![]() |
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 |
News
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!!