Volume 88 Issue 2
March 21, 2012
Meeting-in-Miniature
Oberlin College
Plenary Speaker: Sibrina N.
Collins, PhD
Chair:
Kat Wollyung
PerkinElmer, Inc., Akron
330-686-0056
ACS.NCW.Kat@gmail.com
Chair-Elect:
Don Jaworske
NASA Glenn Research Center
216-433-2312
Donald.A.Jaworske@nasa.gov
Treasurer:
John Moran
Department of Science and
Mathematics
Phone: 216-373-6380 jmoran@ndc.edu
Secretary:
Anna Bowman a.bowman@neu.edu
Cleveland Section Web Site: http://www.csuohio.edu/sciences
/dept/cleveland_acs/
I I S O T O P I I C S
February 2012
Groups of 10-15 attendees typically attend each tour. The times for and lengths of the tours will be determined by the number of RSVPs. Typical tours will be on the order of 15-30 minutes depending on attendance and interest. They are willing to cater to us. So come with your questions ready! Their non-chemist but very chemisty-knowledgable brewmeister will be expecting us.
DINNER RESERVATIONS REQUIRED : Please RSVP by contacting
Kat Wollyung by phone at 330-686-0056 or by email at acs.ncw.kat@gmail.com by 4PM on Friday, February 10th with your name, total number of guests in your party, a phone number and if you would like to request a special vegan, lactose intolerant or other special meal. $13 per attendee; retirees/unemployed $10, and students 21 or older may attend for
$5. Checks made out to “Cleveland ACS” are greatly appreciated; cash otherwise. „Heavy appetizers‟ will be available through the evening.
Artisinal cheese and meat boards, house pickled vegetables, raw vegetable platters wih dip, taco platters (vegetarian black bean, smoked pork tenderloin, and red chili chicken). People with dietary restrictions should state restrictions in their RSVP so that we may try to accommodate them.
Beverages are to be purchased by the attendees.

Page 2 Isotopics February 2012
Visit their map at
MarketGardenBrewery@gmail.com to get directions from your home, lab or office.
1947 West 25th Street, Cleveland, Ohio, 44113
216-621-4000
(Across from the West Side Market… And just down 25 th
Street from Great Lakes Brewing.)
From the West:
90E, take exit 170A toward US-42/W 25 th
St., merge onto Wade Ave, turn left onto W 25 th
St, destination on the right.
From the South or SouthWest:
I-71 N , exit 245 for US-42 toward W 25 th
, left onto Pearl Rd, continue onto W 25th
I-77 N , exit 163 left for I-90E toward E 9 th
St., right at fork for E 9 th
St, merge onto E14th St, turn right onto Orange/E 9 th
, continue onto S
Broadway, left onto Carnegie Ave, turn right onto
W 25 th
and go 1.2 mile.
From the East: Please use web mapsite.
Greetings. As the 2012 Chair of the Cleveland section of the American Chemical Society, I would like to invite all of our members, affiliates and friends to another year of professional development, networking opportunities, education, scientific community outreach, and camaraderie through our monthly meetings and special events, committee programs, award presentations, and outreach activities.
American Chemical Society Cleveland Section
These times of employment and budget concerns has brought our society some challenges that we can help to overcome by banning together to support our profession and our community. While our membership stays strong in numbers, the number of members actively participating in our section events has not been significantly growing.
One of my goals this year is to focus some of my attention in working with the Younger Chemist
Committee, Public Relations Committee and
Student Affiliate members to try to grow our membership from the ground up and bring fresh ideas into our section. If you have suggestions on how we can improve our section‟s activities, I highly encourage you to contact me with your ideas.
I would like to thank the Executive Committee officers, committee chairs, committee members and all the various volunteers for working to keep our section active in providing science education and growth opportunities to teachers and students, sharing knowledge with the general public, and providing opportunities for growth and development to our fellow chemists in academia and industry. Our Meeting in Miniature, Science
Fair participation, and National Chemistry Week activities reach out to the scientists and chemists of tomorrow. Academic, professional and student awards help promote excellence in our exciting fields. Routine and special meetings provide for opportunities for networking, sharing of knowledge in various aspects of chemistry, and introducing us to new or expanding fields in science and industry.
Lastly, I would like to thank John Protasiewicz, our past Chair, for the fantastic job he performed in 2011 and his support to me as I take on this role. He has left me some large shoes to fill.
I encourage you all to give me your honest feedback, suggestions and criticisms, in order to help me continue and improve our section‟s service to our local members, our national society, and our community.
With the best of regards to you all,
Kat (Kathleen) Wollyung

Page 3 Isotopics February 2012
The 2012 Meeting-in-Miniature of the Cleveland
Section of the American Chemical Society will be held on Wednesday, March 21, in the Science
Center at Oberlin College in Oberlin, OH.
Registration will open at 2:00 p.m. The technical sessions with time slots of 15-20 minutes will be from 3:00 – 5:00 p.m. Awards will be given for outstanding talks by undergraduate and graduate students.
At 5:15 p.m., Professor Sibrina Collins of the
Department of Chemistry at the College of
Wooster will present the plenary lecture with the title "African American Contributions to the
Chemical Sciences." Dinner will be served at
6:30 p.m. in the Science Center. Student speakers will be guests of the ACS Section for dinner.
Awards will be presented to students following the dinner.
Abstracts, as Word.doc files, should be submitted to Professor Catherine Oertel,
Catherine.Oertel@oberlin.edu, by Monday,
March 12
. The presenter‟s name should be underlined in the abstract. Please send abstracts for undergraduate talks with “MIM-undergrad” in the subject line and abstracts for graduate student talks with “MIM-grad” as the subject. Dinner reservations, including those for student presenters , should be communicated before the end of the day on Friday, March 16 to Professor
Oertel or to Patricia West at (440)775-8300 or
Patricia.West@oberlin.edu.
Although awards are given to encourage participation by students, we welcome talks by faculty members and practicing chemists at the
MIM.
Irene C. Heller Award Presented to an
Outstanding High School Chemistry Teacher by the Cleveland Section of the American
Chemical Society
The Cleveland Section of the American Chemical
Society annually sponsors an award to recognize an outstanding high school chemistry teacher in
American Chemical Society Cleveland Section the Cleveland Section. The award consists of an honorarium of $1,000 and a framed certificate.
The award is named for Irene Heller of North
Olmsted High School in recognition of her contributions as an outstanding high school chemistry teacher and her service to the Cleveland
Section.
Nominations for the award should be presented to
Kenneth Street, NASA-GRC, MS- 23-2, 21000
Brookpark Road, Cleveland, Ohio 44135 by close of business Friday, March 2, 2012. The nominations should consist of information on the candidate's education, professional experience and activities, awards and honors, offices held and specifics on significant contributions. The letter of nomination should highlight these significant contributions. Seconding letters are suggested. A detailed curriculum vita of the candidate may also be included. Nominations should be sponsored by at least one member of the Cleveland Section. If you do not know a local section ACS member willing to serve as Champion for your candidate, contact Ken Street and he will provide one for you. The Cleveland Section is geographically confined to the counties of Cuyahoga, Geauga,
Lorain, Medina, Huron, and Erie. Electronic nominations using Word or PDF Files mailed to kenneth.w.street@nasa.gov will be greatly appreciated. Ken Street may be contacted at 216-
433-5032 during business hours for assistance with submissions.
The award will be presented at the April, 2012 meeting of the Cleveland Section.
Mercury releases into the atmosphere from ancient to modern times
Environmental Science and Technology
In pursuit of riches and energy over the last 5,000 years, humans have released into the environment
385,000 tons of mercury, the source of numerous health concerns, according to a new study that challenges the idea that releases of the metal are on the decline. The report appears in ACS‟ journal
Environmental Science & Technology .

Page 4 Isotopics February 2012
David Streets and colleagues explain that humans put mercury into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels and through mining and industrial processes.
Mercury is present in coal and the ores used to extract gold and silver. Much information exists about recent releases of mercury, but there is little information on releases in the past. To find out how much impact people have had over the centuries, the scientists reconstructed human additions of mercury to the atmosphere using historical data and computer models.
Their research shows that mercury emissions peaked during the North American gold and silver rushes in the late 1800s, but after a decline in the middle of the 20th century, are quickly rising again thanks mostly to a surge in coal use. They report that Asia has overtaken Europe and
America as the largest contributor of mercury.
Recent data suggest that mercury concentrations in the atmosphere are declining, and this is not consistent with their conclusion of increasing emissions. Changing atmospheric conditions may be partly responsible, but more work is also needed to understand the fate of large amounts of mercury in discarded products like batteries and thermometers. The researchers predict mercury released from mining and fuel may take as many as 2,000 years to exit the environment and be reincorporated into rocks and minerals in the
Earth.
American Chemical Society Cleveland Section
The authors acknowledge funding from the
Department of Energy, the National Science
Foundation and from the Harvard University
NIEHS Center for Environmental Health.
Judges are needed for the ACS Special Awards to be given at the 2012 Northeastern Ohio Science and Engineering Fair. At the Fair, local students in grades 7-12 present posters and discuss their science projects with the judges. The ACS
Cleveland Section selects 1st place ($100), 2nd place ($75), 3rd place ($50), and Honorable
Mention Awards ($25) for the best chemistry related projects (typically >150 projects). The judging takes place on Tuesday, March 13, from
1-5PM at Cleveland State University. Free parking is provided. Please consider interacting with these budding scientists by volunteering as a Judge for the Cleveland Section. If interested please e-mail
Michael.A.Lienhard@nasa.gov.

Page 5 Isotopics February 2012 American Chemical Society Cleveland Section
By Leopold May
The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC
Feb. 1, 1905 Seventy-five years ago, Emilio Segré with C. Perrier discovered technetium (Tc, 43).
With D. R. Corson and K. R. MacKenzie he codiscovered astatine (At, 85) in 1940 and demonstrated the antiproton with others in 1955. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physics
(1959) with Owen Chamberlain for their discovery of the antiproton.
Feb.11, 1914 Alwin Mittasch and Christian Schneider filed application resulting in US patent
1,201,850, describing catalytic production of methanol from carbon monoxide & hydrogen.
Feb. 27, 1901 Fifty years ago, Linus C. Pauling was awarded The Nobel Peace Prize. He was born on this date. He was a researcher on structure of molecules, valency, and resonance. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1954 for his research into the nature of the chemical bond and its application to the elucidation of the structure of complex substances.
Editor:
Daniel Tyson
Day-Glo Color Corporation
Phone: 216-391-7384 daniel_s_tyson@yahoo.com
Associate Editor
Richard L. Middaugh
Phone: 440-785-0293 rlmiddaugh@ameritech.net
Business and Advertising:
Anna Bowman a.bowman@neu.edu
Associate Editor
Meenakshi Hardi
Phone: 440-941-6467 minaxie@gmail.com
Associate Editor
Dwight Chasar dwight.chasar@yahoo.com
Associate Editor
Daniel Scheiman
QSC/NASA GRC
Phone: 216-433-3223 daniel.a.scheiman@nasa.gov
Isotopics is looking to highlight local chemistry professionals, companies, teachers, research groups, students, events, and more. If you have an idea for an Isotopics article, please contact the editor. Isotopics is also looking for local members to join our staff. Time commitments for staff members are minimal (a few hours a year!) and your contributions will be invaluable to our local section. If you are interested in joining Isotopics , please contact the editor.