Co-Chairs: Dr. Raifah Kabbani, Pace University
                     Dr. Jill Rehmann, St. Joseph's College

Committee Members:  Raifah Kabbani (Co-Chair), Jill Rehmann (Co-Chair), Sharokh Saba, James Caiccio, John McMahon, Richard Cassetta, Neil Jespersen, Sasan Karimi, Pamela Kerrigan, Keith Ramig, Yorke Rhodes, Nanette Watcher, Alwell Nwankwoala, Sharon Lall-Ramnarine, Jaimelee Cohen, Alison Hyslop.

Committee meeting and planning for the 53rd URS took place on Dec. 21, 2004 at SUNY Stony Brook.  Members of the Students’ Association Committee present:  Raifah Kabbani, Jill Rehmann, Rita Nicholaides, Michael White, Diane Godden, and Robert Kerber

Number of Attendees: Estimated at ~200 students, faculty, family and friends.
Number of Presentations: 82

College Students Presenting
Baruch College - CUNY 2
Fordham University 5
Hofstra University 5
Iona College 6
LaGuardia Community College 2
Long Island University 1
Manhattan College 1
Medgar Evers College 1
New York University 2
Polytechnic University 3
Purchase College 3
Polytechnic University 2
Queensborough Community College 28
Ramapo College of New Jersey 6
St. John's University 5
St. Joseph's College 4
Stony Brook University 13
The Cooper Union 1
York College, CUNY 1

Total Students Presenting 91

The New York Chemistry Students' Association of the New York Section held its 53rd  URS on Saturday May 7, 2005, at Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY.  Eighty-two papers from 17 different colleges were presented in twelve concurrent sessions.  The areas covered were analytical, biochemistry, inorganic, organic, nano- & surface chemistry and polymer chemistry.

Attendees were formally welcomed by Dr. Michael White, the chair of the Chemistry Department at Stony Brook University, followed by Dr. Robert McGrath, Provost of Stony Brook University, Dr. James Canary, the ACS New York Section Chair and Jill Rehmann, Co-Chair, Students’ Association Committee. Dr. Michael White introduced the keynote speaker Professor Stephen O’Brien from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Columbia University. The keynote presentation entitled “Scale Your Enthusiasm” was a wonderful introduction to the field of nanoscience.  The speaker discussed applications and future application of nanomaterials and devices in a variety of areas ranging from integrated circuits to medicine and diagnostics. As a token of appreciation from the ACS-NY Section, the speaker was presented with an inscribed plaque commemorating the event. The group picture was taken and then students, faculty and guests attended the student presentations taking place in twelve concurrent sessions.

The students gave either 15 or 10 minute PowerPoint Presentations.  The conference rooms were equipped with laptop computers and projection systems. Student presentations were saved on either CD or flash and, for the first time, there were no computer compatibility problems.
Representatives from OSI Pharmaceuticals (Radek Laufer, Ph
.D., and Douglas Werner) and Prentice Hall Barry Harmon) attended the symposium.  Tables were made available for these representatives in the reception area and the OSI representatives spoke briefly about OSI and career opportunities at the luncheon.

The symposium concluded with a luncheon and presentation of Certificates of Participation and mementos to student presenters by Sharon Lall-Ramnarine and Jaimelee Cohen.
 
 

Announcements for this event were made electronically by e-mail as well as advertising in the Indicator issues of March and April.   Submission of abstracts was done using e-mail and web technology.  The program for the day and a complete listing of all student abstracts were published in the book of abstracts which was distributed to all attendees and can be found at http://www.newyorkacs.org/grp_students.html .   The website for submission was developed and maintained by Ed Harris the Web Master for the ACS-NY section.   In addition to the registration of presenters we added two other categories, one for the registration of mentors and another for the registration of guests to help us estimate the number of attendees to the program.  Receipt of the abstracts online, collation and organization of the abstract booklet was performed by Jill Rehmann.  Printing of the abstracts was carried out at Kinkos, the copier used by Stony Brook University.

The arrangements at Stony Brook University were overseen by Diane Godden, with the help of Michael White and Bob Kerber. These arrangements included planning the bvreakfas5t and lunch (Raifah Kabbani was involved in this as well), scheduling the moderators, staffing the reception area, arranging for AV support, converting the program to PDF and hiring a printer, printing the badges and making sure signage was in place to direct the symposium participants.

Fund raising was managed by Raifah Kabbani with assistance from Jaimelee Cohen. Raifah Kabbani also planned the luncheon menu and ordered the briefcases that were presented to the students and moderators as mementos. Neil Jesperson made the certificates and Marilyn Jesperson ordered the plaque for the speaker.
 
 

Fund Raising

Thanks to the generous support of local industrial donors and for publishing companies, participants of this year’s symposium received an abstract booklet, a memento, and a copy of the group photo taken on the day of the symposium.

In addition to $4000.00 allocated by the ACS- NY section, the following institutions made monetary donations, for a total of  $2800.00.
 

Donation List for URS 2005

Organization Contact person  Amount
Coherent Inc.
5100 Patrick Henry Dr
PO Box 54980
Santa Clara CA 95056-0980 Dr. John Ambroseo, COO $500
CIBA Specialty Chemicals
BSC Headquarters
540 White Rains Rd
PO Box 2005
Tarrytown NY 10591-9005 Mr. Kevin Bryla
Vice President of Communications
 $100
Houghton Mifflin Co.
 Ken Hershbell
239 E 79 St, NY NY 10021
 Ken _Hershbell@hmo.com $200
Anasazi Instruments
4101 Cansard Ave #103
Indianapolis IN 46203-6040 Bill Bearden
 $500
Wyeth Research
P.O. Box 42528
Philadelphia, PA 19101 Sharon Lahr, CPIM
Assoc. Director, R&D Adm.
 phone: 484-865-2052
fax: 484-865-9401
lahrs@wyeth.com $500

Pepsi Cola Company
Pepsi-Cola Company
100 Stevens Avenue
Vallhalla, NY  10595 Ms. Carrie Schell
Executive Assistant
Public Relations Department
 $500
OSI Pharmaceuticals
1 Bioscience Park Drive
Farmingdale, NY 11735icals
 Dr. Mark Mulvihill $500
 TOTAL $2800

EXPENSES:

VENDER Paid by EXPENSE (amount)
Leeds (June Brady) gifts for presenters ACS               $1224.50
Max Office Supplies (certificates), and postage ACS      $71.35
Lunch  ACS                                                                        $2,200.00
Breakfast Stony Brook University                                      $725.00

Program Book  Stony Brook University                            $900.00

Facilities Stony Brook University                                    $2200.00
 TOTAL ACS Expense                                                      $3495.85

URS fundraising reduced the local section contribution from the $4000.00 allotted to $695.85.
 
 

Under the direction of the Students’ Association Committee, plans for the 54th URS to be held at St. John’s University, May 2006 are currently underway.  Stony Brook University has expressed an interest in hosting the URS on a regular basis every 4 to 5 years.

Due to the very large contingent from Queensborough Community College (QCC) and space constraints (9 rooms available) the Queensborough students were allotted 10 minute presentation slots.  This is not an ideal situation because it requires that the Queensborough students to be grouped together in their own room.  In the future, host institutions should have at least 10 and preferably 11 to 12 AV equipped rooms.    The QCC presentations were facilitated by consolidation on a single CD, cutting down on transition time between talks and prevented compatibility problems. This worked very well and should be continued as part of the responsibilities of the QCC URS Co-Chair. Consolidation of presentations could be done for all of the student presenters and is something to consider in the future.

Both Raifah Kabbani and Jill Rehmann are resigning as Co-Chairs of the The New York Chemistry Students’Association. The New Co-Chairs for 2006 are Sharon Lall-Ramnarine, Jaimelee Cohen, Alison Hyslop, with Sharon taking the position of special URS coordinator for Queensborough Community College as discussed above.

The committee wishes to extend its warmest thanks to the following individuals for their generous help with the 53rd URS:  Michael White, Diane Godden, and Robert Kerber, Prof. Neil Jespersen (St. John's University, ACS NY Section), Marilyn Jespersen (ACS NY Section), Ed Harris (Web Master) and the students and staff of the Chemistry Department at Stony Brook University.

Copies of the 53rd URS abstract booklet and the group photo will be sent to the ACS-NY office.
 

Submitted by,
Raifah Kabbani, Co-Chair
Jill Rehmann, Co-Chair

June, 2005