Section News & Happenings

We are pleased to provide the April 2024 Issue of The Crucible. If you have something you would like included in future issues, please email Alysia Mandato at [email protected].

The Pittsburgh Section of the American Chemical Society needs volunteers to share the chemistry of batteries with the community during Earth Month! We are collaborating with the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy at their Earth Month celebration event: Saturday, April 20 from 12 -3 PM at McKinley Park in the Beltzhoover neighborhood.

All materials and training will be provided. Please contact Chemists Celebrate Earth Week coordinator, Alysia Mandato, at [email protected] if you are interested in volunteering!

The Pittsburgh Local Section of the American Chemical Society (ACS) is sponsoring an illustrated poem contest for students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

• Contest Deadline: Sunday, April 28, 2024, at 11:59 PM EST, https://forms.gle/PemLmiY87KbKQ8wt5 
• Prizes: $50 for 1st place winners in each of four grade categories: K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12
• Contact: Alysia Mandato, CCEW Coordinator, [email protected]

Winners of the Pittsburgh Local Section’s Illustrated Poem Contest will advance to the National Illustrated Poem Contest for a chance to be featured on the ACS website and to win prizes!

​​1. What is your work and ACS (if applicable) title?

Chair and Associate Professor of Chemistry, Seton Hill University
Associate Member of the ACS Committee on Public Relations and Communications; Chair of Pittsburgh Women Chemists Committee

2. How many years have you been in the ACS?

4 years

3. What is the biggest benefit of ACS Membership?

Opportunities for professional development and the chance to have an impact on western Pennsylvania’s scientific community.

4. What did you want to be when you were a child?

A doctor. I was 8 years old when my mother suffered a stroke and I remember talking to her doctor and asking him why he thought the medication he prescribed my mother would work, his response was, “It just does.” Perhaps it seemed the best response to give to a little girl, however it moved something in me. At that time, I had no idea who scientists were, but I made up my mind that I was going to grow up to know how certain things in our bodies work. Currently, I teach about chemical reactions in the body.

5. What made you fall in love with Chemistry?

I grasped that I could rely less on memorization and more on using logic to figure things out.

6. What is your favorite part of your career or job?

My favorite part of my job is mentoring. Mentoring is sometimes overlooked but it is a crucial part of the work we do as stakeholders in higher education.

7. Which chemist, past or present, would you like to meet and why?

I would have liked to have met St. Elmo Brady. He researched the acidity of carboxylic acids and was the first African American to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry in the United States. I believe his accomplishment is a lesson in resilience in a discipline where historically African Americans are underrepresented. I also admire the commitment he showed to teaching and mentoring.

​​1. What is your work and ACS (if applicable) title?

Professor, Pennsylvania Western University – California
Councilor for the Pittsburgh Local Section, Member of the LSAC (Local Section Activities Committee,) and Chair of LSAC Committee on Grants & Awards

2. How many years have you been in the ACS?

26 years

3. What is the biggest benefit of ACS Membership?

Connecting with other chemists locally and around the world

4. What did you want to be when you were a child?

When I was a child, I wanted to be a surgeon, but I found myself too squeamish!

5. What made you fall in love with Chemistry?

I think I fell in love with chemistry, when I realized that all the objects (and people) I interacted with in everyday life were made up of atoms from the elements on the periodic table.

6. What is your favorite part of your career or job?

My favorite part of my job is helping students learn chemistry when they don’t think they can at first.

7. Which chemist, past or present, would you like to meet and why?

If I could meet any chemist, past or present, I would like to meet Dr. Marie Maynard Daly. Dr. Daly was the first African-American woman to earn her Ph.D. in chemistry in 1947. While she passed away in 2003, I would have enjoyed hearing about her experiences, including struggles and successes as she was a pioneer overcoming societal barriers.

Nominations for both awards are solicited from the membership of the Pittsburgh Section. Nomination packets and more information about the awards, including information on past
winners, can be found on the Pittsburgh ACS website: https://pittsburghacs.org/awards/

Please send all nominations (or questions about nomination process) to Pittsburgh Section Chair-Elect, Samuel Leung, [email protected].

The Pittsburgh ACS Section is hosting the ACS Central Regional Meeting in November in Pittsburgh. We will be awarding a number of awards. Please apply! Applications are due by August 1, 2024. For more information, visit acscerm2024.org.

Stanley C. Israel Regional Award for Advancing Diversity in the Chemical Sciences
The purpose of this award is to recognize individuals and/or institutions who have advanced diversity in the chemical sciences and significantly stimulated or fostered activities that promote inclusiveness within the region.

E. Ann Nalley CERM Region Award for Volunteer Service to the American Chemical Society
The purpose of this award is to recognize the volunteer efforts of individuals who have served the American Chemical Society, contributing significantly to the goals and objectives of the Society through their Regional Activities.

DivCHED High School Teaching Award
The purpose of this award is to recognize, encourage, and stimulate outstanding teachers of high school chemistry in the Central Region.

The Pittsburgh WCC is hosting a Global Women’s Breakfast on February 24 at 11 AM at Seton Hill University. 

Download the flyer.

​1. What is your work and ACS (if applicable) title?

Senior Field Sales Engineer, Shimadzu Scientific Instruments, Inc.
ACS Pittsburgh Section Director

2. How many years have you been in the ACS?

24 years

3. What is the biggest benefit of ACS Membership?

The ACS has been a huge blessing to my life. I’ve met remarkable people, made cherished friends, and gotten to hone skillsets I don’t normally get to use in my career.

4. What did you want to be when you were a child?

I was convinced I’d be a teacher. I used to make lesson plans for the summer and make my little sister go to “basement school” every day. Poor girl!

5. What made you fall in love with Chemistry?

My 10th grade Chemistry Teacher, Mrs. Roscoe, made me fall in love with chemistry. She made Chemistry exciting, and when she did her stoichiometry lesson, magic happened for me!

6. How did you get into your current position?

As a Senior at Pitt, I was a student aide working in the Employment Bureau at Pittcon. At that time, everything was paper, and all the HR representatives were telling me to be in sales as I shuffled resumes and scheduling cards around the bureau. I was adamantly against this because sales reps annoy me. But here I am, almost 25 years later, still a sales rep. The difference with me is that I don’t feel like a sales rep at all. I feel like a problem solver, a customer advocate, and a vessel to promote science anywhere I can!

7. What is your favorite book and why?

I love Simon Sinek’s Start with Why (How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action). I love being inspired by people and studying what inspires others to achieve.

Seton Hill’s Future Scholars Program, (FSP) is a mutually beneficial partnership between K-12 schools and Seton Hill University. FSP student leaders have an opportunity for experiential learning and to give back to their local community. With STEM college students actively teaching and influencing research and curriculum design, we are helping to build a stronger pipeline of local students, who are excited by STEM topics. Evidence-based practices have shown that peer teaching is incredibly effective! When college students teach younger students, it facilitates middle and high schoolers to envision themselves as STEM majors in college.

Learn more about the Future Scholars Program.