Sioux Valley Section

Welcome to the Sioux Valley Local Section Home Page. We are one of the 189 Local Sections of the American Chemical Society and our members come from all over the state of South Dakota. 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://www.acs.org 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,
Stanley May, Ph.D., Chair

Chair - Dr. Stanley May, University of South Dakota, Vermillion SD, (605)677-3141. smay@usd.edu Chair Elect - Dr. Haoran Sun, University of South Dakota, Vermillion SD, (605)677-5487. Haoran.Sun@usd.edu Past Chair- 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 YCC Chair - Ms. Melissa Reis, POET Energy, Sioux Falls SD, reis.melissa@gmail.com

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 Washington DC 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 news about materials avialable for unemployed chemists and the upcoming ACS elections. If you have any questions please contact our councilor and webmaster, Jetty Duffy-Matzner.

Dates of interest 2009/2010

March - Tracy Hamilton, (tentatively on March 15-19 - will be hosted at the University of South Dakota)

November 10 - Dr. Ramon M. Barnes, Professor Emeritus from the University of Massachusetts and currently the director of University Research Institute for Analytical Chemistry gave a seminar at Augustana College at 6:30 pm in room 241. His seminar was titled "Environmental Forensics and Analytical Atomic Spectrochemistry". 

October 19-23 was National Chemistry Week our section celebrated late due to the Midwest Regional meeting in Iowa City. Some of the events included demos and lectures at Agustana College on Science Day, October 30. We also ran a High School Poster Contest. First place winner was Claire DeMilia (12th grade, Washington High School, Ms. Laura Mehlbrech teacher). Her poster was sent on to ACS national to participate in the national contest. Second place winner was Hooria Aman and third place winner was Daphnide Bartscher. All three winners will receive a Merck Index and a certificate from the local section. Ms. Laura Mehlbrech (High School teacher at Washington High School) is also worthy of special recognition as she was the mentor for all three winning posters! Ms. Mehlbrech will also recieve a Merck Index.

October 16 - Dr. Michael Tunick (USDA) "The Chemistry of Cheese" Abstract: Coagulation of milk, removal of whey, and ripening are all required when making cheese, and chemistry is involved every step of the way. This non-technical talk describes the procedure from raw milk to final product, and illustrates the differences between cheese types, including the development of the many flavors in cheese.
Where: South Dakota State University, Room 104 of the SD Art Museum
When: Friday, October 16 at noon

September 19 - Sioux Valley Local Section Undergraduate Poster Contest. A day event (10 am - 4 pm) was hosted by Past Chair Matt Miller at Augustana College with three speakers: Dr. Adam Hope (SDSU), Dr. Stanley May (USD) and Dr. Judith Giordan (Visions in Education Inc.). 22 undergraduates from 4 schools (Augie, SDSU, USD, USF) participated in the contest. The winners of the contest recieve funds to travel to the Midwest Regional Meeting (2 & 3rd) and the National Meeting (1 place). 1st place Connor Lamberson (Augie), 2nd place Nick Bleeker (Augie) and 3rd place - Shannon Cumiskey (Augie).

May 1- Awards and Volunteer Celebration Dinner - 6:30 p.m. at Westward Ho Country Club in Sioux Falls. We honored several volunteers, our outstanding undergraduate seniors and Milton Hanson for 50 years of service.

Chemist's Celebrate Earth Day -Speaker Dr. Douglas Raynie from SDSU presented at 7 pm on Earth Day in GSC rm 241. His talk was titled "There is no such thing as Green, How Then Shall We Live?" There were also Earth Day events during the afternoon as well sponsored by Augustana Green and the Student Affiliates of ACS at Augustana.

Haiku Contest winners - 9-12th grade. First place to Caitlyn Skorczewski at Washington High School, teacher - Ms. Laura Mehlbrech. Second place to Maria Niechwiadowicz at Washington High School, teacher Mrs. Jennifer Barrett. Both the students and teachers received organic,100% cotton Chemist's Celebrate Earth Day T-shirts.

Caitlyn (left) Maria (right)

March 16th - YCC hosted Dr. Robert Bates from the University of Florida for "Chemistry and Alchemy of Brewing". This was held at the party room at Monk's House of Ale Repute in downtown Sioux Falls, http://www.monkshouseofalerepute.com This has been voted on of the best places to drink qualities beers in America by Imbibe Magazine. A wonderful time was had by all!

March 18th - The Augustana Fine Arts Department and the Sioux Valley Local Section were pleased to announce that Dr. Joseph Nagyvary from Texas A&M University gave a talk titled "Raiders of the Lost Secret. Modern Science and the Holy Graid of the Stradivarius". This was held at the Augustana Campus at 7 pm in rm 241 in Gilbert Science Center.

February 13th - We were delighted to host Sister Mary Virginia Orna from the Dept. of Chemistry at New Rochelle New York for her talk: Doing Chemistry at the Art/Archaeology Interface. The talk was given from 4-5 at the Gilbert Science Center at Augustana College in room 241. Members and Sister Orna enjoyed a delightful dinner afterwards at Tre Lounge. We are very excited to congratulate Sister Orna on her recent selection as Award for Volunteer Service to the American Chemical Society as listed in the Feb. 16th edition of C&EN. Congruatulations!!