"2001: Biochemical Education for the Millennium", will be held on the campus of the University of California, San Francisco, on August 23­24, 1997. The meeting is arranged and sponsored by the Human Resources Committee of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) and is being held as a satellite meeting to the International Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Congress.

This satellite meeting will feature hands-on workshops and symposia on subjects such as problem-based learning (both for undergraduates and in a medical school setting), use of the Internet for biochemical education purposes, use of enhanced visualization programs such as RasMol and MAGE, and how to set up and maintain an undergraduate program in biochemistry.

The deadline for abstracts for the meeting is April 4. There is also some money available for up to 20 travel awards of $500 each for teachers at undergraduate institutions. Contact: ASBMB, 9650 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20814, Attention Biochemical Education Satellite.

ChemCom Workshops '97

The American Chemical Society is once again offering seven summer workshops to train teachers in the use of the ChemCom curriculum materials. The ACS will support 140 teachers at these workshops. The dates and sites are:

June 22­27

The Hockaday School, Dallas TX

July 13­18

University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC

Drew University, Madison, NJ

July 19­24

University of California, Santa Cruz, CA

July 27­August 1

Southern Illinois University­Edwardsville, Edwardsville, IL

Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA

August 3­August 8

Southern Oregon State College, Ashland, OR

ACS pays a $250 stipend and provides food and lodging in a college dormitory for each participant. The teacher's district is to provide for travel and a copy of the text and manual. For more information and an application form, contact John Krikau, ChemCom Staff Associate, 1155 16th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036. phone: 202/872-6383; fax: 202/833-7732; email: j_krikau@acs.org. Applications are to be completed by April 4.

About Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor may be submitted to the editorial office by regular mail (JCE, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Chemistry, 209 North Brooks, Madison, WI 53715-1116), by fax (608/262-7145), or by email ( jce@chem.wisc.edu). Be sure to include your complete address, your daytime phone number, and your signature. Your letter should be brief (400 words or less) and to the point; it may be edited for style, consistency, clarity, or space considerations.

12th ICCCRE

The Twelfth International Conference on Computers in Chemical Research and Education (ICCCRE XII) will be held at the University of Poona in Pune, India, the week of 5­10 January 1998. The purpose of the ICCCRE is to present a sweeping and state-of-the-art description and critical examination of the applications of computers in chemistry presented by experts drawn from all over the world.

The program will be organized to cover a broad range of topics, with ample opportunities for small group and one-on-one discussions and special efforts to cater to the needs of junior faculty, researchers, and students who are just starting out in the field. In addition, interdisciplinary applications of computers will be covered, making the conference of interest to workers in other chemistry-related disciplines.

The tentative technical program will focus on the following topics:

· Computers in Chemical Education

· Electronic Journals, Publishing, and Conferencing

· Artificial Intelligence, Chemometrics, Neural Networks, and their Chemical Applications

· Molecular Modeling, Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationships.

· Semi-Empirical and ab initio Quantum Chemistry, Density Functional Methods

· New Algorithms and Techniques in Computational Chemistry

Under consideration is the possibility of preconference sharing of invited and contributed papers via electronic conferencing. For additional information, to make suggestions for the program, or to nominate speakers, contact: ICCCRE XII, c/o Shridhar R. Gadre, Department of Chemistry, University of Pune, Pune 411 007 INDIA; phone: 91-212-351728; email: gadre@unipune.ernet.in. World Wide Web Site (with forms facility) http://www.beloit.edu/~chem/ICCCRE.html.

Westinghouse Science Talent Search

Science Service has announced the names of the 300 high school seniors from 188 high schools across the U. S. who are semifinalists in the 56th annual Westinghouse Science Talent Search. These students were selected from an applicant pool of 1,652 entries from 47 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and two international schools in Austria and Guatemala. The semifinalists range in age from 15 to 18 and include 153 men and 147 women.

From these semifinalists, 40 finalists were selected, each of whom will spend an all-expenses-paid week in Washington, DC, at the Science Talent Institute. There they will compete for $205,000 in scholarships, including the top prize of $40,000. Each finalist will receive an award of at least $1,000.

Among this year's finalists, ecology was the most popular field of study with eight projects; biology and physics came in second with five projects each. The fields of psychology and biochemistry had four projects each. Three finalists entered mathematics projects.

For more information, contact: Science Service, 1719 N Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036; phone: 202/785-2255; email: youth@scisvc.org.

Eastern Analytical Symposium

The deadline for receipt of preliminary abstracts for the 1997 Eastern Analytical Symposium is April 15, 1997. Papers in all areas of the analytical and allied sciences are welcome. The meeting will be held November 16­21, 1997, at the Garden State Convention Center in Somerset, New Jersey.

Anyone interested in presenting a paper at EAS should submit a 200- to 250-word abstract of the proposed paper, indicating preference for oral or poster form. Send abstracts to the Program Committee, P. O. Box 633, Montchanin, DE 18710-0633. A special form is not required, but submissions must be typed. For additional information, contact the EAS hotline at 302/738-6218, fax 302/738-5275, or email: easinfo@aol.com.

Conference on Coordination Chemistry

The 32nd International Conference on Coordination Chemistry (ICCC) will be held in Santiago, Chile, August 24­29, 1997. Plenary lecturers include Alan H. Cowley (University of Texas at Austin), Angela F. Danil de Namor (University of Surrey), Luis Oro (University of Zaragoza), Vlatcheslav. I. Sokolov (Academy of Sciences of Russia), Edward Solomon (Stanford University), and Jean Marie Lehn (Universite Louis Pasteur). The organizers are the University of Santiago de Chile, University of Chile, and Inorganic Chemistry Division­Sociedad Chilena de Quimica. The ICCC is sponsored by International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), UNESCO, American Chemical Society, and CONICYT. For more information contact: Victoria Nieto or Daniel Navarete, Santa Maria Eventos, Monjitas 251, Santiago, Chile; fax: 56 (2) 632-3380.

Announcements from American Oil Chemists' Society

For further information about any activities of the American Oil Chemists' Society, contact them at P. O. Box 3489, Champaign, IL 61826-3489; phone: 217/359-2344; fax: 217/351-8091; email: meetings@aocs.org.

Announcements from American Oil Chemists' Society

The International Conference on the Physical Properties of Fats, Oils, and Emulsifiers with Application to Foods, sponsored by AOCS, will be held September 21-25, 1997, at the Swissotel in Chicago. The conference will feature review and current research papers and posters on the physical properties of fats, oils, and emulsifiers, focusing on crystalline properties and applications to foods.

Food Lipid Stability and Antioxidants is a short course to be offered by AOCS May 8-10, 1997, at The Westin Hotel-Seattle. The short course will immediately precede the Society's Annual Meeting & Expo from May 11 to May 14, also in Seattle. The course is intended to provide basic and practical information to food and oil scientists involved in quality control and product development, product reformulation, raw material acquisition, antioxidant applications, and research and marketing.

Also prior to the AOCS Annual Meeting will be a symposium titled Identity Preserved Oils, on May 9-10, sponsored by AOCS and the Institute of Food Technologists' Continuing Education Committee. Program highlights include biotechnology of specific oils, processing, food applications, nonedible industrial applications, market segmentations, regulatory issues, health and nutritional effects, state of commercialization, current research, and future trends.