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2024 Earth Week Program at Princeton Chemistry Highlights Energy, Climate and Health
By Barbara Ameer, Princeton ACS 2024 Earth Week Coordinator
Springtime weather on April 23rd could not have been more agreeable for an evening program in Princeton to contemplate important topics related to our Earth! Princeton American Chemical Society (ACS) Celebrates Earth Week at Frick Chemistry Laboratory attracted attention to the 2024 National ACS theme of batteries and the general theme of the Earth's climate. Over 40 people from diverse sectors of the community, including attentive private- and public-school students, joined the Earth Week activities on the campus of Princeton University.
The outreach program transitioned to “Climate and Its Impact on Health and Ecosystems,” and opened with an overview by Barbara Ameer, RPh, PharmD, MBA. Her introduction segued into insightful talks from guest speakers who further stimulated our thinking about some key messages of Earth Week. Presentations covering aspects of the following topics prompted a wide spectrum of questions and a lively discussion:
• Health challenges from pollution, micro- and nano-particles, wildfire smoke waves, heat waves, hurricanes, flooding, and other severe weather events
• Fusion as a promising energy solution, among other sustainable energy sources
• Environmental justice and the roles of advocacy, policy and regulations
Andrew P. Zwicker, PhD, of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory at Princeton University, discussed highlights of fusion energy and stressed the importance of environmental justice in meeting energy needs. Zwicker, a New Jersey State Senator, was introduced by Princeton ACS Section Chair David Jones. Health impacts of a changing climate and pollution were emphasized by Catherine Chen, MD, an academic hospitalist at Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.
Randy A. Weintraub, MS, PhD, teacher at Princeton International School for Mathematics and Science, coordinated the battery demonstration and poster session.
At the close, the tone was shared optimism, knowing that individuals and groups in many different societal roles are motivated to achieve sustainable goals for our community and world.
Presenters at PACS 2024 Earth Week program: Left to right: Barbara Ameer, Randy Weintraub, Catherine Chen, Andrew Zwicker
Additional photos and illustrated poem from Princeton ACS 2024 Earth Week are available at:
https://www.princeton-acs.org/pacs-earthweek-2024-ccew
Princeton & Trenton ACS Teams at 2024 MARM Chemagination
By: Louise Lawter, MARM Chemagination Chair
The Regional Chemagination competition took place on Saturday, June 8 at the Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, in conjunction with the 52nd Middle Atlantic Regional Meeting (MARM) sponsored by the Central Pennsylvania Section of the ACS and the MARM Board.
For this competition students must imagine that they are scientists living 25 years in the future and have made a discovery that has had a positive impact on people’s lives. They must write an article describing the science and present that article on a poster and in interviews with judges. The articles are in one of four categories: Alternative Energy, Environment, Medicine/Health or New Materials.
Local Sections in the Middle Atlantic Region are invited to send one team from each of the 4 categories. This year a total of 15 teams competed, representing the Central PA, Lehigh Valley, Maryland, New York, North Jersey, Philadelphia, Princeton and Trenton ACS Sections. Each team was interviewed by two or three judges and First and Second Place winners were chosen in each category. Two Honorable Mention Awards (non-category specific) were also given.
Of 4 teams participating as finalists from our Local Section competition in 2023, 2 teams were First Place winners!
First Place, Alternative Energy Category – “The Secret Behind the Sparkle”, Manan Patel and Jagan Rajeev, Hillsborough High School, Princeton ACS Section
First Place, Medicine/ Health Category – “One Print Away: The Future of Osteoarthritis”, Aristha Dey and Princie Shah, West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South, Princeton Section
Winners from the other MARM Local Sections:
Alternative Energy Category
Second Place – “Harvesting Hurricanes: The Endless Energy of Natural Disasters”, Eric Kim and Max Trigub, Bergen County Academies, North Jersey Section
Environment Category
First Place – “Hydro Harvest”, Alexandra D'Alessio, Eliana Eisenberg and Malika Salehmohamed, Half Hollow Hills High School West, New York Section
Second Place – “Making Forever Chemicals Temporary”, Adalinda Guarcax, Samantha Liu and Bridget Liu, Bergen County Academies, North Jersey Section
Medicine/ Health Category
Second Place – “Kalirouna - The Future of Pain”, Rachel Braverman, Benson W. Huang and Eryk Kaczocha, Half Hollow Hills High School West, New York Section
New Materials Category
First Place – “Sticky Situation; A New Alternative To Traditional Adhesives”, Owen Beckerman and Inseo Kang, Fort Lee High School, North Jersey Section
Second Place – “An Electric Innovation”, Evan Deutsch, Rahim Sheikh and Alan Yu, Half Hollow Hills High School West, New York Section
Honorable Mention
“Bamboo Made Toys”, Olivia Lisa, Sophia Luigard and Autumn Mease, Muhlenberg High School, Lehigh Valley Section
“What Can you Discover from Analyzing Brainwaves?”, Lucy Buchanan and Rebecca Lucy, The Grier School, Central PA Section
Congratulations to our winners and thank you to the students, parents, teachers, judges, contest organizers, Penn State University graduate students and volunteers who helped make Chemagination at MARM 2024 a success!
Chemagination at Princeton Attracts Local High Schools’ Forward-Thinking Science Students
By: Barbara Ameer, Chemagination Committee Chair and Local Section Competition Coordinator
Congratulations to all participants in our June local section Chemagination competition, which was asynchronous/remote for the fifth consecutive year in its 22-year history.
Teams consisting of 2 or 3 high school science students tackled the question: How might chemistry along with allied fields like biology be used to improve our lives 25 years from now? After selecting one of five competition categories, teams researched, brainstormed and then wrote their feature story including graphics, a timeline and cover art for the high school chemistry magazine ChemMatters, as if it were 2049. Reflection essay questions probed perceived successes and challenges of teamwork.
Over the past few years, the remote format of the contest has been very successful. Since 2022, teachers from 5 to 7 schools guided over 100 students each year through the remotely-held activity, reinforcing their interest in our novel science competition.
Of the 37 teams entering 2024 Chemagination at Princeton, the winners were:
Alternate Energy Sources
First place Team #AE3 Ved Shenoy and Shravan Pradeep, Zeolites and Frustrated Lewis Pairs: Revolutionizing Hydrogen Storage for Conservation, West Windsor-Plainsboro High School-South (WWPHS-S)
Second place Team #AE5 Neethigna Takkella, Anish Reemala and Sravya Marella, Important Innovations through the Centuries: Quantum Batteries, Hillsborough High School
Third place Team #AE2 Darby Ko and Vyshakh Thejaswi, A Nuclear Fuel: Clean and Accessible Fusion-Fission Energy, WWPHS-S
Environment
First place Team #E2 Zoya Gupta and Deethya Reddy Yelamkonda, A Step Toward a Circular Economy: Nutrient Recovery Using Microbial Recycling Cells, WWPHS-S
Second place Team #E1 Saugandh Vidyadharani, Anushka Gaidhani, Shrika Venkateshwaran, Redox Desalination: The Idea that Changed the World, WWPHS-S
Third place Team #E7 Lisa Goliyad and Kaylee Gordon, Using Nitrtoplasts to Solve the Fertilizer Crisis, Princeton International School of Mathematics and Science
Medicine/Health
First place Team #M1 Michelle Yau and Arjun Chetty, HemoHero: The Future of Trauma Care, WWPHS-S
Second place Team #M2 Lina Lin and Katie Shan, Alginate Beads: Steering into a New Era of Cancer Therapy, WWPHS-S
Third place Team #M4 Natalia Poweska, Grace Kucharek and Jennifer Grebowiec, The VEGA Lead, Wallington Junior/Senior High School
New Materials
First place Team #NM5 Nithila Sengottuvelan, April Lu and Rakshitha Kannan, Combatting Corrosion, Hillsborough High School
Second place Team #NM1 Anika Nair and Surabhi Ponna, Semi-Conductor Nanocrystals: A Revolutionary Cancer Detection Innovation, WWPHS-
Third place Team #NM3 Om Rane, Vikram Karamsetty and Nikhil Sethuraman, Super-Qubit: The Evolution of Quantum Computers with TiBaCaCuO, WWPHS-S
Proteins/Protein Chemistry
First place Team #P2 Vaishnavi Kogenaru and Shruthi Loganathan, Novel AI-Drive Ultra-small CRISPR/CasPico System: Towards New Generation Genetic Medicine, WWPHS-S
Second place Team #P1 Sophia Kim and Dhairya Mathur, A New Fronter: Enzyme Inhibition in DKA, WWPHS-S
Third place Team #P6 Isabell He, Bridget Smith and Alexa Gibson, How Salamanders Changed Medicine, Hillsborough High School
First-place teams (or second- or third-place teams as alternates) are eligible to participate in the ACS regional MARM Chemagination, to be held in northern New Jersey in early June 2025.
We appreciate the expertise of the 14-membered judging team. We enjoy a good relationship with our high school chemistry teacher-mentors. The science educators include Michael Oprysk, Hightstown HS, Karen Randazzo, Hillsborough HS, Edward Libretto, Deer Park HS, Joy Barnes-Johnson, Princeton HS, Barbara Safira, Wallington Jr/Sr HS, Karel Villanueva, West Windsor-Plainsboro HS-South, and Princeton International School of Mathematics and Science teacher, Randy A. Weintraub, who also coordinated the 5 judging teams.
ChemMatters in the classroom! Teams of students brainstorm ideas for a ChemMatters feature article and cover. Photo credit: R. Weintraub
Spotlight on Local Section Outreach Efforts at MARM 2024 Symposium “Communicating Science”
By: Barbara Ameer, Symposium Co-Organizer
During the 52nd ACS Middle Atlantic Regional Meeting (MARM), June 5-8, 2024, at the Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, a symposium featured several outreach programs of sections in the MARM region.
The ACS Committee on Public Relations and Communications’ (CPRC) symposium “Communicating Science,” highlighted exemplary public outreach efforts to enhance communication about the chemical sciences.
Princeton ACS members Barbara Ameer, symposium co-organizer, and Randy Weintraub contrasted students’ communication experiences during remote versus hybrid STEM competition formats of Chemagination at Princeton. They also described successful integration of ACS position papers into Earth Week programming. Experiences were shared by other presenters representing Lehigh Valley (Nigel Sanders), New York (Ping Furlan), and Northern New Jersey (Elizabeth Howson) Sections.
Presenters at June 6, 2024 MARM symposium “Communicating Science” Ping Furlan (left), Randy Weintraub (right) and Barbara Ameer (center), speaker and co-organizer from the ACS Committee on Public Relations and Communications.