Women in Chemical Technology Professions

The ACS Division of Chemical Technicians and their chair, Mary Moore of Eastman Chemical Company, organized the “Women in Chemical Technology” symposium with cosponsorship by the Women Chemists Committee at the ACS National Meeting in Philadelphia.  Mary presided over the session. The seven speakers presented a wide variety of topics of concern and of interest to women in chemical technology professions.

Mary Moore introduced the audience to the National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP), which is funded by the National Science Foundation.  The NGCP seeks to maximize and strengthen resources, organizations, and programs which support science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and careers for young women.  She spoke about the NGCP program directory and the mini-grants that the local collaboratives will administer. Ms. Moore is a member of the leadership team for the Girls Raised in Tennessee Science (GRITS) Collaborative.

Sharon Vercellotti also talked about the NGCP mini-grant program.  She pointed out the value of collaboration and sharing resources.  The Chlorine Chapter of Iota Sigma Pi of Louisiana partnered with the Girl Scouts for a one-day science badge workshop.   The Brownies and Junior Girl Scouts attended with professional and student members of Iota Sigma Pi serving as mentors.  This was a perfect example of collaboration and the leveraging of resources to support girls in STEM.

Judith Iriarte-Gross, Middle Tennessee State University, talked about the importance of mentoring undergraduate and graduate women in chemistry.  She credited Donna Dean, past president of AWIS for the phrase, “Move Up, Reach Down”, and how these four words struck a chord about mentoring and being mentored.  Judith discussed programs such as GRITS and Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) on her campus which provide young women with the skills that are not taught in the classroom, yet, are necessary for success in a chemical technology profession.

Cacy DeSheles, Jabe Kiri, Katie McKnight, and Alexis Schaible are members of the Middle Tennessee State University WISE student organization.  They discussed how they have established a close and fruitful mentoring relationship with women scientists and engineers at Eastman Chemical Company in Kingsport, TN.  WISE members were inspired by this relationship to “Move Up, Reach Down” to middle school girls in the community. This talk focused on the activities and experiences of WISE members with their protégés.

Reneé Brown of Bayer Material Science talked about “shift work” and its prevalence in the chemical industry. She pointed out the job performance, safety, health, and family life can suffer as a result of shift work.  In this talk, she focused on how companies can take specific measures to improve the shift work lifestyle of its employees.

Debbie Bailey of Dow Corning Corporation explained how microscopy is a valuable tool for the characterization of materials.  She defined microscopy for the uninitiated and gave some examples of practical applications.  Microscopy is an indispensable tool which helps researchers understand properties of materials.  The take-home message of this talk was to know what you are looking for so that you can choose the right tool and analytical technique.

John Engelman closed the symposium with a presentation “ACS Resources for Your Career”.  He talked about the many valuable resources that ACS offers to its members at all stages along their career path.  He discussed résumé preparation and review, mock interviews, job search assistance, and how to become an ACS volunteer. The students in the audience found this symposium to be very informative and learned how the ACS and its Division of Chemical Technicians supports its members.

-Alexis Schaible and Judith Iriarte-Gross