Group News

When your Board of Trustees last met on 16 November 2011, the key priority was to agree the rolling business plan for 2012-14 and the budget to implement this.

Water use to grow and process biomass feedstocks for fuels has recently emerged as an important controversy. In a world where several countries already face water stress – and where over 70% of global freshwater use takes place in the agricultural sector – bioenergy development might present considerable challenges, from the perspective of water quantity as well as water quality.

The America Group has presented the 105th Perkin Medal to Dr Rodney H Banks, in recognition of his outstanding work in applied chemistry. Members' News finds out about his career

Byron's research is centered on fundamental redox reactions relevant to dye-sensitised solar cells and solar energy conversion

The 2011 Perkin Medal will be presented to Dr Rodney H Banks, a research fellow at Nalco, the America International Group announced.

Ian Lennon, head of business development for Chiral Quest, did his PhD at Imperial College London with Prof Steven Ley

Dr Venkat Rao is Chief Scientist, National and Defense Programs, CSC (Computer Science Corporation), Virginia USA

Executive Director Joanne Lyall visited New York for a series of meetings in March

The America International Group has announced that the Chemical Industry Medal will be presented to J Brian Ferguson, Executive Chairman of the Board of Eastman Chemical Company.

SCI Executive Director Joanne Lyall recently returned from Philadelphia, where she represented SCI at a series of events on 22-23 September 2010 organised by the Chemical Heritage Foundation and SCI America under the umbrella of the Innovation Day. Here she reports on her visit.

SCI's America International Group will award the Perkin Medal to Ronald Breslow, S L Mitchill Professor of Chemistry and University Professor at Columbia University.

SCI's America International Group will award the Perkin Medal to Ronald Breslow, S L Mitchill Professor of Chemistry and University Professor at Columbia University.

Topics covered included: new synthetic methods, total synthesis of natural products, metal and organocatalysis, glycochemistry and glycobiology, small molecule protein interactions, synthetic biology, neurobiology, physical organic chemistry, bioorganic chemistry and medicinal chemistry.

Dr Emmett Crawford received the 2010 SCI Gordon E Moore Medal for the invention of Eastman Tritan^TM Copolyester and leadership in the development and commercialisation of this new family of engineering plastics.

The America International Group has awarded the 2010 SCI Chemical Industry Medal to Michael E Campbell, chairman, president, and CEO of Arch Chemicals, Inc. He was presented with the medal at an industry dinner in New York on 10 March 2010.

Jason is a senior majoring in chemistry at Columbia University. He has had internships with Professors John Porco at Boston University and James Leighton at Columbia University while in high school and has been working for Professor Scott Snyder at Columbia since the spring of 2008.

Ellen Kullman has been ranked eighth in the Financial Times' 2010 list of Women at the Top.

Chemical Industry Medal winner J Brian Ferguson, the retired CEO and Chairman of Eastman Chemical Company, tells us of his 34-year career in the industry.

In July 2009, SCI entered into a broader strategic alliance with the American Chemical Society (ACS) to advance chemistry-based knowledge and address global issues of mutual interest and benefit to our members.

Stephanie Burns, CEO and Chairman of Dow Corning and new Honorary President of SCI, talks about her experience leading a corporation where innovation is paramount. She also discusses SCI's role in driving knowledge transference in the chemical industry, CSR initiatives and innovative ideas for the future of SCI involving community engagement and mentoring of young scientists.

SCI is always happy to welcome new volunteers and members to the Society.

On Thursday 11 and Friday 12 September 2008, SCI ran two ‘workshop and best practice sharing’ events, open to all Treasurers, Secretaries and Chairs of Regional Interest (RIG) and Technical Interest Groups (TIG).

The main aim of SCI is to bring members together and an online forum can help us do this through the web.

On Monday, 28 September 2009, SCI will be hosting a one-day ‘Volunteer Workshop and Best Practice’ day for the Honorary Chairmen, Secretaries and Treasurers of all its UK-based Interest Groups.

There are many significant issues facing every one of us. Some of these issues are of such societal and global significance that, unless real solutions are found and real actions are taken - by individuals, by organisations and by governments - the consequences will be, literally, disastrous

SCI has always recognised the benefits and value of working together with similar bodies.

Messel bursar Cedric Callens reports from Salt Lake City

The SCI Global Summit was a rare chance to step outside the workaday world and share ideas to cut through the economic gloom, said one its most prominent attendees, Dr Madeleine Jacobs, Executive Director and CEO of the American Chemical Society.

The Society of Chemical Industry (SCI), America International Group, will award the SCI Perkin Medal to Richard B Silverman, the John Evans Professor of Chemistry at Northwestern University. He will be presented with the medal at the Perkin Medal dinner, now in its 103rd year, in Philadelphia on 15 September 2009.

SCI has named Jeffrey M Lipton, Chief Executive Officer of NOVA Chemicals, to receive the 2009 Chemical Industry Medal.

Michael D Clift is the recipient of the 2009 Perkin Scholarship. Clift received his undergraduate degree in biochemistry in 2005 from Western Michigan University as a member of the Lee Honors College. His research interests include biochemistry, medicinal chemistry, and total synthesis.

Herbert W Boyer has served as a director of Genentech since he co-founded the company in 1976 with Robert A Swanson, a venture capitalist

Messel bursar Lynette Smyth reports from Salt Lake City

Paul A. Sagel is awarded the SCI Gordon E. Moore Medal for his efforts to produce one of the biggest innovations in home oral care in decades: Crest Whitestrips.

Emma Parmee will receive the 2009 SCI Gordon E Moore Medal for playing a key role in the discovery of the dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4) inhibitor JANUVIA™ (sitagliptin), the first and only DPP-4 inhibitor approved for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus.

In the foreword to the book American Chemical Enterprise, published to celebrate the centennial of SCI’s America International Group, Hal Sorgenti, then Chairman, wrote of Americans’ ‘delight’ in ‘hearing of people who use their creative talents imaginatively to invent, to innovate and to organise new technologies’. A desire to honour such people; those who have made a personal contribution to the advance of society and economy through technology, is at the core of SCI America Group’s identity.

Dr Richard B Silverman is the John Evans Professor of Chemistry at Northwestern University and also holds an appointment in the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Cell Biology.