'ouvres) (Heritage Room)
7:00 p.m.	Banquet:  Buffet of Carved Roast Beef, Chicken Parmagiana, Pasta w/Choice of Sauce, Whole Kernel Corn, Fresh Broccoli w/Baby Carrots, Sherried Mushrooms, Twice Baked Potato, Tossed Salad, Fruited Cranberry Salad, Assorted Pies, and New York Style Cheese  cake.  Choice of Coffee, Tea, or wine, served at the table. $18.00 (Retirees, students, K-12 Teachers, first time non-member attendees ½ price.  Award winners, their parents, and teachers complimentary.) (Heritage Room)
8:00 p.m.	John Fortman, Wright State University, Guest Speaker "The Science of the Arts"

Reservations: Send your reservations to Robbin Rolfes <rolfes.rl@pg.com>, or if you have difficulty remembering this address, send to <cinacs@greeb.net>. If absolutely impossible to make reservations via the Internet, telephone 513-385-8363. Deadline for reservations is noon Wednesday, April 10, 2002. (It will save a lot of trouble if you use e-mail, but we don't want to discourage those who like the "olde fashioned" means of making reservations). Include your choice of entrée, your name, affiliation, and state if you're in one of the complimentary or 1/2-price categories.  As a reminder, if you decide you must miss a meeting after you have made reservations, please e-mail or call to cancel. If you do not cancel, the Section will have to charge you because it will have been charged by the Shriver Center.

Directions: From Cincinnati take US27 north to Oxford (distance: 25 miles from the US 27 exit on I-275). Turn left at Spring Street (the first light in Oxford). The Shriver Center is on the southwest corner of US27 and Spring Street. Parking is available behind the Shriver Center. Additional parking space is available at Cook Field (50 yards north of Spring of US 27, on the right).

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About the Speaker

Rasim Tanbug obtained both the Bachelors and Masters degrees in Organic Chemistry from Bogazici University in Istanbul, Turkey.  Rasim came to the United States in 1991 and entered graduate study in Physical Chemistry at Michigan Technical University in Houghten, Michigan.  In addition to studying physical chemistry, Rasim undertook synthetic and modeling research at Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Inc., and the Dow Chemical Company.  After receiving a MS degree in Physical Chemistry, Rasim moved to PMC Specialty Chemicals in Cincinnati, working in custom contract synthesis for a variety of companies.
 
 

The awards committee is pleased to announce that Ms. Susan King has been selected as the ACS Cincinnati Section’s High School Chemistry Teacher of the Year 2002.  Ms. King has been teaching Chemistry I, Chemistry I PAP and Chemistry II AP at Hamilton High School.  Susan has been teaching Chemistry and Biology for over twenty-one years.  She received her B.S. in Chemistry from West Virginia University and her M.Ed. from Miami University.  Susan became a teacher because she enjoys the teaching process and interacting with teenagers.  She has participated as an instructor at Summer Science Camps held at Miami University.  She has continued to strengthen her teaching skills by attending many Chemical Education Workshops and Conferences.  She interacted with industrial chemists as a participant in the Partners for Terrific Science Program at Miami University.  Susan is recognized as an outstanding chemistry teacher and role model for her students.

Mr. Don Gloeckner, Talawanda School District, Oxford, Ohio has been recognized by the Cincinnati Section of the American Chemical Society as the Middle School Teacher of the Year.  Among his many contributions to the advancement of education Mr. Gloeckner was instrumental in bringing the Investigations Math Program to the Talawanda School District. This discovery approach to math provides students an excellent additional pathway to develop the analytical and deductive reasoning skills needed to lay the foundation for success in both higher math and the sciences.  Don’s approach is to establish the mindset among his students to solve problems by reviewing data rather than by rote memorization.

Don’s success with his students has led to his recent selection as the District’s Math Instructional Teacher Leader.  In this role Don is able to share his teaching skills with other math teachers.

Don Gloeckner is recognized as an excellent role model, educator, child advocate, and overall as an exceptional community minded person.

Ms. Doris Parsenios has been selected as the ACS Cincinnati Section Elementary School Science Educator of the Year 2002.  Ms. Parsenios has been a third through fifth grade homeroom and science teacher at the Seven Hills Doherty School for 21 years.  She has taught all of the fourth grade science classes at the Seven Hills Doherty School for the past twelve years.  She received her B.S. in Education from Kent State University.  Among her many accomplishments, Doris was named the Frederick J. Hauck Chair for Science and Math in 2000 at Seven Hills School.  She was nominated for an Ashland Award, a Shell Oil Award, and a President’s Award for Excellence.  She has also received a Jennings Grant for Community Outreach with Science.  She has taken fourth and fifth grade students to Space Camp.  Doris Parsenios is recognized for her enthusiasm for science education and for being an inspiration for her students.

The Trustees have met several times over the past few months to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of incorporation of the local section. Many local sections of the ACS have taken this route (including our neighbors to the north the Columbus section) because there are some distinct advantages for the section and its members. Below I have listed advantages and disadvantages for incorporation of the section. It is the recommendation of the Trustees that the membership approve incorporation.

The basic purpose of incorporation of the section is to establish the section as a nonprofit entity under the 501c3 of the Internal Revenue Code. We have to register with the Secretary of State and continue registration every 5 years. There is a $25 filing fee every 5 years. The initial cost to the section for filing for incorporation is $125.

ADVANTAGES

1. Continuity and Permanence:  Where funds and other properties have accumulated and where there is a continuous turnover of personnel, consideration should be given to a corporate form because it supplies a more formal continuity of management than does an unincorporated association. A corporation assures a continuity of existence and a permanence not usually found in unincorporated groups.

2. Limited Individual Member Liability: Nonprofit groups are subject to lawsuits where the rights of third parties are violated. This liability extends to individual members of unincorporated groups, but individuals ordinarily are not liable for corporate defaults and liabilities. For example, if an unincorporated section publishes a newsletter, magazine or even a pamphlet, individual members may be sued for libel. Contracts and agreements to which an unincorporated section is a party may result in individual liability. This would be important when we host the regional and other scientific meetings. Members or guests attending section meetings may be injured, for instance, at a chemical experiment demonstration, and bring suit against individual members of unincorporated sections. National Chemistry Week demonstrations come to mind with this one.

3. Tax Liability: An incorporated association’s liability for federal or state income tax is usually limited to corporate assets. In contrast, the members of an unincorporated association could be personally responsible for income taxes. If the unincorporated association had no assets that the taxing authority could attach, the taxing authority could attach the member’s assets to obtain payment.

4. Insurance: Insurance to cover contingent liabilities is much more readily available to corporate than to unincorporated groups.

DISADVANTAGES

1. Initial Expenses: Normally there are several hundred dollars worth of expenses, primarily in the form of attorney’s fees, for filling articles of incorporation with the state (beyond the state fee). However, I think we should be able to minimize these fees if we can solicit an attorney who may already be a member of the section or one who is acquainted with one who is willing to help us out at minimal cost. I know of an attorney who is an adjunct at the College of Pharmacy whom I am willing to contact to see if we could get a break.

2. Annual Expenses and Obligations: Annual expenses and obligations will include filing certain forms with the state, a yearly financial report, keeping membership records, keeping books and records of accounts and minutes of proceedings, holding an annual business meeting, having periodic executive (i.e. Board) meetings, bonding of the Office of the Treasurer and one other executive office, etc. Most of these items are already been done within our section or can be done with little change in our structure.
 

CONCLUSION

Incorporation of the Cincinnati Section of the American Chemical Society appears to be a sound business decision. The chair of the Columbus section has told me that the amount of expenses and changes in the in their organizational structure and additional paperwork involved were minimal. When one compares these expenses with potential costs and entanglements that would result if there were a lawsuit involving officers and members of the unincorporated section, the additional work seems to be worth it. Incorporation would limit liability to the corporation and thus protect individual officers and members. As the section increases its activities, short courses, National Chemistry Week, Project SEED, etc., the probability of legal disagreements increases also. Many local sections of the ACS have already incorporated and the Trustees of the Cincinnati Section recommend the membership vote for this action.

"GET COOKING WITH CHEMISTRY?" A contest for elementary school children in the Cincinnati tri-state area (Southwest Ohio, Northern Kentucky, and Southeastern Indiana) was held again this year.  Over 800 contest kits were distributed to elementary schools, scout troops and anywhere that children can come into contact with the concept that “Chemistry is Fun”!   The contest kits contained a letter to the educators, a copy of the rules, and the ACS publication “Get Cooking with Chemistry”.  The contest, asked students 12 years of age and under to perform an experiment or experiments outlined in the “Get Cooking With Chemistry” publication, and to then write their observations and hypothesis of what happened.  Five students were selected as winners along with their teachers.

The fact that so many individual students and teachers find time to include our contest in their busy schedule tells us how important the opportunity to be involved in this contest tradition is to them. Many teachers incorporate the contest into their lesson plans.  At one of our recent special Teacher’s Award Night Dinner Meetings the principal of one of our contest winning schools praised the Cincinnati Section of the ACS, for our long and sustained effort to value our local educators with our NCW programs and our teacher of the Year Awards for science teachers at the elementary, middle and high school levels. He acknowledged the Cincinnati ACS Section as one of the few local organizations that consistently support local teachers and education.  We continue that tradition as we prepare to honor our elementary school contest winners again this year.  They are:
 
 

Winners	School	Teacher	Location
Melissa Gross	Taylor Mill	Mrs. Muzny & Mrs. Murray	Covington, KY
Sara Smith	Our Lady of  Visitation	Mrs. Goetz	Cincinnati, OH
Denisha Mitchell	Hays-Porter Elementary	Mrs. Stargel-Hardin	Cincinnati, OH
Ameera Perkins	Kilgour Elementary	Mr. Keller & Mr. Wells	Cincinnati, OH
Joy Cordell	Indian Hill Elementary	Mrs. Stidham	Cincinnati, OH

These five student winners, their parents, and teachers are invited to a Special Awards Dinner as guests of the Cincinnati Section of the American Chemical Society.  The Awards Dinner will be held at the Society’s Monthly Dinner meeting on Monday April 15th, 2002 at Miami University’s Shriver Center in Oxford, Ohio.  Others, Grandparents, siblings, School Principals etc. are welcome to attend but they will need to pay for their own dinners which will be about but no more than $20 each and will need to pay at the registration desk.  Guests of the ACS will need to check in at the registration desk to pick up nametags.  Please see page 3 for directions to Miami University’s Shriver Center.  Please join us in honoring these winners, their teachers and their schools.

Before this school year ends it is time to plan next year’s four meetings of the chemical educators’ discussion group. Linda Ford needs two things from the area teachers: meeting sites/ hosts and program ideas. Here are some programming ideas to stimulate some thinking.

(1) Demo Derby in early October that focuses on holiday ideas such as Halloween
(2) AP Chemistry Night: Favorite labs, demos, teaching strategies
(3) Make and Take Night that includes piezo crystal launcher and/or conductivity apparatus
(4) Small scale lab experiment share session
(5)  Building a Chemistry Library (sharing favorite titles)
(6) Classroom Projects

To express a “YES! I’d love to host” and/or a “Here’s a wonderful program idea!” e-mail Linda at lkford@fuse.net. Your input will make the group more viable.
 
 

The Younger Chemists Committee is hosting a tour of the downtown Cincinnati Public Library on Wednesday April 10 from 6-7PM.  The library is located at 800 Vine St.  We will be meeting in the Journals department (enter the library on 9th street, take the elevator to the 2nd floor).  We will learn about the vast resources available at the library and the online searching capabilities.  All ACS members and interested guests are welcome to attend.  If you have never been to the main public library, please join us for this interesting event.  The number of books and journals specific to chemistry that are available to us will amaze you.  For more information about this event, please contact Ron Horwitz at 699-5877.

The Cincinnati Section lost a good friend and fellow scientist when Dr. Alton J. Mabis died on February 10, 2002, at age 81.  Al Mabis was born in Allen County, Indiana and  raised on a farm near Payne, Ohio.  Here he learned the value of hard work and gained an innate love of the land and learned about trees, birds, crops, and animals. Here also he developed an uncanny ability to understand the workings and repairs of everything mechanical, which served him well in his career and in his life.  Dr. Mabis obtained his Bachelor’s degree from Capital University (1942) and his PhD (1947) in Physical Chemistry, with a specialty in X-Ray Crystallography, from Ohio State.  He worked on uranium isotope separation for the Manhattan Project (the Federal government’s crash program to develop the atomic bomb) for two years before joining Procter & Gamble in 1947.

For the next 20 years, he applied his special skills to the solution of important problems encountered as P&G moved into new areas of business based on technologies that lacked full scientific understanding. He solved some important polyphosphate problems relating to crystal hydration and the reaction of polyphosphates with water to produce pyro- and ortho phosphates.  Without this knowledge, polyphosphates could not have been used in new synthetic detergents like TIDE. Working with Ed Lutton, Al also characterized the phases encountered in triglyceride shortenings that led to acceptable stability, ahead of competition. He determined the first single crystal structure of a triglyceride, beta-tricaprin.

In the 70’s, he tackled the chick edema problem. P&G and others were selling large quantities of fat as chicken feed, and thousands of chicks consuming this fat were dying. The culprit turned out to be a miniscule amount of a tetrachloro dioxin coming from the lubricating grease in the manufacturing operation. Dr. Mabis, with Joe Cantrell and Ned Webb, isolated enough of this edema factor to do a single crystal analysis that led to the correct identification of the problem molecule. This, in turn, led to the source identification and a solution to a problem that had threatened the entire commercial chicken farm industry.  Mabis and co-workers Cantrell and Webb appeared on the cover of C&ENews and had the lead article on the solution to this vexing problem.

In 1962 he published a classic paper entitled “Structure of Mesomorphic Phases”.  He was also co-editor (with Glen Brown) of an important book series entitled “Advances in Liquid Crystals”.  In 1966, Mabis was sent to the National Bureau of Standards to learn specific new techniques in X-Ray Crystallography to keep the Company at the forefront of this powerful tool.  For over 6 months, he was a week-end commuter between Cincinnati and Washington, DC. There he worked on the growth of high purity crystals from low temperature melts.  The crystallographic program at the University of Washington owes much of its early and continuing success to collaborations between Professor Lyle Jensen and Al Mabis.

In 1970, Dr. Mabis switched careers and became the first full-time manager of PhD recruiting for the Company.  In this role over the next 10 years, he managed the hiring of hundreds of chemists and life scientists.  Many of these are now in upper management positions in R&D.  Importantly,  he established a system and set of principles that would become the foundation for successful recruiting into the future.

Health problems between 1978 and 1980 forced Dr. Mabis to retire in 1980 with 33 years of service.  He received recognition from the National and Local ACS for 50 years of continuous membership, in 1997.  On the occasion of the Mabis’s 50th wedding anniversary in 1993, their two children, Bruce and Barbara, and their families, established an Endowed Scholarship Fund at Capital for science and math majors, to honor the parents/grandparents.

We will miss Al Mabis as a friendly, smiling, and helpful human being and fellow scientist.

Ted J. Logan, Councilor
Cincinnati Section, ACS

A   new   book  titled  Analytical  Mass  Spectrometry:  Strategies  for Environmental  and Related Applications and authored by William L. Budde of  EPA's  Office  of  Research  and  Development was co published by the American Chemical Society (ACS) and Oxford University Press in 2001. The purpose of this book is to describe and explain those mass spectrometric and  closely  related analytical strategies and techniques that are most important and useful for the separation, identification, and measurement of organic and inorganic compounds and ions in environmental and related media. The author does not receive royalties from sales of the book, but some  of  the  proceeds may benefit the not-for-profit activities of the ACS.    Although it is listed on amazon.com, a 25% discount is available to  ACS  members  who  purchase it directly from Oxford University Press (Oxford University Press 800-451-7556 or www.oup-usa.org/j778/isbn/084123664X.html.     Alternatively,    go   to http://www.oup-usa.org/acs/ then click on analytical chemistry and do an author search).

Master the fundamentals of laboratory data treatment.  This widely acclaimed 2-day ACS course is being offered at a substantial discount to what you would pay at Pittcon or ACS National Meeting (compare to $995/$1095).

Fees (includes 2-day course, all materials, lunches, refreshment breaks)
ACS Members: $650 Non-members:  $750

Register Early!!  Course seating is limited to the first 35 people. You may register by e-mail to white.dr.2@pg.com or by telephone (513) 634-5500.  Please indicate your name, Company name, telephone no. and whether you are an ACS member or non-member. Please notify us of any need to cancel by Fri., March 22.

All registrations must be prepaid by check or money order and made payable to Cincinnati Section-ACS  (Sorry, purchase orders and credit cards cannot be accepted). Payment deadline is Tuesday, April 9.  Please send your check or money order to the attention of:

Michael Clager
The Procter & Gamble Company,  Box 507
5299 Spring Grove Ave.,   Cincinnati, OH 45217

Program Agenda
Check-in will begin at 8:10 a.m. the first day.  The course will be taught from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. each day.  If you have technical questions about the course content, please contact Dr. Deming at (713) 947-1551 or at stan@statisticaldesigns.com.

Who Should Attend
Scientists, engineers, technicians, laboratory managers, R&D managers, manufacturing and production managers, and others who need to understand traditional and modern methods of data analysis.  This course assumes no previous knowledge of statistics and is aimed at both beginning and experienced workers.  Each participant should bring a hand-held calculator.

Key Topics You'll Learn About
* How to understand the strengths and weaknesses of data
* Ways to carry out significance tests
* Ways of defining the limits of detection, determination, and quantification
* How to know what statistical test to use when
* How to understand the influence of sample size on statistical significance and power
* Why pooling variances gives stability to analytical results
* How to correctly use outlier tests and when not to use them
* How to design calibration experiments and judge the adequacy of calibration results
* How to set in-house specifications
* How to apply statistical process control charts and measurement processes

About the Instructors
Stanley N. Deming is Professor Emeritus of Analytical Chemistry at the University of Houston and the President of Statistical Designs. Stephen L. Morgan is Professor of Analytical Chemistry at the University of South Carolina. Together they have taught more than 400 highly-rated short courses in experimental design, optimization, statistical methods of data treatment, and analytical chemical methods development.

Formatted and uploaded April 4, 2002, by acs@www.che.uc.edu