Home >> Events >> Special Events >> 254th ACS National Meeting
254th ACS National Meeting
Aug 24, 2017
Shaun Tan
In August 2017, NUS ACS Student Chapter was awarded an international travel grant to send student members to attend the 254th ACS National Meeting in Washington DC. With the other EXCO members not being able to go for one reason or another, I thus fortuitously became the chosen one to represent our Chapter. To say I was psyched for it would be a massive understatement as it was my first time attending a scientific conference (and this being one of the largest in the world!), and I also got the chance to present a poster.
I attended so many interesting and useful talks at the Meeting. The one that would come foremost to mind would be the Guinness World Record Lecture (for largest chemistry lesson). The lesson itself was really fascinating as Dr. Sadlak talked about water purification like an alchemy art. And I got a T-shirt to prove that I am now officially part of a Guinness World Record! The Eminent Scientist Luncheon Lecture was also particularly appealing to me as the topic (photothermal therapy for cancer) was closely related to my previous research project on Magnetic Hyperthermia (using magnetic nanoparticles to kill cancer cells by heat). I got a lot of answers to questions that I had been wondering about heat treatment for cancer! The Journey to Mars Lecture was an inaugural one at ACS National Meetings but it should definitely become an annual tradition! The speaker was so enthusiastic in talking about the current progress and research regarding the holy grail of sending a manned expedition to Mars, I can’t wait for the day it happens! And it’s also gratifying to know how important a role chemistry plays in this effort, from optimizing the energy harvesting process to designing new catalysts for the conversion of carbon dioxide to oxygen.
Other than the talks, the Exposition was also really impressive, with a mind-boggling array of booths ranging from publishers like JACS, Elsevier and Wiley, to instrumentation companies like Bruker and Agilent, and chemical giants like Fischer and Merck. I sat down for a CAS booth talk on SciFinder after the person said I would get a free thumbdrive at the end, and it turned out to be surprisingly eye-opening! I have never used SciFinder but after listening to what SciFinder has to offer its users (I was especially awed by ChemPlanner, a predictive synthetic planning platform for compounds never synthesized before!), I think I’m gonna switch to it and abandon Reaxys!
Having missed the official registration period, I did not have a poster board number and was chucked at one end of the hall with a few others. Traffic was thus not too ideal, but I still managed to get a few curious passers-by to listen to my presentation. Thankfully I did some revision the night before as I did this research an entire year ago, so luckily I could still answer the questions posed. I also managed to mingle with the other presenters, and exchange pointers and ideas! Overall this was a really fruitful experience.
I was also really glad to have attended many undergraduate talks as they gave so many ideas for NUS ACSSC. For instance, I went for an outreach talk by Utica College and something that caught my attention was their “A Forensic Themed Case Study for the Organic Lab” outreach activity, which I believe would be highly attractive to high school students. Other initiatives that NUS ACSSC could emulate would be the “Job Hunt: Do’s and Don’ts of Applying and Interviewing” and “Grad School Reality Check” talks. These informative sessions will likely be well-received by the undergraduate population, be it those looking to go into the industry or continue into grad school.
​
Of course, my time there was not only work but no play. With the free eclipses glasses that ACS so charitably gave out, I managed to catch the first eclipse of my life with my own eyes! It was a really surreal experience actually, as almost everyone just seemed to drop whatever they were doing and came out to view the eclipse. The Journey to Mars Reception at the Smithsonian Museum of Air and Space also gave me the opportunity to tour the famous museum and its unbelievably real-looking exhibits! And finally, I had the chance to meet up with Becky Miller for lunch. Becky provided incredible help for my pre-trip preparation and never seemed to get annoyed by my endless deluge of questions. Imagine my surprise when I found out she just started working at ACS in July!
And with that, my short stay in Washington came to an end. The time really flew by but it was an experience I will never forget. I attended so many great talks, had so much awesome food, and explored so many places. I thank ACS for providing a travel grant for International Student Chapter members to defray our travel expenditure, the NUS Department of Chemistry for covering some of my expenses, and Becky for being such a wonderful host. May we meet again, sometime, somewhere, in the future!