2002 ChemLuminary Award Nominations

Award Category: ACS President's Award for Local Section Government Affairs

Contact Person:

Name:		Susan Shih				
Address:	240 N. Linden, Westmont, IL 60559
Phone:		630 942-2110
E-mail:   	shihsu@cdnet.cod.edu

Description of Activity/Program:

FOCUS ON GREEN CHEMISTRY IN THE CHICAGO SECTION

This report will describe the program on Green Chemistry that was organized and sponsored by the Chicago Section Public Affairs Committee. Over the past fifteen years the Public Affairs Committee has sponsored a program on science and public policy for the Section's March meeting every other year, alternating with the Section's Public Affairs Award. Green Chemistry and the related issue of sustainable development have come to the forefront during the past ten years as a major focus. A primary driving force for this initiative has been the EPA establishment of a Green Chemistry Program, which comes directly from the EPA's Design for the Environment Program.

The area attracted the attention and the interest of governmental agencies, educational institutions, researchers, industry, and during the past few, years the American Chemical Society. The Society showed the extent of its interest in 2000 when it acquired the Green Chemistry Institute, a not-for-profit institute that had been established to do work in green chemistry by the late Dr. Joe Breen. And, so it was from this background that we decided to present a program on green chemistry as our biannual Public Affairs program on Science and Public Policy.

PART I - PUBLIC AFFAIRS PROGRAM

There is a significant amount of research presently being conducted in the area of green chemistry at present. Many symposia have been sponsored at various regional and national meetings over the past several years. We invited Dr. William Nelson of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources Waste Management & Research Center to give a talk on some recent organic chemistry research related to green chemistry in a talk titled "Catalyzed Organic Reactions in Ionic Liquids." This talk was attended by sixty-five people, which is a significant turnout for a before dinner lecture.

Our main speaker was Dr. Dennis Hjeresen, Director of the ACS Green Chemistry Institute. The title of his lecture was "Green Chemistry to Address Global Environmental Issues." The turnout for the main lecture was 105. Although a number of those who came for the early lecture stayed for the after dinner lecture, there were a number of attendees who came just for the early lecture. Realistically, then, we reached a total audience of approximately 130 people for the evening.

One highlight of the evening's festivities was the introduction of members of R&D teams from those companies and laboratories that had received Green Chemistry Awards since the awards program was established several years ago. Awardees from Ondeo Nalco, Donlar Biosyntrex Corporation and Argonne National Labs were recognized for their past achievements in Green Chemistry. All awardees were attending by invitation as special guests of the section.

One of the major successes of this program was the extent to which it brought together science professionals from a wide range of disciplines and interest areas - education, industry, not-for-profits and government. This confluence of interest is clearly shown by the program hosted by Ondeo Nalco described below. This program came about as a direct result of contacts that were made at the Section meeting. One of the attendees, Anita Knight, a member of the Chicago Section, joined with a representative of SCARCE*, a nonprofit environmental group and took the initiative in arranging a workshop on Green Chemistry at Ondeo Nalco, one of the companies honored at the Public Affairs Meeting.

*SCARCE = School and Community Assistance for Recycling and Composting Education.

PART II. ONDEO NALCO HOSTS GREEN CHEMISTRY EVENT

The Green Chemistry event at Ondeo Nalco was co-sponsored and organized by Anita Knight, corporate regulatory biologist O-N, and Cliff Spiro, vice president, R&D, together with the group SCARCE, which operates under contract through DuPage County's Environmental Educational Organization. The program was held at the Ondeo Nalco Research Center on Friday and Saturday, November 1 and 2.

The evening program on Friday featured a lecture by Dennis Hjeresen titled "An Introduction to Green Chemistry." Also in attendance for this program was Rep. Judy Biggert of the Illinois 13th Congressional District, where Ondeo Nalco is located. Rep. Biggert, as a member of the House Education and Science Committees, has a very special interest in Green Chemistry initiatives, and spoke about this interest during her remarks Friday evening. Her presence gave a sense of the importance that is attached to this subject at the national level.

Saturday's program was led by both Dennis Hjeresen and Mary Kirchoff, Associate Director of the GCI. The program featured presentations by scientists from Ondeo Nalco, Biosyntrex, BASF and Rohm & Haas on their work in green chemistry. All of this was part of a workshop for teachers from DuPage County and the surrounding areas. All teachers who wished to do so received Continuing Teacher Education Credits for their participation. Seventy five teachers took part in the workshop. As a follow-up to the workshop, several of the high school teachers are earning graduate credit from Benedictine University for developing a green chemistry curriculum to use in their schools. The college teachers have been meeting as a group to determine how best to integrate green chemistry into the college chemistry curriculum. Mary Kirchoff has been acting as an advisor for the group.

This report describes the role that the Chicago Section, through its Public Affairs Committee, played in introducing Green Chemistry to people and institutions of diverse interests who were obviously ready to receive information about this important concept. With a single program, representatives of government at several levels - state, local and national -, industry, educators and educational institutions, and nonprofit organizations were all led to come together around the theme of Green Chemistry. In addition to the Section's role as organizer and sponsor of the March meeting, it furnished publicity for the workshop through flyers at its monthly section meetings and on its website. I have listed below the names of some of the institutions and organizations that participated or were represented in this program. And of course, we should not overlook the strong endorsement and participation of Rep. Judy Biggert.

Participating Institutions and Organizations

ACS Green Chemistry Institute
Illinois Department of Natural Resources Waste Management & Research Center
School & Community Assistance for Recycling and Composting Education
DuPage County Environmental Education Program
Benedictine University
Ondeo Nalco Corporation
Biosyntrex Corporation
BASF
Rohm & Haas
Argonne National Labs

Please provide a 2-3 sentence abstract that describes your activity.

The Chicago Section, through a Public Affairs program on Green Chemistry, has raised the awareness of that concept at many area organizations - educational, industrial, nonprofit and governmental. The teachers' workshop and subsequent activities will have a significant effect on high school and college chemistry curricula at area educational institutions. Local industry and government agencies have shown significant support for these efforts.

2/11/03