American Chemical Society

Women Chemists Committee NEWSLETTER Spring 2015

Leaders in Attracting, Developing, Promoting, and Advocating for Women in the Chemical Sciences

Women Chemists Committee • wcc@acs.org • http://womenchemists.sites.acs.org/ American Chemical Society, 1155 16th Street, NW, Washington, DC, 20036

Hello and welcome to another edition of the Women Chemists Committee (WCC) newsletter. As the Chair, I am very excited to share with you what we are up to.

This year, the Women Chemists Committee (WCC) is excited to announce a continued effort to promote the retention of women in the chemical enterprise. We have selected ten (10) early to mid-career women chemists as recipients of the 4th annual WCC Rising Star Award. At the Spring National Meeting in Denver, there will be a full-day symposium on Monday, March 23rd, highlighting the accomplishments of the excep- tional 2015 Rising Star Award Winners. Following the symposium, the WCC will host a reception to honor the awardees at “Just Cocktails,” an informal network- ing event allowing individuals the opportunity to

interact, inspire and bond. Earlier that day, we will host the Women in the Chemical Enter-prise Breakfast. The breakfast will feature a networking session with peers and mentors. This will be a great opportunity to connect with and meet many women chemists.

On Tuesday, March 24th, at the WCC Luncheon, the WCC will honor the recipient of the 2015 Francis P. Garvan-John M. Olin Medal, Dr. Angela K. Wilson Regents Professor, Assistant Chair, and Graduate Advisor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of North Texas. Furthermore, the WCC will recognize the recipients of the 2015 Spring WCC-Eli Lilly Travel Award during a poster session prior to the luncheon. The other WCC-sponsored symposium will be held on both Monday and Tuesday mornings, to celebrate the contributions of E. Ann Nalley, who is being honored with the 2015 ACS Award for Encouraging Women into Ca-reers in the Chemical Sciences.

We are also co-sponsoring, with the Division of Professional Relations (PROF), a session in Denver entitled Earning ACS Awards: An Interactive Symposium on Constructing Successful Award Nominations. The goal of this session on Sunday afternoon is to help increase the quantity and quality of award nominations. Moving forward, the WCC continues to be involved in promoting programming, events and initiatives that focus around the “How to” for National Awards Nominations, in an effort to increase the number of women being nomi-nated and therefore potentially winning National Technical Awards.

Looking forward, the WCC and some of its members are involved as contributing authors and editors for the second edition of a book being published by Springer. This book will offer insight and inspiration to young women considering undertaking the combination of professor-hood and mother-hood. We are expecting to have a diverse and inclusive collection of success stories in the next edition of, “Mom the Chemistry Professor.”

Amber Charlebois 2015 WCC Chair

Chair’s Message

Meeting Highlights—Fall 2014 2

Denver WCC Roadmap 3

2014 WCC Rising Stars 7

2014 Cope Scholar 9

Successful Women in Chemistry Series

10

Nominating an ACS Award Winner 13

Women Scientists and Nobel Prize 14

Denver Women of the Chemical Enterprise Breakfast

14

2015 WCC Rising Star Announcements

15

Networking 15

2015 PSWCR Retreat 16

WCC Leadership 16

Inside this issue

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Meeting Highlights—Fall 2014

“Women Leaders of the Global Chemistry Enterprise featured WCC Symposium at the 248th National ACS Meeting in San Francisco” By: Marinda Li Wu and Kimberly Woznack

On Tuesday, August 12th, WCC had the great honor of sponsoring the symposium “Women Leaders of the Global Chemistry Enterprise” organized by 2013 ACS President Marinda Li Wu. This full day symposium fea-tured sixteen highly accomplished women chemists from around the world. The speakers shared their in-spiring personal stories of challenges faced and success achieved in chemistry careers. In addition to their own stories, many speakers also shared statistics regarding the current status of women chemists in their own coun-try. Most of the presentations are available through the ACS: Presentations on Demand resource. http://presentations.acs.org/common/default.aspx

Symposium speakers, Women Leaders of the Global Chemistry Enterprise, 247th ACS National Meeting, San Francisco, August 2014. From left to right: Samira Ibrahim Islam, Noemi Walsoe de Reca, Kazue Kurihara, Mannepalli Lakshmi Kantam, Mamia El Rhazi, Vanderlan da Silva Bolzani, Lydia Galagovsky, Marinda Li Wu, Barbara Loeb, Supawan Tantatayanon, Bice Martincigh, Zafra Lerman, Darleane Hoffman, Hui Cai, Kimberly Woznack The Photo credit is: Mr. Norm Wu

Distinguished Speakers:

Prof. E. Ann Nalley from Cameron University in Lawton, Oklahoma and the 2006 President of the American Chemical Society shared “The Magnificent Journey”. Ann began with a tale of her start as an early entrepre-neur in Oklahoma and shared with us many milestones and “firsts” she achieved throughout her career as a fac-ulty member passionate about sharing her love of chem-istry with others.

Prof. Kazue Kurihara from Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan shared “Current Status of Women Scientists in Ja-

pan.” While Kazue reported that in a recent study only 13.6% of researchers are female in Japan, she also shared many of the programs sponsored by the Japa-nese government to specifically increase the number of female research scientists. She shared her remarkable pathway gaining experience in new areas of research around the world before returning to Japan .

Prof. Bice Martincigh from University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa shared “Experiences of a Female Chemist in Durban, South Africa.” Bice shared the story of her fami-ly’s emigration from Italy to South Africa and some of the projects she’s worked on in the past and at present. Starting as a top student when in high school, she went on to earn honors in teaching and research with her stu-dents from Africa.

Dr. Noemí Walsöe de Reca from the Argentine Chemical Association and UNIDEF(MINDEF-CONICET) shared “Peace and Satisfaction at the End of a Long Way of Work, Obstacles, Efforts and Challenges.” Noemi de-scribed her successes and awards received for many of her research projects in Materials Science in both Eu-rope and Argentina, along with the successes of her hus-band, children and grandchildren.

Dr. Zafra Lerman from the Malta Conferences Founda-tion shared “From Building Roads to Building Peace: A Woman Chemist’s Odyssey.” Zafra’s impressive story began with her public service helping to build roads while in the Israeli army. She also described her many efforts working in human rights for scientists jailed around the world due to politics.

Dr. Madeleine Jacobs, Executive Director and ACS CEO, shared “Ten Lessons from A Lifetime of Science.” Made-leine shared the story of the evolution of her career from her first job at Chemical & Engineering News to her role as the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the American Chemical Society. She succinctly articulat-ed lessons learned along her journey.

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Meeting Highlights—Fall 2014 Continued

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Dr. Mannepalli Lakshmi Kantam from the CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), India shared “Challenges and Opportunities in Indian Science: My ex-periences.” Lakshmi was inspired by her family and many mentors to succeed. She shared her personal ca-reer path and successes in the field of Greener Catalysis. Today she is the first woman director of a prestigious Indian Institute of Chemical Technology in Hyderabad, India.

Dr. Hui Cai from WuXi AppTec shared “Embracing Change, Embracing Your Power Within.” Hui spoke of her experience as a chemist and as a volunteer with the ACS. She also spoke about the importance of openness for the future of therapeutic discoveries.

Supawan Tantatayanon from Chulalongkorn Universi-ty, Thailand shared “Achieving Work-Family Harmony.” Supawan described her travels around the world to lead workshops on Organic Microscale/Small scale, as well as her role in international organizations and her family as a daughter, sister and mother.

Dr. Samira Ibrahim Islam from King Abdulaziz Universi-ty and King Fahd Medical Research Centre, Saudi Arabia shared “Glimpse of my scientific path: The quests contin-ue.” Samira’s father inspired her to success as the first Saudi woman to earn a Ph.D. Samira shared highlights of her career in pharmacology including her current role as the Director of the Drug Monitoring Unit at King Ab-dulaziz University.

Prof. Mama El Rhazi from University of Hassan II shared “My experience being a Woman and a Professor of Chemistry in Morocco.” Mama recounted her person-al career journey in both Paris and Morocco, and includ-ed highlights of her research in nano-filtration mem-branes for sensing of metals, such as lead and cadmium .

Prof. Vanderlan da Silva Bolzani from Sao Paulo State University, Brazil shared “Two decades of research on

Natural Products Chemistry from Brazilian Biodiversity: Inspirations and Motivations.” Vanderlan spoke of the statistics of female representation among researchers in Brazil as well as highlights of her research career in the natural products of Brazilian biodiversity.

Prof. Barbara Loeb from Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile (UC) shared “Academic and Personal Evolution through Thirty Eight Years: Two Parallel Tracks?”. Bar-bara spoke very frankly about the challenges of balanc-ing personal/family life with an academic career. She shared her inspiring story as well as statistics about women at UC.

Dr. Darleane Hoffman from Lawrence Berkeley Nation-al Laboratory (LBNL) shared “A Retrospective View of my 70 Years in Chemistry.” As a prominent figure in nuclear chemistry and only the second woman to ever win the highest ACS honor of the Priestley Medal, Darleane shared some highlights of her career at Los Alamos Na-tional Lab, LBNL, Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore as the co-Founder of the Seaborg Institute for Transactini-um Science.

Prof. Lydia Galagovsky from the Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina shared “Portrait of a Professional Life: Work, Challenges, and Satisfaction, All Achieved in Small Steps.” Lydia retold the story of her personal journey and professional career overlaid with the evolution of the Argentinian government. She included details on her work as an author, as well as her service to the Ar-gentine Chemical Society.

Dr. Marinda Li Wu, 2013 President of the American Chemical Society shared “Partners for Progress and Prosperity: A Personal & Professional Journey.” Marinda shared with us the growth of her chemistry career and her evolving leadership in the ACS as well as her passion for chemistry outreach, her ACS Presidential mission and vision for Partners in Progress and Prosperity.

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Continued from Page 4 The full day symposium was very well attended and pro-vided much inspiration for all. All the speakers have been invited to contribute a chapter based on their presentation for a book entitled “Jobs, Innovation, and Women Leaders of the Global Chemistry Enterprise” which will be the third in this presidential series of ACS Symposium Books.

The WCC would like to thank the following individuals and their groups for their generous financial support for the speakers to travel to San Francisco for this symposi-um: President Brian Crawford of ACS Publications, Presi-dent Manny Guzman of Chemical Abstracts, ACS Execu-tive Director and CEO Madeleine Jacobs, Denise Creech of Membership & Scientific Advancement, Vice Presi-dent Hui Cai of WuXi AppTec, Joe Stoner 2014 Chair of the Division of Professional Relations, Dr. E. Ann Nalley for writing the proposal for the International Activities Committee Global Innovation Grant, and Co-Chair of the California Section WCC Dr. Elaine Yamaguchi.

Asian-American Women Chemists: Career Experiences By Gloria Thomas

Women of Color, those who are African American, His-panic/Latina, Native American or Pacific Islanders, re-main underrepresented across the chemical sciences. However, while Asian American women are not un-derrepresented, these women tend not to obtain lead-ership roles at the same rates as their Caucasian coun-terparts.

In the latest symposium in a series focusing on the inter-section of race, ethnicity and gender in various sectors of the chemical enterprise, a panel of four Asian Ameri-can women shared their diverse experiences. The women chemists expressed some of the same passions for their professions as frequently heard across the Soci-

ety: a love of challenges and puzzles, an inquisitive na-ture, and even a penchant for hard hats and steel toed boots. However, these women encountered many ob-stacles along the way, those rooted in sexism (“I was told to just focus on being cute”), caused by stereotypes (“I’m outspoken, but some expected me to act diminu-tive and quiet”), and some stemming from rich Asian cultures that promote humility, an extreme respect for elders, and a priority of marriage over career for young women. This panel of chemists shared their words of wisdom for others, including having a passion about what you’re doing, having something extra in your skill set, getting involved and networking, nurturing and be nurtured, finding mentors, developing soft skills as well as a deep understanding of basics, and to not take any-thing personally. As one said, “Be a steel rod in a silk cloth.” The women also offered their suggestions for systematic change, including more leadership opportuni-ties for Asian American women, more visibility of diverse role models, increased education and awareness around women of color issues, and community building and net-working.

Alternative Careers in Chemistry By: Bevin Parks, MaryAnne Armstrong and Justin Hasford

The Alternative Careers in Chemistry symposium had five speakers present their own perspectives and experi-ences in following alternative career paths. Leading off the panel was Dr. Michael Tong who left research in in-dustry as an organic synthetic chemist to become a Cer-tified Financial Analyst and work on Wall Street. Dr. Tong was followed by Dr. Donna Nelson, who in addition to being a professor at the University of Oklahoma, was the technical advisor to the award winning hit show “Breaking Bad”. Dr. Nelson shared her experiences working as a technical advisor and noted that she be-came connected with the show after responding to a

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request for technical assistance from the producer dur-ing a C&E News interview. Jay Ellenberger presented on diverse and varied career opportunities with EPA and presented an overview of his own experiences in the pesticides program at the EPA. Dr. MaryAnne Arm-strong gave an overview of various careers in patent law, and Sarah Hasford presented her experiences as a patent examiner and as a patent litigation attor-ney. The session concluded with a Q & A with the speakers.

San Francisco Women in the Chemical Enterprise Breakfast By Samina Azad

The Women in the Chemical Enterprise Breakfast in San Francisco focused on "Mentoring for Recognition". Par-ticipants discussed how to prepare a winning nomina-tion package for awards available through WCC and ACS.

Janet Bryant and Amber Hinkle opened the breakfast by sharing a few critical points on putting together an excel-lent nomination package. Following their presentation, each table discussed what was required to put together a successful nomination package for a particular award. The discussion leader at each table was a past winner of that award. This was an opportunity for people to hear directly how to prepare a winning nomination package along with how the discussion leaders won their award. The following were the table topics and discussion lead-ers:

ACS Fellow – Arlene Garrison

George Pimentel Award in Chemical Education- Zafra Lerman

WCC Rising Star Awards – Christy Chow

ACS Award in Analytical and Materials Chemistry – Debra Rolison

Physical Chemistry Award – Nancy Levinger

Priestley Medal—Darleane Hoffman

ACS Award in Inorganic Chemistry – Debbie Crans

Young Investigator Award – Kelly George

YCC Leadership Development Award – Kim Woznack

WCC Eli Lily Travel Award – Novella Bridges

One important message from the discussions was that the nomination letter should highlight both technical excellence and ACS/WCC related efforts and accomplish-ments. Both are considered when selecting a winner for most WCC/ACS awards. This was a great opportunity for attendees to network with women chemists and to learn how to highlight their strengths and successes for recog-nition.

Just Cocktails By: Kelly George

The Just Cocktails & Open Meeting reception, sponsored by the WCC and cosponsored by Springer Publishing, was held at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square on Monday, August 11th, 2014. The Just Cocktails event was well attended and enabled many chemists to net-work and learn more about the WCC, including the WCC programming for the Fall 2014 meeting.

If you are interested in learning more about the mission of the WCC and the programs and resources we offer, please join us at the next Just Cocktails event, to be held on Monday, March 23rd, 2015 from 3:30-4:30pm at the Hyatt Regency in Denver, CO! This free, informal event allows people to network and interact also with the 2015 WCC Rising Stars Award Winners, the members of the national Women Chemists Committee, and other ACS members. Tell your friends and colleagues and we look forward to enjoying the next Just Cocktails event with you!

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2014 WCC Rising Stars

Prof. Julia Brumaghim By Michelle Rogers

Prof. Julia Brumaghim was one of the 2014 WCC Rising star award winners for her research on the impact of

metal ions on DNA damage and cell death at Clemson Universi-ty. Julia received her Ph.D. in 1999 from the University of Illi-nois Urbana-Champaign and from there went on to a NIH postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Berke-ley. Following her postdoctoral

research, she joined the facility at Clemson University.

Julia loved chemistry all the way back to high school, where the concept of electron orbitals was especially interesting. In fact, Julia wrote one of her college appli-cation essays on why orbitals were so fascinating. During her undergraduate career, she was originally a biochem-istry major, but switched to chemistry her junior year because of all of the questions she was asking. However, her interest in biological aspects of chemistry did not go away; therefore, following her Ph.D. in inorganic chemis-try, she pursed a postdoc in bioinorganic chemistry fol-lowed by molecular biology. It is the combination of all of these aspects of her training that led her to pursue her independent career in DNA damage research.

Throughout Julia’s career she has never officially had a mentor. However her graduate advisor, Professor Greg Girolami, was a great teacher and she learned how to be an effective teacher from watching him.

When asked what advice Julia would give to other peo-ple coming up in this career field she replied: “Make sure you love what you are doing because it will be hard at times, and sometimes you have to be your biggest cheerleader. Develop an unshakable resolve that you will succeed, and be persistent. The typical graduate

school/postdoc/faculty track is not a one-size fits all so-lution, so make sure you explore your options at every stage to make informed career decisions that are tai-lored to your needs and interests rather than following the beaten path of those around you.”

Additionally for women in chemistry, Julia had the fol-lowing advice: “If this is what you want to do, then do it. I have had an exciting time full of ups and downs, but I would not trade my career as a chemistry professor for any other. In addition, don’t feel that you have to put your personal life on hold to be successful. As with many things in life, there will likely never be an ideal time to focus on family instead of a career, but if you want both, you should pursue both. Yes, a family can be time-consuming, but what matters more is how you manage your time, not how many hours you work. A good balance can make one happier and more produc-tive, not less.” Congratulations!

Prof. Lauren Benz By Amy Balija

Prof. Lauren Benz’s spark for chemistry came from her high school teacher, Mrs. Kathleen Sullivan. Lauren remembers “that she [Mrs. Sullivan] would dress up like a witch for Halloween and do chemistry demonstra-tions that captured every-one’s interest (bubbling cauldrons, color changing

reactions)….in order to demonstrate key principles to the class and garner interest. It worked for me!” After high school, Lauren attended the University of Rhode Island where she credits her older brother for teaching her good study habits and the magic of the dry-erase board

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2014 WCC Rising Stars—Continued

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to solve tough problems. She began her research career in the lab of Dr. William Euler, examining surface modifi-cation of alloys for use in prosthetic devices and later obtained a NSF-REU position at Santa Clara University working under Dr. John Thoburn.

After graduating from the University of Rhode Island, Lauren worked in the Analytical Research and Develop-ment Department at Pfizer for one year before enrolling at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) for graduate school. At UCSB, Lauren worked with Profes-sor Steven K. Buratto on atomic-scale mass-selected clusters. She then traveled to the East Coast to per-form research with Professor Cynthia Friend at Harvard University examining reaction mechanisms, surface in-termediate formation, and the role of defects in surface reactions. In 2009, Lauren accepted a position at the University of San Diego as the Clare Boothe Luce Assis-tant Professor. At this primarily undergraduate institu-tion, Lauren teaches inorganic, general, and physical chemistry and maintains a research group which exam-ines how large petroleum-relevant molecules interact with modified oxide surfaces and how effective surface-supported hybrid materials are in the absorption of gas.

Throughout her career, Lauren has had several excellent mentors. While in graduate school, Professor Buratto provided guidance in Lauren’s research project while allowing for scientific freedom which helped her to think critically. Dr. Paul Kemper, an instrument specialist in Professor Michael T. Bowers’s research group, taught her the basics of how to design and build research in-strumentation which Lauren continues to use today in her group. Furthermore, Professor Ram Seshadri en-couraged Lauren to become involved in international material chemistry workshops which has influenced her current research area. He also continues to be a voice of encouragement.

Lauren’s post-doctoral advisor, Professor Cynthia Friend, mentors Lauren, particularly on how to improve her writing and honing her critical thinking skills. Now at the University of San Diego, Lauren credits her department and particularly Dr. Tammy Dwyer and Dr. Deborah Tah-massebi for their support in her career.

Lauren strives to inspire the love of chemistry and re-search in her students, similar to Mrs. Sullivan. “I am a big believer in intrinsic motivation—one should do what makes one happy, even if it is challenging!” As the Clare Boothe Luce assistant professor, Lauren sends two fe-male students every summer to research experiences at Ph.D. granting institutions. She also hosts book clubs and movie nights on chemistry related media to allow the students to know her on a more personal level. Lau-ren explained that it is rewarding to work with under-graduates and watch them become critical thinkers. As one of the WCC Rising Star Award winners, Lauren has demonstrated how the spark from one high school teacher can influence many chemists. Congratulations!

Prof. Elizabeth Jarvo By Ellen A. Keiter

It was in her high school Ad-vanced Placement chemistry course that WCC Rising Star Dr. Elizabeth (Liz) Jarvo first real-ized her love for the subject. The next big step in her choice of chemistry as a career came at the end of her freshman year

in college when she joined the research lab of Professor Youla Tsantrizos at Concordia University in Quebec as a visiting summer research student. As a result of that experience, she says she was “hooked.”

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2014 WCC Rising Stars—Continued

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Liz, who grew up in Canada, earned a BS degree in chem-istry, with honors, from Acadia University in Nova Scotia in 1997. She elected to further her education in the US, completing a PhD in chemistry at Boston College in 2002, followed by three years as a post-doctoral fel-low at Harvard University. In 2005, she joined the De-partment of Chemistry at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) as an Assistant Professor, rising to the rank of Associate Professor in 2012.

At UCI, Liz leads a dynamic research group engaged in mechanism-based design of new reactions using organo-metallic catalysts and applying these transformations to complex target-oriented syntheses. In a collaborative effort with UCI Medical School researchers, new com-

pounds produced in her group having structural similari-ty to agents with known biological activity are tested for effectiveness against certain cancer cell lines. What Liz says she most enjoys about her current role is “working with talented graduate students and getting to ask ques-tions about reaction mechanisms.”

According to Liz, she has benefited from a number of “fantastic mentors” throughout her professional devel-opment. She specifically named Prof. Scott Miller (her PhD advisor), Eric Jacobsen (her postdoctoral advisor) as well as Prof. Mike Kerr and Prof. Youla Tsantrizos (her undergraduate research advisors). She credits them with teaching her numerous lessons about conducting research “from the virtues of running a proper control experiment to how to choose and dissect problems.”

2014 Cope Scholar

Prof. Abigail Doyle By Alice Lurain

Prof. Abigail G. Doyle received the 2014 Arthur C. Cope Early Career Scholars Award sponsored by the Arthur C. Cope Fund for her “discovery of mechanistically novel and synthetically useful methods for selective, catalytic C–C and C–F bond formation.” This award is designed to recognize and encourage the excellent work in organ-ic chemistry by researchers who have fewer than 10 years of experience since their terminal degrees.

Prof. Doyle earned her undergraduate and master de-grees in Chemistry and Chemical Biology from Harvard University in 2002. She began her doctoral studies at Stanford University developing gold catalysts for the hy-dration of unactivated alkenes in the laboratory of Prof. Justin Du Bois, and then returned to Harvard in 2003 to join Prof. Eric Jacobsen’s group.

Her research there included the discovery of a transition metal-catalyzed enantioselective alkylation of tributyltin enolates with alkyl halides and the development of a thiourea catalyst for enantioselective nucleophilic addi-tions to prochiral oxocarbenium ions. A native of Prince-ton, NJ, she has been an Assistant Professor in the De-partment of Chemistry at Princeton University since July 2008.

As part of the Cope Scholars Symposium at the Fall 2014 National Meeting in San Francisco, Prof. Doyle presented a talk entitled “New reagents and strategies for catalytic nucleophilic fluorination.” She highlighted the im-portance of fluorinated organic molecules in medical, agrochemical and materials applications due to the unique chemistry of these compounds, while noting the relative paucity of practical synthetic methods for car-bon-fluorine bond formation.

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Successful Women in Chemistry Series

Dr. Nicole Knight By: Kelly George

Dr. Nicole Knight was recently recognized as one of the Divi-sion of Organic Chemistry’s Young Investigator Awardees at the Fall ACS National Meeting in San Francisco, CA. Dr. Knight is an Associate Scientist at Dow Chemical in Freeport, TX, in the Polyurethanes R&D depart-ment, where she conducts re-search on new materials for the coatings, adhesives, seal-

ants, and elastomers (CASE) markets.

Initially a Biology major, Nicole discovered her love of chemistry after taking her first undergraduate organic chemistry class at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and fur-ther solidified her commitment to attend graduate school after participating in undergraduate research at University of Illinois at Chicago with Prof. Vladimir Ge-vorgyan the summer before her senior year. “I did it to get some experience in the lab as I would be searching for a job the next year. The mentorship I had from the graduate students and Prof. Gevorgyan and the excite-ment I saw in them in the lab made me realize that I wanted to make my mark as well and ultimately go to graduate school.” Nicole also attributes her career path to an early mentor, her inorganic chemistry professor at Virginia Tech, Prof. Karen Brewer. “She was an excellent advisor and taught me a great deal about physical inor-ganic chemistry.

Through these experiences, I realized that I enjoyed the marriage of physical and organic chemistry.” Nicole attended Michigan State University to study with Prof. Robert Maleczka, where she conducted research on the kinetics of the Stille cross-coupling reaction. Her work would open many doors to exploring the interesting be-

havior in the catalytic cycle of this well-known reaction. After obtaining her PhD, Nicole completed her postdoc-toral training with Prof. David Nicewicz at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she studied asym-metric catalysis via photo-induced electron transfer.

When choosing her career path, Nicole notes that she had been drawn to industry, especially Dow Chemical, where she had a first-hand glimpse into Dow by partici-pating in their Building Engineering and Science Talent at Dow symposium and through interactions with their em-ployees while attending symposia at MSU supported by Dow. Knight recalls, “I valued their innovation and their commitment to their employees and the community.”

Married to a fellow chemist and a new mom, Dr. Knight recognizes that the work-life balance can be challenging at times, but prefers to consider it a work-life choice. “You really do have the choice. I made the choice to put my family first and work second. And now I am very hap-py with both. I am not completely overwhelmed with work that I cannot enjoy my family. But I am still working and having stimulating intellectual conversations and making exciting contributions to numerous projects. I love my work and I feel like it actually makes me a better mother and wife” says Dr. Knight.

Nicole’s advice to women in chemistry is to “be confi-dent and support each other! You need to have a track record of making an impact – and then you have to be able to sell yourself.” Nicole also notes, “I think the big-gest challenge is when you don’t get support from your fellow women colleagues. I think we tend to feel like there is little room for women to succeed and therefore we must compete against each other. Not only does that send the wrong message and fuels the fire, but that is likely what limits our growth potential.” So what does a successful career in chemistry look like? Nicole believes that it is “full of new and interesting challenges, your contributions are appreciated and you are excited to be at work!”

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Successful Women in Chemistry Series—Continued

Dr. Rebecca Ruck By: Kelly George

Dr. Rebecca Ruck recalls her first Organic Chemistry re-search project during the NJ Governor’s School of Sciences program as the initial seed that started her career in chemis-try, and eventually her interest in Organic chemistry grew as an undergraduate at Princeton University. Fast forward to August 2014, where Dr. Ruck

was recognized as one of the ACS Organic Chemistry Di-vision Young Investigator Awardees.

While an undergraduate at Princeton, Becky conducted research on tert-Butylcarbenes from non-nitrogenous precursors with Prof. Maitland Jones, Jr., her research advisor and author of her favorite chemistry text book. After graduating summa cum laude, Becky ventured to Harvard University for her PhD with Prof. Eric Jacobsen. In the Jacobsen labs, her research focused on the devel-opment of asymmetric hetero-ene reactions: discovery and mechanistic analysis of chromium(III)-catalyzed ene reactions of aldehydes and enol ethers, mechanistic comparison of hetero-ene and hetero-Diels-Alder reac-tions.

Dr. Ruck then traveled cross-country to Berkeley, CA as a NIH Postdoctoral Fellow in the labs of Prof. Robert G. Bergman, where she focused on developing new imidoz-irconium-mediated reactions: discovery and mechanistic analysis of dimethylzirconocene-promoted dehydration of primary amides, discovery of zirconium-catalyzed imine-yne metathesis reaction. Dr. Ruck was given the opportunity to return to her New Jersey roots, where she joined the Merck Process Chemistry Department. During her career at Merck, Dr. Ruck has obtained sever-

al patents and over a dozen publications in high impact journals. It is no surprise that Dr. Ruck has quickly risen through the ranks at Merck, where she now serves as a Director, DPC Site Lead-Kenilworth, NJ. When asked about why she loves her job, Dr. Ruck answered that it is, “the people I get to work with. The types of chemistry challenges that we are able to tackle and solve are just inspiring. I can easily talk to prospective hires about how cool it is to do this job because I believe it.”

Dr. Ruck stresses the importance of many mentors in her career, both past and present. “In particular, I truly ad-mire a previous manager, whom I also consider a men-tor. He was secure enough in his own abilities to provide opportunities for me that could take me at least to his level. I try to support my own group members in the same way.” Dr. Ruck commented that women in chemis-try often face challenges due to “the limited number of role models available...It’s always valuable to be able to tap into colleagues who have overcome the same chal-lenges you are experiencing. Without those role models, it can be a bit like being stranded at sea. This is the rea-son why I try to mentor and support as many young fe-male chemists as possible and encourage all other expe-rienced folks to do so” says Dr. Ruck.

Dr. Ruck champions a work-hard, play-harder mantra. Outside of work, Becky plays competitive soccer along-side her team, “The Skulls,” and loves to travel. “My current work profile photo is of me zip-lining in Costa Rica!” says Ruck. As for career advice, Dr. Ruck encour-ages other chemists to, “Follow the breadcrumbs. [These] opportunities, that on the surface may appear uncomfortable or challenging, can be some of the most fruitful and career-defining.” Becky would sum up that outstanding chemists combine “Intuition and Insight with a dash of stubbornness!”

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Successful Women in Chemistry Series—Continued

Dr. Beth Cooper By: Kelly George

As a child, Beth Cooper became enthralled with science, “I liked creating things and was fascinat-ed with how things worked and wanting to create new solutions. My early dream of being a scien-tist continued to grow through high school as I participated in high school science competition.

After these early experiences, I was hooked—I knew I wanted to study polymers in college; the synthesis, the modification, and the performance.” Beth’s dream was realized, and she now works at Dow Chemical as an As-sociate Research Scientist in the Architectural Coatings division, located in Collegeville, PA. In August, Beth was recognized by the ACS Organic Chemistry Division as one of the 2014 Young Investigator Awardees, where she presented her research at Dow. When asked what she enjoys about her current work, Beth answered, “I work with a great multi-disciplinary team of people. Each day brings new successes and new challenges. We are in-volved with science from brainstorming and concept de-velopment through to product commercialization and working on current products. It is exciting to see the fundamental research as well as the product cycle and how each part of the team contributes to the overall product.”

Beth attended Carnegie Mellon University, where she majored in Chemistry and graduated with honors. She conducted research with Prof. Krzysztof Matyjaszewski and focused on the synthesis of PEO-SAN-PEO (poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(styrene-co-acrylonitrile)- poly(ethylene oxide)) block copolymers using atom-transfer radical-polymerization (ATRP), examined ATRP kinetics and determined the effect of solvent in reverse and nor-mal initiation in ATRP. Says Beth, “I learned strong foun-

dational skills as part of my education at Carnegie Mellon University, not only as new information, but also an approach to problem solving which has enabled me to use my skills in all parts of my life.” She then worked in the labs of Prof. Todd Emrick at the University of Mas-sachusetts – Amherst for her Ph.D in Polymer Science and Engineering. Her doctoral research focused on the synthesis of controlled multi-functional aliphatic polyes-ters and acrylates, examining the structure-property relationships of water-soluble hydrophilic and zwitteri-onic polyesters and studying micellization and solubility of cancer drugs using water-soluble polymers.

Beth’s career success story is even more impressive, considering significant health challenges and disabilities in her life. Beth explains, “My health became a signifi-cant challenge during my sophomore year in college, and one that I have had to consider continually along each step of my career. Having health challenges cer-tainly shaped who I am as an adult, and I feel fortunate that I was able to balance my health difficulties with my education and now my career.” Beth notes that she has seen positive changes in the work environment, “I am encouraged to see even in the short time since I started, that the ‘work climate’ has become more accepting to women and people with disabilities. While I feel there is room for improvement, we are moving forward; each woman who demonstrates success will continue to change this climate. Initially, I was told a scientist who uses a wheelchair would not be successful. Thankfully, there are examples to the contrary, and people who saw my potential.”

Dr. Cooper’s advice to other women chemists: “I have been able to achieve my goal of being a scientist due in part to my own personal determination and my desire to create, problem solve, and lead; my strong coping skills in dealing with multiple health challenges; superb men-tors throughout my life who have shared their knowledge, skills, and personal experiences; and the extensive support of family as well as colleagues. My

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Nominating an ACS National Award Winner

The integrity and quality of all awardee selections are to reflect the premier status of the ACS national awards for recognizing excellence in contributions to the chemical sciences and society.

The nomination process is conducted online and is very simple to complete when you have all the materials prepared prior to logging into the nomination system. Log in using your last name and ACS member number or your ACS ID and password. You are strongly encouraged to form a nomination team at your place of employment or within your local section or division to annu-ally identify and nominate worthy individuals who exemplify the mission of the ACS National Awards Program and meet award criteria.

As a nominator, you must

supply all the information requested in the application link (https://www.nominate.acs.org);

make certain your nominee meets the specific eligibility requirements of the award;

clearly address how your nominee meets all set criteria for the award, including the criteria used for award selection;

identify two individuals to provide primary and secondary support letters; and

submit a complete nomination by the November 1 deadline.

Prepare (Word or PDF format for uploading) the nomination materials prior to starting the online process. You may want to ask a colleague or others on the nominating team to critique the entries. Please review the Awards Nomination User Guide at http://www.acs.org/content/dam/acsorg/funding/awards/national/awards-nomination-user-guide.pdf for details about each of the fol-lowing nomination entries:

the nominee’s ACS number;

a suggested citation for use if the nominee receives the award (25 words);

a recommendation (750 words or fewer that address the award and selection criteria);

outcomes: publications, products, patents, achievements, consequences, etc. (20 or fewer most significantly aligned with award and selection criteria and nomination materials);

the nominee’s brief biographical sketch (2 pages that focus on criteria);

a support letter (required) that addresses the criteria (400 words or fewer); and

a second support letter (optional, but recommended) that addresses the criteria.

Additional criteria used by selection committees in selecting award winners:

alignment of work with the award’s purpose, eligibility, and/or criteria;

the significance and impact of this work on the field/discipline and on the chemical enterprise;

excellence of the work;

innovativeness of the approach used;

the potential or realized impact and benefits of the work on society; and

service to the scientific community.

Remember, if you want your nominee to be an award winner, you will want to pay particular attention to addressing the specific award criteria and the additional criteria used by the selection committee in selecting award winners. This is crucial in all the nomi-nation materials, including the brief biographical sketch. The selection committee uses only what is submitted in the nomination package in selecting the award winner.

Spring 2015 National Meeting—Denver

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Women Scientists & Nobel Prize

No Belles By Judy Giordan

Do you know how many women have won Nobel Prizes in science, and can you name them?

This is the question that in-spired Dr. Mary Phillips to take action after she was a keynote speaker at the WCC event on Women in Innova-tion and Investing in Indian-apolis. Fortunately, Mary’s husband, a professor of theatre and Artistic Director at the Portal Theater in Corvallis, OR, took action and No Belles was born.

No Belles “tells the story of some of the amazing wom-en scientists whose work has literally benefitted millions over the last centu-ry. Only 16 women have won the Nobel Prize in the sci-ences (out of 566 total individuals), and our play tells some of their stories. We’ve also included some women who didn’t win the prize (Rosalind Franklin, Rachel Car-son, etc.), but whose contributions are undeniable. In

many, many ways, your request that I speak at the ACS meeting in Indianapolis influenced the theme of this play tremendously,“ Mary shared.

“No Belles weaves together the stories of some of the most fascinating women to don a lab coat. Using simple

staging and storytelling, No Belles brings to life the struggle, determination, and persever-ance of women whose work changed the face of science,” according to the Portal Theatre press release which announced the new work earlier in 2014.

And No Belles has taken off! Selected for the Edinburgh Fringe Theater festival in 2014, where it played 25 times, Broadway Baby writer Emma Gibson gave No Belles 5 stars saying, “No Belles is a spoken-word tribute to the women of science. It presents as part po-

etry, part storytelling, and part performative lecture. It’s understated, honest, and a real treat.”

Let’s hope we can find a way to get it at an ACS meeting. That would be a real treat for all of us!

From left to right: Michael Phillips, Artistic Director; Kimberly Wilson, performer; Jade Hobbs, performer; Melissa Schenter, performer; Jenessa Raabe, technical support

Women of the Chemical Enterprise Breakfast: “Expanding Your Professional Network” By: Kimberly Woznack

WCC is happy to announce the theme for the WCC Women of the Chemical Enterprise Breakfast, scheduled for Monday, March 23rd, 2015 at 7:30am at the Denver National Meeting in the ACS Governance Hotel, the Hyatt Regency. The breakfast theme, “Expanding Your

Professional Network” will allow attendees to literally expand their professional network through the opportunity to network with fellow attendees. The program will also feature discussion of tips and strategies attendees can use throughout the rest of their time in Denver to network with other fellow conference goers. We suggest that you re-stock, and bring your supply of business cards to distribute. Students are encouraged to make-up their own business cards to bring and trade with their new network members.

2015 WCC Rising Star Announcements

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The ACS Women Chemists Committee (WCC) has named the recipients of its 2015 Rising Star Awards, which recognize exceptional early to midcareer women chem-ists across all areas of chemistry on a national level. The awards were established in 2011 to help promote reten-tion of women in science.

The 2015 winners are:

Suzanne Bart of Purdue University

Jaime Curtis-Fisk of The Dow Chemical Company

Melinda Keefe of The Dow Chemical Company

Chunqing Liu of UOP LLC, A Honeywell Company

Beth Lorsbach of Dow AgroSciences

Katherine Plass of Franklin & Marshall College

Marina Ramirez-Alvarado of the Mayo Clinic

Francis Smith of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Krista Walton of the Georgia Institute of Technology

Jessica Winter of The Ohio State University

The winners will attend the Spring 2015 ACS national meeting in Denver, where they present their research at the WCC Rising Star Symposium on Monday, March 23rd. Congratulations again to the 2015 WCC Rising Stars.

Networking

Social Media By: Alexia Finotello

Social media plays a large role in every day communica-tion. Keep up-to-date on the latest ACS WCC news by liking our Facebook page, following us on Twitter, and checking our website. Make sure to like our posts, share the information and re-tweet our tweets! Facebook has started to limit organic shares of posts unless you pay to boost your post. Please like and share the ACS WCC in-formation to help spread the word!

WCC Facebook WCC LinkedIn WCC ACS Network Just Cocktails ACS Network

Announcement WCC Leadership

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Mark your calendars! Planning for the 2015 Puget Sound Women Chemists Retreat (PSWCR) is well underway! PSWCR is a two night event that brings together gradu-ate, post-doctoral and early career chemists with the goal of advancing women in chemistry. We teach a positive and proactive approach to the challenges com-monly faced by women in science. Specifically, we con-nect attendees to a close-knit network of colleagues and mentors, teach strategies for negotiation and leader-ship, and increase awareness about factors that influ-ence women’s career paths. The retreat will be held May 15th-17th at the beautiful Pack Forest Conference Cen-ter in Eatonville, WA. For more details, please check our website at: https://sites.google.com/site/pswomenchemists.

Chair: Amber Charlebois Awards and Recognition: Laura Sremaniak and Amy Nicely Communications & Technology: Michelle Rogers Professional Development: Kelly George Programs & Events: Amy DeBaillie Program Chair: Kim Woznack Newsletter Editor: Nahid Mohajeri Webmaster: Lisa Houston Awards Task Force: Judith Iriarte-Gross Non-Tenure Track Facility Task Force: Laura Sremaniak Thank you for reading the WCC semiannual newsletter. I hope that you find the articles inspirational and informa-tive! If you have an article or an announcement that may be useful to our readership, please feel free to send it to me at wcc@acs.org. We welcome all suggestions.