News from Journal House

Reminder: Automatic Renewal Service

The Journal of Chemical Education now has a new service for individual subscribers: automatic renewal. Our Automatic Renewal Program is new for 2008 subscriptions. It enables those of you paying by credit card to check a box that will “confirm that the credit card entered below will be charged on an annual basis for the subscription type indicated”.

The option is available however you subscribe or renew: on the paper renewal form or online at the JCE Online Store. Of course, checking the box is voluntary, but we expect that many subscribers will welcome this convenience.

Awards Announced

High School Teacher Honored

Mary Harris, who teaches chemistry and eighth-grade science at John Burroughs School in St. Louis, MO, has recently been honored with the school’s Dr. Charles Kerr Sibley Chair in Science. The Chair is awarded for a five-year term and is accompanied by a modest salary increase and a budget for professional expenses.

Harris, a frequent JCE contributor, has received many honors including the Presidential Award for Science Teaching for her work in chemical education and for mentoring student teams to national recognition in the NSTA/Toshiba Exploravision contest.

While endowed chairs are widely known in colleges and universities, this is not the case in K–12 institutions. It is, however, a great way for a donor to encourage good teaching and to recognize excellence.

Courses, Seminars, Meetings, Opportunities

20th ICCE in Mauritius

The 20th International Conference on Chemical Education (ICCE) will be held August 3–8, 2008 in Mauritius. The conference is sponsored by IUPAC. The organizing Committee invites all academicians, science teachers, and researchers to attend this biennial meeting. The conference theme, Chemistry in the ICT Age, is in line with the worldwide trend in science and technology development.

The program will feature a wide variety of plenary, invited, and contributed lectures, as well as poster sessions. Participants may submit abstracts in either English or French.

A virtual conference, for which there is no registration fee, will be held in July 2008 as a part of the 20th ICCE. The conference will be followed by a satellite symposium in Nairobi on August 11 and 12, 2008.

Henri Li Kam Wah is president of the 20th ICCE; Ponnadurai Ramasami is chair of the Organizing Committee. For additional information visit the conference Web site (accessed Sep 2007) or send an email.

2008 Schedule, Center for Workshops in the Chemical Sciences

The NSF-CCLI-ND-sponsored Center for Workshops in the Chemical Sciences (CWCS) announces its 2008 program. These week-long workshops are designed for faculty and staff with instructional responsibilities at the undergraduate-level at universities, colleges, community colleges, and other educational institutions. Individuals who plan to embark on a career in college teaching (i.e., advanced graduate students and post-docs) are also welcome.

The workshops are designed to provide a background and modern perspective on various topics in the chemical sciences, along with methods to introduce these topics into the college curriculum. They all involve extensive hands-on activities. Registration, housing, and a per diem for food are provided at no cost to participants. Some support might also be available to cover the cost of travel to the workshops. The workshops have a long history of engaging faculty in new topical areas and providing great support for enhancing the curriculum at a variety of institutions. Established in 2001, CWCS is funded for 2007–2010 by an award from the NSF CCLI (phase 3) program.

Further information about CWCS, descriptions of individual workshops, and an application are available on the Web (accessed Sep 2007).

Environmental Chemistry: Hampton University, Hampton, VA. May 25–30, 2008

Molecular Genetics: University of Hawaii, Hilo, HI. May 25–30, 2008

Chemistry of Art: Washington & Lee University, Lexington, VA. June 15–20, 2008

Chemical Education-Supporting Student Laboratory Learning: University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL. June 15–20, 2008

Forensic Science: Williams College, Williamstown, MA.June 15–20, 2008: IntroductoryJune 22–27, 2008: Advanced

Crystallography: California State University, Fullerton, Fullerton, CA. June 22–27, 2008

Combinatorial Chemistry: Miami University, Oxford, OH. July 20–25, 2008

Research-Based Laboratory Curriculum: University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL. June 22–27, 2008

2008 Science History European Tour: France

Here is the first information available about our proposed trip for the summer of 2008. It will begin in France probably on Wednesday, June 18 and end about July 2. Our itinerary will take us to the south of France, including the wine-growing areas of the Languedoc, and to some of the interesting areas in the west. One or more of the chateaux of the Loire will be on our route and we will spend a few days in Paris, where there are so many science-related places to see.

During the tour, the story of Gay-Lussac and other scientists, the history of medicine, the historical importance of salt and its role in the development of towns (and in changing the course of French politics), the archeology of the wonderful Roman sites at Nimes and Pont du Gard, and probably the mathematics of the construction of Mont St. Michel will be investigated. It goes without saying that we will also study wine production in a very practical way. There will as usual be both 3 hours of inexpensive college credit for those interested and CPDUs for teachers.

The tour cost will include hotel accommodation with private bathrooms, admissions to museums, lecture fees, and taxes along with land transportation. Breakfasts and (on average) at least one other meal per day and usually wine with dinners are also included. The cost of the 2008 tour is not yet calculated, but with the present rate of exchange for the U. S. dollar against the Euro we do not expect it to be less than $3600 per person double occupancy. Transatlantic airfare is not included, but please note—we always get high marks for value for money in our tour evaluations!

Many of our participants receive some or all of the tour cost from their schools or colleges, or from their districts. Please apply to them early! Also, some have been able to take a tax deduction for part or all of the cost—check with your tax advisor.

Our last trip to France was fully subscribed, so let us know early if you are considering joining the group for next year’s tour—we are expecting it to be a sell-out. Contact Lee Marek or Yvonne Twomey to ask to be put on the list of persons interested in next summer’s trip.

International Congress of Nanotechnology

The International Association of Nanotechnology will host the 4th International Congress of Nanotechnology (ICNT 2007) and the Clean Tech World Congress 2007, to be held November 5–8, 2007 in San Francisco. The conference theme is Nano Bio Clean Tech: The Emerging Economy in the Global Market. The conference will feature these keynote speakers.

Roger D. Kornberg, Nobel Prize Laureate in Chemistry 2006

Sir Harold Kroto, Nobel Prize Laureate in Chemistry 1996

Senator Leland Yee

as well as more than 100 speakers from 25 countries.

Further information may be found on the conference Web site (accessed Sep 2007).

Chemical Heritage Now Online

The Chemical Heritage Foundation announces that Chemical Heritage magazine has redesigned its Web site (accessed Sep 2007).

New features include having more articles from the current issue online, making available in select articles more photos in the form of slide shows, and making additional back issues available online.