Category: Upcoming Events

Please set the hours of 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM on Saturday, October 15th aside for the annual CALPACS luncheon. Please join us for drinks, lunch and a talk about extraterrestrial chemistry. Taylore McClurg of NASA’s Jet Propulsions Laboratory (JPL) will speak to the section about her experiences working on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and being in charge of retrieving samples from Mars.

A buffet lunch with choices of chicken, beef and vegetarian dishes will be served.

Please RSVP from the Paypal buttons at the bottom of this page.

Speaker: Taylore McClurg, NASA JPL
Title:  Engineering Challenges with the James Webb Space Telescope and the Mars Rover
Date & Time: Saturday, 10/15/22, 11:00 – 14:00
Place: UCSBMosher Alumni House
Cost: $10, $5 for students

Taylore McClurg: 
As early as she can remember, Taylore wanted to be an astronaut. But when she watched the movie Apollo 13, where the engineers in mission control must to find a way to create a C02 scrubbing system with only the items available to the astronauts in space, she knew she wanted to do that. Solve the complex problems of being and traveling in space. Taylore earned her B.S. and M.S. in Aerospace Engineering as Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and joined Northrop Grumman after graduation. In her 13 years at Northrop Grumman, she has worked on weather satellites, lunar mission, communications satellites, and, for 8 of those 13 years, the James Webb Space Telescope. Taylore lead the requirements and verification team for the spacecraft element and observatory, ensuring all the requirements for mission success were verified – proving the system will work to NASA. Now with JWST operating and producing the amazing science we all hoped for, Taylore has taken a position at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory working as the verification lead for the Mars Sample Return Lander. This Sample Return mission will bring back the Martian soil samples currently being collected by the Perseverance Rover.

As soon as the role of mRNA in the cell was elucidated, scientists hypothesized that it could be used as a vehicle for rapid deployment of vaccines. After many decades of research, this hypothesis was finally validated in the BioNTech and Moderna mRNA vaccines for Covid-19. As we move toward the latter stages of the covid-19 pandemic, please join us for a talk that will elucidate the motivations and innovations behind mRNA vaccines, their future and how their safety and efficacy were ensured by the regulatory process. Our esteemed ACS member, Dr. Rebecca Anderson, will bring all the experiences of her long career in pharmaceutical research, development and regulatory approval to the discussion of mRNA vaccines, their efficacy and their safety.

A free lunch will be provided as well as free parking. Please use the form at the bottom of this page to make your reservation for this lecture to help us plan for the event. We look forward to seeing you.

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.

Please join us for a virtual lecture this Sunday afternoon 3/14/21, pi day, at 3:14 PM for a lecture about navigating Federal Drug Administration regulations during the pandemic.

The California Los Padres Section of the American Chemical Society invites the general public to join us in a discussion of the effects of climate change and what can be done to address it. 

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):