OFFICERS:
Chair:   Sasan Karimi
Chair-Elect:  Richard Rosso
Former Chair:  Steven Graham
Secretary:  Joe Landesberg
Treasurer:  Phil Mark
Director at Large: Paris Svoronos
Ralph Stephani
Luis Vargas
Eugene Brown

As I complete my chairmanship for the 2005 Long Island Subsection of the New York Section of the American Chemical Society, I would like to report that we had a productive and successful year.

Our activities involved seven lectures covering a variety of topics in chemistry . The guest speakers were from academic institutions as well as industrial settings. The name, affiliation, title, and abstract for each guest speaker were posted in the Indicator.  Our monthly board meetings were held on the last Thursday of each month and the seminars were held on the first Thursday of each month, unless otherwise decided.

The highlight of the lecture series was a lecture given by the National ACS president Dr. William Carroll entitled: “ACS Presidential Agenda 2005: An Invitation to Dialogue” on March 31, 2005 at Hofstra University. This lecture was attended by faculty and students from universities: Hofstra, Adelphi, St. John's, Nassau Community College, and Queensborough Community College.

The April 7, 2005 seminar was held at Queensborough Community College after a board decision to rotate the seminars in various academic institutions on an experimental basis. This was decided in order to encourage the attendance and participation of faculty and students from other colleges and universities.

The December 8, 2005 seminar and Holiday Social was held at St. John’s University with the attendance of at least 150 faculty and students.

On April 14, 2005, we held the Fifth Chemistry Challenge at Queensborough Community College.  Students from four undergraduate institutions including Hofstra, St. John’s, Nassau Community College,  and Queensborough Community College  participated in the event. This competition which was attended by nearly 100 people was followed by dinner for everyone, and was financially supported by the Student Government at Queensborough Community College.

On May 26, 2005, the Environmental Committee hosted the Ninth Annual Francis S. Sterrett  Environmental Chemistry Symposium. The committee met approximately monthly (from October 2004 to May 2005) to plan and organize the symposium.  The event was held at Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY with the theme Long Island Air Quality—To Breathe or Not To Breathe?  By all standards the event was successful.  The speakers were excellent and comments by the attendees were universally positive.  Approximately 70 people attended the environmental conference.
 

The Fifteenth High School Award Dinner was held at Adelphi University  on June 2, 2005.  For the fifteenth year, the Annual Outstanding Scholastic Achievement in High School Chemistry awards were distributed.  Nominations were solicited from 219 high schools in Nassau, Suffolk, and Queens counties.  Eighty-two schools nominated students.  Thirty-four students and their families attended the awards dinner, held on June 2 at Adelphi University.  The keynote speaker was Dr. Michael Blumenthal, CEO and Director of Research at Libra Technical Center, LLC, whose talk was entitled “Take my hand. I'm a Chemist. I'll help you!”.  The award events were co-chaired by Drs. Steven Graham and Ralph Stephani from St. John’s University.

The Chair of LIACS for the 2006 is Dr. Richard Rosso from the Chemistry Department at St. Johns University.  We held the election of the board members on December 8th, 2005 at St. John’s University and Dr. Eugene Brown was elected as the Chair-elect for 2006.

It was an honor and pleasure to serve as the chair of the LIACS for the year 2005.

Sincerely,
Dr. Sasan Karimi
Chair of LIACS 2005
Associate Professor of Chemistry
Department of Chemistry
Queensborough Community College
222-05 56th Ave
Bayside, NY 11364
Tel# (718) 631-6280
Fax# (718)281-5078
Email: skarimi@qcc.cuny.edu