Report from the Northwest Regional Meeting - June 2008 by Nick Natale, Montana Section representative to the NOR Board (posted 7/17/08)

Section members recognized
- by Earle Adams, Chair-Elect

Dick Holmquist and Gary Freebury were recognized at the Spring Meeting-in-Miniature for their lifetime achievement in teaching K-12 chemistry in Montana. They have combined for over 70 years of teaching and both are Northwest regional ACS teacher awardees and Presidential teaching awards nominees. Dick and Gary are now retired and we wanted to say thank you for service to teaching and service to the ACS. (posted 4/12/08)

2008 Student travel award winners - by Janice Alexander, MT Section Chair

The Montana Section presented awards to Montana undergraduate and graduate students who delivered outstanding research presentations at the annual Meeting-in-Miniature at Carroll College, April 5. Each award consists of up to $750 to cover travel expenses to attend a national meeting of the winner’s choice.

Swati Bandi, 30, a fifth-year graduate student working toward a PhD in chemistry at The University of Montana in Missoula, was presented the graduate award for her presentation titled, “Electron Transfer Experiments: An Insight into the Alkaline Conformational Transitions.” Bandi’s thesis advisor is Bruce Bowler, PhD. She earned a BS degree in microbiology and a MS in biochemistry from Devi Ahilya Indore University in Indore, India.

The undergraduate award was presented to Flathead Valley Community College student Nicole Therrien, 21, of Kalispell. Her presentation, titled, “Probing Ca2+-Induced Conformational Changes in Bovine Calmodulin by Rapid High-Pressure N-Acetylation of Lysine Residues and ESI-MS” was a result of the collaborated research performed by Therrien and fellow students Rebekah Smith, Nathan Schaff and Natalee Lence. Therrien’s instructor is Paul Martino, Ph.D.

A 2005 graduate of Flathead High School, Therrien plans to transfer to Montana State University in Bozeman in the fall of 2008 to complete a BS degree in biochemistry with a math minor. She has a long-term goal of earning either a medical degree or a dual MD/PhD degree. (posted 4/12/08)

Congratulations 50 and 60 Year members! The following members of the Montana Section are recognized for milestones in their ACS membership:

• Charles Spangler, Bozeman - 50 yr
• Graeme Baker, Libby - 60 yr
• Winslow Caughey, Hamilton - 60 yr
• David Christen, Sheridan - 60 yr

In case you're wondering, three Montana Section members are tied for the longest membership, 68 years: John Parodi, Missoula; Kenneth Goering, Bozeman; and William Zelezny, Rollins. (posted 4/2/08)

2007 Chemistry Olympiad results by Carol Pleninger, MT Section Chemistry Olympiad director (posted 3/19/08)

Follow the money ...
Brief summary of the 2007 Annual Financial Report by Tony Haag, Treasurer (posted 1/24/08)

What is the Section working on now?
Minutes of the last executive committee meeting - October 2007 by Dawn Bregel, Secretary (posted 1/23/08)

Councilor's report from the fall national meeting in Boston by Cyd McClure (posted 12/9/07)

National Chemistry Week events in Missoula and Helena  - October 28, 2007 Demonstrations and hands-on activities for young people. (posted 11/8/07)

Photos from the Fall Social at Chico Hot Springs -
October 20-21, 2007.
(posted 10/24/07)

High school chemistry teacher's workshop - August 2007. Summary of outreach program funded with a Local Section Innovative Program Grant. (posted 10/23/07)

Following are brief reports from Jessica Gilbert and Sarah Cullison, two of last year's student travel award winners, on their recent experiences at national chemistry meetings (August 2007). Read more about the Montana Section student travel awards.

Jessica: During my trip to Boston to attend the 21st Symposium of the Protein Society, there were many opportunities to view various graduate schools and programs and meet with graduate school representatives from many universities and cities. Besides exploring the options of graduate school, I was able to talk to companies about job opportunities and different protein purification protocols and was surrounded by research extremely relevant to my thesis. Listening to prominent researchers discuss data in my field of interest was very educational, and I was able to get a feel for the different sides of some issues relating to amyloid diseases and infectivity. Not only did I gain a few pointers on protein purification that have allowed me a new approach in my research, I now have a fuller understanding of what lies beyond graduation and how I may use my education to the fullest.

Sarah: This travel grant helped fund my trip to the ACS National Meeting in Boston in August 2007. I presented a poster at the Environmental Chemistry Division's symposium, Recent Developments in Sensors and Sensor Networks for Contaminants in Environmental Systems. Since my lab focuses on developing carbonate parameter sensors, this symposium gave me the opportunity to learn about sensors for other chemicals. While the contaminants studied were different from mine some of the tricks for building sensors, such as making them portable with low power consumption, were useful to me. In addition to the chemical sensors symposium I also attended several chemical education seminars and a workshop on how to get your first academic job. As I would like to teach undergraduate chemistry someday I found these seminars very useful. They gave me a feel for what a good job applicant would have as well as ideas for when I'm actually teaching. (posted 8/29/07)