If I could recreate the famous quote by Star Wars’ Darth Vader and give it a chemistry theme, I’d say “the sense of community is strong with ACS”.
Having returned from the ACS national meeting that took place in San Diego during Aug 25-29, I can categorically say that there is something very powerful about these twice-yearly events. University of California, Los Angeles’s Alex Spokoyny (part of C&EN’s Talented 12 class of 2016) said it better than I could have. As the meeting was drawing to a close, he tweeted:
I don’t usually post about my feelings here, but: Attending every ACS meeting reminds me that we have an amazing community of super talented and amazing individuals and cherishing and celebrating everyone’s personal/professional successes in this community keeps me going.
— Alex Spokoyny (@organomimetic) August 27, 2019
ACS national meetings are a celebration of chemistry and its people. And there was something for each and every one of the circa 12,400 + people who attended the event. Here at C&EN, we also did everything in our power to ensure that those who could not attend had their fare share of chemistry and were able to keep up to date with the latest happenings.
With that in mind, our up-to-the-minute coverage was perfectly complemented by a pop-up email that was sent daily for the duration of the meeting, and by the ACS Meeting Insider, a booklet with loads of useful meeting information, from restaurant recommendations to a list of must-attend symposia.
A selection of advertisers were featured in both, including an ad takeover of the pop-up email series from Shimadzu. In addition, C&EN’s multimedia team live broadcasted many of the events we organized, as well as interviews with scientists on-site and at nearby institutions and universities.
In terms of the events we hosted, we celebrated the 5th edition of C&EN’s Talented 12 (T12). This program, which is sponsored by Thermo Fisher Scientific, has grown exponentially since its launch, and in 2019, the quality of these TED-style talks delivered by the 12 honorees was just phenomenal.
Here are some images that encapsulate the best moments of the T12 celebrations, which, besides the symposium included a reveal ceremony and a reception with honorees, their friends, families and colleagues, special guests and our sponsors. (More after the jump.)
With the Fall ACS national meeting out of the way, we now look to the rest of 2020. So what does next year have in store for C&EN?
We have many plans and projects already in progress, and you can now see what’s to come with our newly-released editorial calendar, which provides more info about some of the topics we’ll be covering throughout the year.
One of the activities I’m looking forward to the most is the special C&EN issue to commemorate International Women’s Day and Women’s History month that we are planning for the beginning of March. To help us mark these dates as they deserve, we have invited a celebrity biochemist and inventor to join us for a week and be the guest editor of an issue about female chemistry entrepreneurs. Can you guess who it is? I’m delighted to announce that Jennifer Doudna, CRISPR pioneer and an entrepreneur herself, will be curating the special issue. I can’t wait to read it.
We also more have sponsorship opportunities, similar to our Talented 12 issue. Ask us about our annual 10 Start-Ups to Watch coverage, where every year, we select the most interesting companies developing the next generation of chemistry. This year’s list is about to debut!
In the meantime, enjoy C&EN! Don’t forget about the rest of 2019, and to request your copy of our 2020 editorial calendar.
