Penn State Chemistry attends Spring 2024 ACS Meeting in New Orleans
ACS (American Chemical Society) is the world’s largest scientific society with more than 150,000 members worldwide. Their mission is to advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of Earth and its people. The vision is to improve people’s lives through the transforming power of chemistry. At these national meetings, there are research presentations and networking opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students, postdocs and faculty. Penn State Chemistry always makes the most with these opportunities.
This year, NCS (Nittany Chemical Society), the Penn State undergraduate student affiliate chapter of ACS, took part in major fundraising efforts to bring 31 students to the Spring 2024 ACS conference in New Orleans, Louisiana. Of those students, 20 presented their research at the undergraduate research poster session. With such a robust programming agenda, students can hone their communication skills for their own research all while learning about cutting-edge advances in chemistry.
“NCS worked very hard this year to fundraise for over 30 students to attend the ACS conference in New Orleans,” said NCS president Hannah Priller, a fourth-year chemistry major. “We love this annual trip because it allows our poster presenters the opportunity to practice sharing their research and everyone can learn something new while networking with other students, professors, and professionals from around the world. It is a big feat for us as a student organization to bring this many people each year, but thanks to the hard work of our executive committee, advisors, and members, we are continually able to provide this unique and memorable experience for our hardest working members.”
Graduate students also have many opportunities to present their own research at ACS meetings. This year, Heidi Busse, a fourth-year doctoral candidate in the Freedman group, participated in the ACS PHYS (Physical Chemistry) division poster symposium where she was named a recipient of the PHYS division Outstanding Student Poster Award. Busse’s poster, titled “Microplastics as ice nucleating particles in the atmosphere”, highlighted her work looking at the impact of atmospheric microplastics on the formation of ice in clouds by acting as ice nucleating particles (INPs).
“This was my second time attending an ACS conference and it is an exciting experience, both because of and despite the overwhelming amount of science that is being shared,” said Busse. “I was happily surprised to have been named one of the outstanding posters for the PHYS division mainly because I was so absorbed in being able to share the science. I cared so much about the science that I hadn't noticed the judges or that the 2-hour poster session had ended!”
For more information on ACS and future meetings and expos, please visit the ACS website.