Inland Northwest ACS Newsletter

Fall 1999

Our next ACS Local Section meeting is Wednesday, October 6, 1999. The speaker is Dr. Marvin Lang, Professor of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin. His talk is entitled "The Elements of Chemical Leadership". This will probably be the last local lecture this millennium.

The talk will be in Room 105, Hughes Hall, Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA, at 7:00pm. For those of you who don't know where this is, park on the street, find the big church, go around the left side, keep on heading into the campus, past the Crosby something or other, across some grassy area, and you will come up on Hughes Hall on your right. So far as I know, it isn't labeled anywhere on that side. The lecture room is the first room on the left as you go in the East side of the building.

So far I have received Squatsky response in my plea for help for the upcoming NORM 2002 convention, except for the usual suspects on the Executive Board. We can use a little more help in all this. Feel free to contact any of us at this next meeting if you want to find out the kinds of jobs that would be available.

Our speaker this time sends the following abstract:

When someone asks what you do for a living and you answer:

"I am a Chemist" or "I teach Chemistry"

Often their first response is "Wow, you must be really smart!" or "Chemistry! Boy, that was my worst subject", or "You must really be weird to teach that stuff!".

Why would anyone put up with seemingly negative comments of that nature? What are the essential ingredients to lead a group of students, parents, or simply the public-at-large through a rigorous discussion on a particular chemical topic? What techniques might be used to cause a group of people to reach to a consensus decision on a technical topic? Professor Lang will allude to these topics and punctuate his presentation with a series of chemical demonstrations that are fun to watch, but are not merely entertainment. The purpose of such a presentation is to show that a dramatic demonstration makes the observer pay closer attention and graphically illustrates an otherwise abstract theory. The observer can more easily remember the theory after he/she has seen it explicitly performed. In this way, Professor Lang will show that a person can learn a lot of science, make direct application to various stiles of leadership, and have fun at the same time. Perhaps, in some small way the "fear factor" associated with chemistry will be diminished.

The presentation will be suitable to all age groups, from 7-70 (in our case, maybe 9-90 - ed). The only requirement for attendance is that you have an inquiring mind and like to have fun.

Me again - I like demonstrations. One of the reasons I got into this game. I always wanted to explain the reduction process at Mead by throwing a brick of sodium into a vat of water, but nobody would buy me the brick for some reason, and Wall Mart doesn't stock this particular material. Maybe this lecture will be fun for you and yours both. Please consider coming to the meeting on October 6 and maybe get back to why we maybe did not misspend our college years.