Sioux Valley Section

Welcome to the Sioux Valley Local Section Home Page. Our members come from all over the state of South Dakota and we are one of the 189 Local Sections of the American Chemical Society. ACS Local Sections promote public awareness of chemistry by being involved in community outreach programs and by working with students of chemistry and science. We hope to encourage an interest in the chemical sciences. If you are interested in becoming a member of ACS, please go to http://portal.acs.org/portal/acs/corg/content for more information. If you are already an ACS member and would like to join our Local Section, please call or e-mail me or another officer (see Local Section Officers information below).
Sincerely,
Gary Earl, Ph.D., Chair

Chair - Dr. Gary Earl, Augustana College, Sioux Falls, SD 57197 (605) 274-4811. gary.earl@augie.edu Chair Elect - Dr. Matt Miller, South Dakota State University, Brookings SD, (605) 688-6274. Matt.Miller@sdstate.edu Secretary - Dr. Ranjit T. Koodali, University of South Dakota, Vermillon SD, (605) 677-6189. Ranjit.Koodali@usd.edu Treasurer - Jeff Jung, T&R Services, 705 6th Ave. North, Brookings, SD 57006 (605) 534-3571. jung@mchsi.com Councilor - Dr. Jetty Duffy-Matzner, Augustana College, Sioux Falls, SD 57197 (605) 274-4822. jetty.duffy@augie.edu Local Section Career Coordinator - Dr. David Peitz, Division of Math and Science, Wayne State College, Wayne, NE 68787 (402) 375-7332. dapeitz@wsc.edu

BIG NEWS FOR LOCAL SECTION - The Sioux Valley Section was honored with an ACS Speaker Service Hospitality Award - 2nd place during the National ACS meeting in San Diego. YAHOO!
“This was one of the better visits I have had with respect to enthusiastic effort before the meeting. ... This meeting was good to show locals that chemistry could be interesting to them.” (Host Brian Moore, Augustana College) ---Carleton Moore

Councilor's report from New Orleans National Meeting - please look in link for sectional news for the latest information. The link is located in the button marked sectional news at the bottom of the web page. There is some exciting news about student affiliates becoming student members with full membership priviledges and news about election procedures. If you have any questions please contact our councilor, Jetty Duffy-Matzner.

Dates of interest 2008

September 12th - speaker: Dr. Budal Saha from the USDA - National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research.
Dr. Badal Saha is a Research Chemist and Lead Scientist with the Fermentation Biotechnology Research Unit, National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research, USDA-ARS, Peoria, IL. He conducts basic and applied research on the conversion of agricultural residues to fuel alcohol and value-added fermentation products.
Talks:
Enzymes in Biotechnology: Green Chemistry Challenges
Fuels and Chemicals from Biomass: Challenges and Opportunities ....... Time and Place TBA

September 18th - Undergraduate Research Symposium - Student posters at 4:30 pm in GSC at Augustana College. Dinner to follow at 6 pm and then featured speaker talk at 7 pm. Dr. Jennifer Hooper McCarty is a materials scientist who specializes in the analysis of historic materials. She completed her Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Talk: 7 pm Room 100 Gilbert Science Center Augustana College - based on book “What Really Sank the Titanic” please see http://www.csititanic.com/ for more information.
What follows is the first, hands-on forensic investigation into the details of the collision between the ship (Titanic) and the iceberg, how the ship was damaged, and how she eventually sank.

Oct 17th - speaker: Dr. Wayne E. Jones from the Chemistry Dept - State University of New York at Binghamton
Wayne Jones is Professor of Chemistry, Director of Graduate Studies, and Director of the Center for Learning and Teaching at the State University of New York at Binghamton. He has published over 80 articles and review chapters on his work in the areas of photoinduced electron and energy transfer in macromolecular systems including molecular wires, electrically and thermally conducting nanomaterials, and photoinduced electron transfer dynamics in organic/inorganic hybrid conducting polymer materials.
Talks:
How Small Can You Go? Molecular Wires and Devices in the Modern World.
Molecular Wires as Chemosensors and New Materials for Electronic Packaging ...... Time and Place TBA

Past Meetings and Events

May 2nd - The Sioux Valley Local Section Award Banquet was held at the Westward Ho Country Club in Sioux Falls. We honored many outstanding college students and local section volunteers.

This year's theme for Chemist's Celebrate Earth Day emphasized the importance of local waterways with the water-based theme, “Streaming Chemistry”. Augustana SAACS and Green student groups joined forces to cosponsor a talk by Dr.Jetty Duffy-Matzner and Dr. Gary Earl about the importance of Green Chemistry and Water Useage. Earlier in the day the students cleaned up trash along a bike path by the river, followed by a campus wide dinner.

April 25th - We hosted Dr. Conrad Stanitski for his talk on "Alfred Nobel: The Man and his Chemistry Prizes" at Augustana College. Dr. Stanitski arrived despite a last minute snow storm. Students and community members enjoyed his talk until the snow disrupted the power!

We were fortunate to host Dr. W. H. Jack Breazeale with his delightful account "The H. L. Hunley: Recovery and Preservation" at GSC. There was a dinner before the talk in the GSC pendulum lounge at which the Augustana Student Affiliates presented Dr. Breazaeale with a T-shirt to commerate his stay.

YCC toured the Strawbale Winery in Renner, SD on Saturday, February 9th at noon. Wine tastings were availiable and a great time was had by all.

October 16 at SDSU, Rotunda for Arts and Sciences at 7 p.m. we were delighted to host Stanley Manahan from the University of Missouri-Columbia for his talk "Industrial Ecology, Green Chemistry and the Environmental Chemistry of Hazardous Wastes".

October 23, 1 p.m.- National Chemistry Week - Statewide Chemical Demonstrations!! The theme for NCW was the Many Faces of Chemistry. Governor Mike Rounds Declared that date as South Dakota Celebrate Chemistry Day.

Marv Lang was at SDSU at the Rotunda for Arts and Sciences for his talk on "Elements of Leadership: Chemical Demonstrations with a Theme". Dr. Lang is a Professor Emeritas at the University of WI- Stevens Point and a member of the Sons of Norway.

Sioux Valley Local Section Undergraduate Poster Contest was held on September 15th in Gilbert Science Center at Augustana College. We were pleased to host three speakers as well as student research posters. Our speakers included: Prof. Brian Logue (SDSU), Lotta Breyer (POET Energy) and key note speaker, Dr. Doug Raber (GreenPoint Science). Please see attached html file for details poster contest. The winners of the poster contest were: 1st place Jamie Horter (Augustana College), 2nd place Nick Bleeker (Augustana College) and 3rd place Neil Patel (Augustana College & NASA).