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 San Fran. 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 international year of chemistry, 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

August 6 - Dr. Luis Echegoyen, the current Director of the Chemistry Division at NSF and a candidate for ACS President Elect, will be joining us at the NPURC (Northern Plains Undergraduate Research Center) Symposium on Friday, August 6th at Ponca State Park in Nebraska. The symposium is being jointly sponsored by the Sioux Valley Local Section. Members interested in attending should contact Stanley May.

April 30 - Sioux Valley Local Section Awards Dinner at the Whisk and Chop Cafe in Sioux Falls. 108 S. Minnesota Ave from 6:30-8:30pm. It was a pleasure to pay tribute to our long time ACS members: 60 year service award, Dr. Leo Spinar and 50 year service award, Dr. Aurthur Schultze. We honored our High School Teahers and High School Students that participated in our CCED events (please see below). We also honored a number of graduating undergraduates: Distinguished Senior in Chemistry Awards: Mackenzie Barth (SDSM&T), Ty Clikeman (USD), Adam Dittmer (Augie), Emily Jepsen-Koehler (SDSU), and Michael Todt (Augie). Honorable Mention Distinguished Senior: Blake Alberts (USD), Nick Bleeker (Augie), Jeb List (USD), Neil Patel (Augie), Mark Turner (USD) and John Lee (SDSU). Distinguished Undergraduate in Chemistry Nga Nguyen (WITCC). Please see photos under photo album tab.

April 22 - Chemists Celebrate Earth Day. We had a number of activities which included our GreenFest on April 10th. Many Elementary classes received the flyer on Plants the Green Machines. We are pleased to announce the winners for the 2010 Illustrated Poem Contest for 9-12th grades. Winners received $50 and a Merck Index to teacher. Please see flyer for more information. Click on students' name to see their poems. The winners are: 1st place Sharon Michael (Ms. Laura Mehlbrech, Washington High School), 2nd place Shelby Colburn (Ms. Jennifer Barrett, WHS), and third place Allison Daly (Ms. Laura Mehlbrech, WHS).

March 21 - March 25 - Spring National Meeting in San Francisco

March16 at 6:00 p.m.- Prof. Tracy Hamilton from the University of Alabama, Birmingham, gave a talk entitled "The Chemistry of Coffee". The seminar presented a brief history of coffee, the physical processes from cherry to brewed coffees and expressos. The meeting was hosted at the University of South Dakota, Churchill-Haines Laboratories Room 118.

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).

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