Councilor
Summary from the
Dallas ACS Meeting
by Donald Hicks
You may not know, but...
- ACS played a major role in mobilizing many scientific societies
to get congress and the president to propose doubling the U.
S. research budget over the next 10 years. This would be
a 40-50% real dollar increase.
- ACS officers and the Governmental Relations unit have
increased the visibility of chemistry at NIH, which will sponsor
a chemistry symposium for the first time in many years.
- The ACS member insurance program has announced some new and
improved programs as well as some significantly lower premiums
for existing policies.
Several recent videos and publications
of note...
- Chemistry In The National Science Education Standards,
a 16 chapter manual.
- Sunlight, Skyscrapers, and Soda Pop, a new book
for the general public and children that follows the award winning
Apples, Bubbles, and Crystals.
- What Every Chemist Should Know About Patents, a highly
recommended booklet.
- Two ACS videos on safety have received major national
awards.
- The ACS-developed college text Chemistry in Context
now sells 30,000 copies a year and controls 25% of the general
science education market.
- A video of demonstrations of natural phenomena called
Chemical Connections has just been produced.
- A pamphlet is available that describes a new program
for Certifying Environmental Analytical Chemists and Technicians.
- Two new videos are available to show to undergraduates
who might be interested in becoming chemistry majors. They
show chemists in actual work settings. Each consists of several
4-5 minute career profiles. One video lasts 30 minutes;
the other lasts 60 minutes.
ACS Board Actions...
- The Meetings & Expositions committee voted to never hold
a national meeting in Las Vegas again. Also, future national
meetings will include events for the general public to attend.
- The ACS has adopted an internal guide by which it will work
for stronger federal legislation to assure affordable, easily
accessible, fully portable, quality health care insurance for
all Americans.
- The Board approved January 5 as an annual day to recognize
George Washington Carver for his many contributions to society.
Addenda (Information submitted
5/4/98)
- The committee on Professional Training officially decided
to require the equivalent of 3 semester hours of Biochemistry
in order to receive an ACS certified B.S. Degree in Chemistry.
This will officially be published in the 1999 guidelines
and will affect students graduating by about 2001. However,
the overall semester credit hours in chemistry courses will not
increase. The Biochemistry course requirement will occur
via allowing flexibility of options.
- The CPT committee also noted that 617 colleges and universities
are now on the approved list to offer the ACS Certified B.S.
degree in Chemistry (i.e. an average of 12 per state).
This is an 11% increase over the previous number of approved
colleges and universities.
The ACS disability insurance program premiums are currently 45%
of what they were last year (due to premium credits and lower
premiums)
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Last Updated July 3, 1999.