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The Louisiana Section Executive and Centennial Committee members have been working behind the scenes since February 2006 to get our section back into action after the events of the past year. In our meeting at that time, the first since hurricane Katrina, we decided unanimously to delegate the task of organizing a post-Katrina toxicity workshop to Peter Politzer. In the summer of 2005, Peter had been organizing a polymer symposium to be held in November of that year; our section had obtained support for this through the Innovative Project Grant Program for local ACS sections. In February 2006, it was decided that of more immediate relevancy to the New Orleans area would be a workshop focusing upon the issue of post-Katrina toxicity, i.e. how serious a problem is it. This workshop was held on June 3, 2006. A detailed summary is given on our website: Workshop Summary. It is gratifying to be able to report that the response to our workshop was so positive that the state Department of Environmental Quality decided to hold a second one on August 24, 2006; a writeup on this second spin-off workshop can be found on the following link: I strongly encourage all members of the Louisiana Section to participate as we work together to restore our section in the post-Katrina era and move on to an active future.

Respectfully yours,
Jane Murray
Chair, Louisiana Section, 2005, 2006