The Annual Banquet and Awards Ceremony was held on Thursday evening, November 8, at Imperial Garden Chinese Restaurant. Sixty people attended, ranging in age from university undergrads to octogenarians as well as some accompanying children (thus significantly lowering our average age!) In addition to honoring 50-, 60-, and 70-year ACS members, there were ACS Student Excellence Awardees as well as the recipients of ACS awards. The detailed program listing all winners is available here.
The Banquet speaker was Professor Helen Blackwell from UW-Madison Chemistry. Her topic was “Chemical Interception of Bacterial Communication Pathways.”
Abstract: Many bacteria communicate using a chemical language to monitor their population densities in a process called “quorum sensing.” At high cell densities, bacteria use this signaling network to switch from a single cell existence to that of a multicellular community. This lifestyle switch is significant, as it often controls how the bacteria interact with their hosts and other bacterial species. Our research is focused on the development of non-native molecules that can intercept quorum sensing and provide new insights into its role in host/microbe interactions and in the environment. I will introduce our research approach, highlight recent results, and motivate why I believe chemists are poised to make unique contributions to this research area.
In the evening’s program you will also find a listing of the current officers of the Section and information in words and photos about our recent and upcoming activities. Additional photos are on out Flickr page!
During the banquet, the following posters were on display: High School Teacher Scholarship Winners and Crystal Growing Contest; Local Section Social Events from 2018; ACS Hach Scholars. These illustrate some of our recent activities—as a group and as individuals. If you don’t find yourself included, perhaps you can do something about that: Make Suggestions! Get Involved! Join our next social activity!