Chemical Progress Week
in St Louis

Chemical Progress Week ...

... is a peculiarly St Louis event. Every April, a number of events occur (or are scheduled) close enough together to justify an umbrella event title: Chemical Progress Week. Just about every year, this week includes:

• Awards Night Banquet, honoring the winners of the High School Chemistry Contest, the Leopold Marcus Award, the High School Teaching Award, the Chemical Science and Technology Award, and the outstanding junior chemistry students at area colleges
• ADACIOM Luncheon, sponsored by the trade organization, Associated Drug and Chemical Industries of Missouri
• St Louis Award Symposium, a signature event of the section, where the St Louis Award winner invites speakers to form a symposium usually on topics close to the winner’s research specialty
• St Louis Award Banquet, wrapping up the celebration of the award winner

This year, 2008, we have a special report from the Awards Banquet.

Ted giving his talk on paper-making

Awards Night 2008 was held at Kemoll’s on April 21st, with record attendance of 110 seated for dinner plus others arriving after dinner for the award presentations. The evening began with a talk by Ted Gast, past section Chair and present Treasurer, on The Science and History of Papermaking.

Marcus Award Winners

The 2008 Leopold Marcus Award was presented to Neil K Munjal by Professor Bruce Kowert. The other finalists, Mitesh B. Patel, Kristine R. Waggoner, Jeffrey T. Steitz, and Jacob R Worsham, were also recognized.

The outstanding junior-year students from area colleges

Local Section Chair Keith Stine then proceeded to present the Outstanding Junior College Student awards with the help of Mike Hauser. The winners this year were: Alex Cassmeyer (Lindenwood University), Amanda Anne Hecht (Maryville University), Kenzie Jones (Principia College), Justin Sheehy (Saint Louis University), Daniel C Banks (Southern Illinois University–Edwardsville), Todd Crawford (University of Missouri–St Louis), and Intelly Lee and Dafang Zhang of Washington University. The Outstanding Chemical Technology Student is Bojana Opacic from Saint Louis Community College–Florissant Valley.

The winners of the High School Chemistry Contest were presented by Keith Stine with help from Myron Reese of McKendree College and Jane Bené, the President of ADACIOM. Award certficates and checks were presented to the 1st through 5th place winners in both the regular and advanced divisions, and to students in each division receiving an honorable mention. ADACIOM provides financial support for the awards to high school students and we are most grateful for this support. Six of the students qualified to take the Chemistry Olympiad at University of Missouri–St Louis on April 19th, and four participated.

Keith Stine presents the Outstanding High School Teacher Award to Sara Knobloch

Mike Rogers of iQsynthesis with his Chemical Science and Technology Award

After presentation of the high school awards, two very important section awards were presented. Sara Knobloch of Triad High School (Madison County, IL) was presented with the Outstanding High School Teacher Award. And Mike Rogers of iQsynthesis was presented with the Saint Louis Chemical Science and Technology Award. He was introduced by his colleague Todd Stark who commented on Mike’s many excellent technical and scientific accomplishments. The booklet for the night’s events was prepared by Chair-Elect Bill Doub.