Volume 88 Issue 3
April 18, 2012
Education Night
GrafTech
CWRU students will conduct a hands-on lecture/demo on chemistry outreach
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
March 2012
Sibrina N. Collins, Ph.D.
, Department of Chemistry, The College of
Wooster, Wooster, Ohio
Why should we be concerned about minority contributions to the chemical sciences? By the year 2050, over 50% of the U.S. population will be underrepresented minorities. Thus, the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) workforce must be truly reflective of these changing demographics. This presentation will discuss the scientific contributions of many African American chemists, including Saint Elmo
Brady, the first African American to earn a PhD in chemistry; Marie
Maynard Daly, the first African American woman to earn a PhD in chemistry; and Thomas Nelson Baker, Jr., a graduate of Oberlin College and presumably the first African American to earn a PhD in chemistry from
The Ohio State University.
DINNER RESERVATIONS REQUIRED : Dinner reservations, including those for student presenters , should be communicated by noon on
Friday, March 16 to Patricia West at (440)775-8300 or
Patricia.West@oberlin.edu. When making your dinner reservation, please indicate the number of people in your party and your choice of Italian chicken paillard or stuffed portabella mushroom (vegetarian). For members, the cost for dinner including either entrée is $20. Cash or checks made out to “Cleveland ACS” will be accepted at the meeting. Student speakers will be guests of the ACS Section for dinner. Other students may purchase dinner for $5.

Page 2 Isotopics March 2012
Coming from the east on I-480: Follow I-480 W as it becomes Ohio Route 10 W toward Norwalk and then Ohio Route 20 W. Take the right exit ramp for Ohio Route 511 toward Oberlin. Follow
511, which is also Lorain St., approximately 3 miles into the town of Oberlin. Two blocks after passing the intersection with Ohio Route 58, turn right onto Woodland St. The Science Center is at the corner of Woodland and Lorain. Parking for the meeting is available across Woodland St. from the Science Center. Drive through the first short section of parking and turn either right or left to find visitor parking.
Coming from the west on I-80 (Ohio Turnpike):
Take I-80 E to exit 140 (Amherst/Oberlin interchange). Go south for eight miles on Ohio
Route 58 into the town of Oberlin. At the intersection of 58 and Lorain Street (Ohio Route
511), turn right on Lorain Street. Travel two blocks to Woodland St. and turn right. The
Science Center is at the corner of Woodland and
Lorain. Parking for the meeting is available across Woodland St. from the Science Center.
Drive through the first short section of parking and turn either right or left to find visitor parking.
Sibrina Nichelle Collins earned her B.A. in chemistry from Wayne State University (Detroit,
Michigan) in May 1994. While pursuing her studies at Wayne State University, she was awarded a MARC (Minority Access to Research
Careers) NIH Fellowship (1992-1994). After completing her undergraduate degree, she pursued graduate studies in the Department of Chemistry at The Ohio State University under the direction of Professor Bruce Bursten. Her research efforts focused on the low temperature matrix photochemistry of ruthenium cyclopentadienyl dicarbonyl dimers. She was awarded a GEM
(National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for
Minorities in Engineering and Science, Inc.)
Fellowship in 1998 while completing graduate
American Chemical Society Cleveland Section studies at OSU. Professor Collins earned her M.S. and Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry in 1996 and
2000, respectively. She later completed a postdoc at Louisiana State University with Professor Isiah
Warner, which focused on the analysis of human atherosclerotic plaque using fluorescence spectroscopy. Between 2003 and 2006, Prof.
Collins was an assistant professor of chemistry at
Claflin University, an HBCU (Historically Black
College and University) located in Orangeburg,
South Carolina. Prof. Collins served as the first editor for the Minority Scientists Network
(MiSciNet), which is a Web-based journal and career resource for graduate students and postdocs, published by American Association for the
Advancement of Science (AAAS). From May
2006 to May 2008, she served as the University of
Washington Director of Graduate Diversity STEM
Recruiting. She is now on the faculty of the
Department of Chemistry at The College of
Wooster (Wooster, Ohio). Professor Collins and her research students are investigating the synthesis and characterization of metal-complexes that exhibit anti-tumor behavior. In her spare-time,
Prof. Collins views herself as a “Chemist-
Historian” focusing on the many contributions
African Americans have made to the STEM fields.
The Cleveland Section’s celebration of National
Chemistry Week (NCW) centers about a program designed to excite children in grades 2-5 about chemistry and science. Each year our NCW
Planning Committee interprets National’s annual theme into a hands-on program which is offered at branches of the Cuyahoga County Public Library system during NCW. Our goal is to make the program educational, interesting, engaging, and of course, fun for the children.
National has posted the following information on their website: “National Chemistry Week 2012 will focus on the topic of nanoscience as it relates to the environment, energy, materials and health.
The dates are October 21-27 and the theme will be released in March 2012. NCW 2012 also marks 25
Years of National Chemistry Week.
”

Page 3 Isotopics March 2012
As we begin planning for NCW in October, interpretation of this topic into a program which is all of the above plus understandable by 2 nd
to 5 th graders as well as do-able and reasonably affordable will be a major challenge for our
Planning Committee. We solicit ideas from the membership as to how this might be accomplished. Please email any concepts
(specifics would be appreciated!) to Bob Fowler at jrfowler@cox.net or Kat Wollyung at acs.ncw.kat@gmail.com. Thanks in advance!
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
American Chemical Society Cleveland Section faculty members and practicing chemists at the
MIM.
The 2012 May Conference, sponsored by the local sections of the ACS, SAS, AVS and Microscopy
Society, will be held at the Dolan Science Center at John Carroll University on Wednesday, May 23,
2012. The talks are 25 minutes, including 5 minutes for questions, on topics of spectroscopy, microscopy and analytical chemistry. If you are interested in presenting please contact Brian Perry at brian_perry@lord.com or 814-868-3611 ext.
3582. The deadline for a commitment which includes a title, and names and affiliations of authors is March 23. The deadline for formal abstracts will be mid to late April (see future issues of Isotopics).
By John Protasiewicz (past Chair)
The ACS Cleveland Section is still accepting nominations (or self-nominations) of potential candidates to run for the following open positions in the Executive Committee:
1- Chair-Elect
2- Treasurer
3- Councilor
4- Alternate Councilor
5- Director
6- Trustee
The description of the various positions can be found at our section's website at: http://www.csuohio.edu/sciences/dept/cleveland_a cs/documents.htm
Then click on "ACS Cleveland Section Job
Manual" pdf or Word versions. Please send your nominations or self-nomination by mail, phone, or email (preferred) to:
John D. Protasiewicz
Department of Chemistry
Case Western Reserve University
10900 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, Ohio 44106-7078

Page 4 Isotopics March 2012 phone 216-368-5060 email: protasiewicz@case.edu
The election slate will be printed and announced in our May meeting and ballots will be sent out in the beginning in August 2012.
Climate change may increase risk of water shortages in hundreds of U.S. counties by 2050
Environmental Science & Technology
More than 1 in 3 counties in the United States could face a “high” or “extreme” risk of water shortages due to climate change by the middle of the 21st century, according to a new study in
ACS’s
Journal of Environmental Science &
Technology . The new report concluded that 7 in
10 of the more than 3,100 U.S. counties could face “some” risk of shortages of fresh water for drinking, farming and other uses. It includes maps that identify the counties at risk of shortages.
In the analysis, Sujoy B. Roy, Ph.D., and colleagues explain that population growth is expected to increase the demand for water for municipal use and for electricity generation beyond existing levels. Global climate change threatens to reduce water supplies due to decreased rainfall and other factors compared to levels in the 20th century. Roy’s group developed
American Chemical Society Cleveland Section a “water supply sustainability risk index” that takes into account water withdrawal, projected growth, susceptibility to drought, projected climate change and other factors in individual U.S. counties for the year 2050. It takes into account renewable water supply through precipitation using the most recent downscaled climate change projections and estimates future withdrawals for various human uses.
Roy’s team used the index to conclude that climate change could foster an “extreme” risk of water shortages that may develop in 412 counties in southern and southwestern states and in southern Great Plains states. “This is not intended as a prediction that water shortages will occur, but rather where they are more likely to occur, and where there might be greater pressure on public officials and water users to better characterize, and creatively manage demand and supply,” Roy said.
The authors acknowledge funding from the
Natural Resources Defense Council.

Page 5 Isotopics March 2012 American Chemical Society Cleveland Section
By Leopold May
The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC
Mar 10, 1762 Two hundred and fifty years ago, Jeremias B. Richter, who discovered the law of equivalent proportions, was born. He was the first to establish stoichiometry, the basis of quantitative chemical analysis.
Mar 19, 1883 Seventy five years ago in 1937, Walter N. Haworth shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his investigations on carbohydrates and vitamin C with Paul Karrer for his investigations on carotenoids, flavins and vitamins A and B2. He synthesized ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) in 1933, did research on sugars and dextran as blood plasma substitute, and was born on this date.
Mar 26, 1753 Count Rumford (Benjamin Thompson), who invented a simple photometer, was born on this date. He was a researcher in heat and demonstrated first law of thermodynamics.
Also, he improved cooking and heating systems in addition to animal breeding. He married Antoine Lavoisier's widow to improve his position in science.
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.