In 2007, LSAC awarded a total of 160 Science Café mini-grants to local sections. Several local section have successfully incorporated Science Cafes into their regular programming while other are still developing plans for hosting their own cafes later this year. If you are looking for ideas for Science Café programs, listen to the transcript from last fall’s teleconference on Science Café Best Practices or read on about a successful café hosted by the Pittsburgh local section.

The ACS Pittsburgh Section hosted a Science Café event on Monday, December 3, 2007, at the Penn Brewery. Members of the Western Pennsylvania Technician Affiliate Group and the Pittsburgh Café Scientifique program organized and ran the event on behalf of the section. The guest speaker for the evening was Dr. Alan Brown, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania NanoMaterials Commercialization Center, who presented “Nanotechnology in Everyday Life.” The center’s mission is to develop new products and manufacturing processes using promising nanotechnologies that are in their early research stages and have viable commercial potential.

The event started out with a social, followed by dinner. After dinner, Dr. Brown discussed with the 74 attendees the meaning of the term nanotechnology and how it affects our everyday lives. He supplemented the discussion using examples of existing products already in the marketplace that use nanotechnology and how nanotechnology improves or adds new features to those products. Dr. Brown also provided his personal views on how nanotechnology may affect us all in the coming decades. After a brief intermission, Dr. Brown took questions from the audience. The Q&A was very lively, lasting well over 40 minutes. At the end of the evening, several door prizes were given out and a small gift was presented to the speaker.

The event was well attended and included a diverse audience of academia (University of Pittsburgh, Duquesne University, and Penn State), industry (Alcoa, Bayer, Kemira, and PPG), and others, many of whom are frequent participants in the Pittsburgh Café Scientifique program. Funding for the event was provided through a grant from the national ACS Local Section Activities Committee “Science Café Seed Grant” program.

More information about the Pennsylvania NanoMaterials Commercialization Center can be found at www.pananocenter.org.

What is Café Scientifique?
The Café is a place where anyone interested in science can get together in an informal setting to discuss major science issues with the help of an expert in the field. It is free and open to the public. Best of all, it is not a lecture! After a brief introduction by our guest speaker (in plain, jargon-free English), the evening is dedicated to informal discussion, eating, and drinking. We all learn a lot while enjoying the company of accomplished scientists and other people who are interested in science.

The first Café Scientifique was held in 1998 in Leeds, the United Kingdom. To learn more, visit the international Café Scientifique website.

Check out the Pittsburgh Café Scientifique’s schedule of events at www.cafescipgh.org.

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