Author: Payam

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CALPACS 2021 Fall Luncheon and General Meeting

CALPACS cordially invite members of the chemistry community to our fall luncheon and general meeting. Flavio da Cruz, Project Manager for the Low Carbon Resources Group at SoCal Gas Research, Development and Demonstration will inform us of hydrogen’s future in the energy grid. We will recognize our fifty-year members, present our section awards and report the section’s progress to you in our general meeting. Please use the form at the bottom of this post to make your reservation. We look forward to seeing you.

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Candidate Statements for 2020 Election

Below are the statements from the candidates running for positions on the Executive Committee of the Los Padres Section of the American Chemical Society, or CaLPACS.

Chair Elect

Wilson Hago, Ph. D. is a 25+ year member of the ACS, and current Chair of the Los Padres Section.  He has worked in the local start-up industry as a physical chemist for the past 20 years.  This experience includes research and development on alkaline batteries, cellulose chemistry, biochar, activated carbon, and renewable fuels.  Wilson has a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University in physics, and a Ph.D in physical chemistry from Brown University.  He has written over 100 patents and is named as inventor on 17 patents.  He is Founder of Hago Energetics, Inc., a startup focused on CO2  capture and  utilization. Wilson would be be honored to continue serving the Section as Chair-Elect to further the Section’s mission of promoting chemistry and chemical education in the Central Coast.

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How Liquid Ammonia Transitions to Metal

In June of this year, Professor Stephen Bradforth of USC and his collaborators made the cover of Science magazine with their stunning results on how liquid ammonia transforms into a liquid metal as more alkali metals are dissolved into it. We are thrilled to have Professor Bradforth speak to our section about these exciting results this coming Sunday, November 8, 2020. Due to the pandemic, this lecture will be conducted over Zoom, and the details are below. Please join us for an exceptional talk on truly outstanding results. The abstract of the talk appears below.

Speaker: Professor Stephen Bradforth
Title: Probing the transition from solution electrolyte to liquid metal
Date: Sunday November 6, 2020 
Time: 3:00 PM
Zoom Location: Please us the “Contact” link above to request the Zoom link for this lecture.
Cost: Free

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Travel Grants for 2020 ACS Fall National Meeting

Please fill out the following form to request reimbursement for student registration fees for the 2020 ACS Fall National Meeting. Grants will be given out on a first come, first served basis. To be eligible, you must be a registered undergraduate student in the CALPACS territory, Camarillo to San Luis Obispo. Active student members of the American Chemical Society will be given priority.

In order to receive the grant, you must

  1. Fill out and submit the form below by the end of day Wednesday, August 12, 2020.
  2. Wait to receive confirmation that you have been awarded a grant.
  3. Sign up to attend the Fall National Meeting. This meeting will be held virtually. No travel is involved.
  4. Submit proof of payment to contact@lospadresacs.org
  5. You will be reimbursed via PayPal.

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Earth Day Poetry Contest

Earth Week is next week, and the American Chemical Society has streamlined the illustrated poetry contest submission process and extended the contest entry deadline. All submissions will now be submitted through this portal   https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/outreach/ccew/plan-an-event/illustrated-poem-contest.html by Sunday, May 3rd at 9 p.m. PST.  Our local section name is California Los Padres and is needed during the submission process.

The illustrated poetry contest is open to all students in Grades K-12. The poems must be original works composed of 40 words or less, following one of the given styles and accompanied by an original illustration. This year’s theme Protecting our Planet through Chemistry should be the focus for the poem and illustration. Contest guidelines can be found in the attached contest flyer.

Additional Earth Week resources for teachers and students:
a.     www.acs.org/kids – Adventures in Chemistry site which has six experiments for home
b.     www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/resources/k-8/thebestof.html – The Best of WonderScience has nine 3-6 grade activities available for free
c.     www.acs.org/inquiryinaction – Activities made for the classroom, all free
d.     www.nisenet.org/athome – From our partner the NISE Network
e.    AACT open resources through April 17   https://teachchemistry.org/news/unlocked-resources-through-march-3  
f.     Celebrating Chemistry Coloring Book (grades K-2) 
g.    Endangered Elements Color by Numbers (PDF) (grades 3-6)
h.    ChemCatcher (PDF) (grades 9-12, undergraduate)
i.     Earth Day 50th Anniversary Timeline (PDF) (grades 9-12, undergraduate)
j.      and more educational resources organized by age group.

Please contact Heather Shafer via our contacts page if you have any questions about the poetry contest or Chemists Celebrate Earth Week.

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Wine Tasting at Demetria Estate

The frenetic activity of late fall portends many holiday activities, and the annual CALPACS wine tasting event is one of them. This year’s tasting is scheduled on Saturday December 7, 2019, at Demetria Estate, one of the most spectacular properties in the Santa Ynez Valley. (The wine is pretty good, too.) As usual, we will have an assortment of cheeses with crackers, fresh bread, and soups made by your executive committee members to accompany the fine wines submitted for evaluation to the discerning palates of CALPACS members. Please use the form below to make your reservation. We look forward to closing another year of chemistry advocacy in the tricounty area with your company.

Date:  Saturday, December 07, 2019

Time: 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM 

Winery: Demetria Estate, 6701 Foxen Canyon Road, Los Olivos, CA 93441 805.686.2345 (Bing Map) Please bear in mind that entrance to Demetria is controlled. You must dial the winery at the gate, and announce that you are with CALPACS. You will then have to drive about an additional mile to reach the winery.

Cost:  $15 per tasting

Name(s) of attendee(s):
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Lecture on Chemistry of Aging

Please join us the afternoon of Saturday, November 7, 2019, for a special lecture on the chemistry of aging with Professor Steven Clarke of UCLA. This lecture is co-sponsored by the Chemistry Department at California State University, Channel Islands.

Title: Fighting off chemical aging with biochemistry: protein and small molecule damage and repair
Date: Saturday, November 9, 2019
Time: 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM
Location: Cal State Channel Islands Boating Center
3880 Bluefin Circle
Oxnard, CA 93035 (Click for map)
Cost: Free

Snacks and coffee will be served!

Steven Clarke, Ph. D., is Faculty Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UCLA. He received his B.A. degree from Pomona College in 1970 and his Ph.D. degree from Harvard University in 1976. After a two-year postdoctoral appointment as a Miller Fellow at the University of California at Berkeley, he joined the UCLA faculty in 1978. His research at UCLA has focused on roles of novel protein methyltransferases in aging and biological regulation.

Click here to download the flyer for this event.Download