BIOTECHNOLOGY SECRETARIAT STEERING COMMITTEE
MIT Room
Marriott Copley Place
Sunday, August 19, 2007
8:00 AM –
10:00 AM
The meeting was opened by Secretary-General,
John Finley at 8:15 AM with self-introductions by those present (see
attendees list below). The minutes were approved without discussion.
The Treasurer’s Report was also approved.
The symposia planned for New
Orleans were discussed. The main theme for the Spring 2008 New
Orleans ACS National Meeting is Energy and the Environment with sub-topics
in Clean Fuels, Renewable Fuels, Green Chemistry, and Remediation and
Recovery. Sharon Shoemaker will Chair the BTEC Programming for New Orleans
and presented progress to date to the Committee. Gillian Eggleston (CARB)
will Co-Chair and Sharon Vercellotti (SCHB) will also provide assistance.
Symposia being planned include Integrated Bioprocessing of Lignocellulosic
Biomass for Liquid Biofuels and New Innovations for the Sugar Industry:
A Symposium honoring Margaret Clarke. Sharon solicited additional input
for the program.
AICHE will also be programming
in New Orleans at the same time. Members of both organizations can attend
each other’s programs. It was suggested that Kelvin Lee (AICHE) and
Mike Morelo (ACS) might be called upon to co-organize a symposium for
BTEC.
Guenther Grethe spoke on the
newly formed Multidisciplinary Program Planning Group (MPPG) which is
charged with selecting themes and planning Society-wide thematic and
multidisciplinary programming for ACS National meetings. The MPPG will
be composed of one representative from each ACS Technical Division,
one from the Divisional Activities Committee (DAC), one from the Committee
on Science (ComSci) and one from Meetings and Expositions (M&E).
A smaller Steering Group with twelve members has also been created to
lead the effort. This group is made up of the three Committee representatives
(DAC, ComSci and M&E) and representatives of the five Divisions
who contribute the most programming to ACS National meetings (determined
by the average attendance at that Division’s program sessions at the
previous four ACS National meetings) and four Division representatives
chosen by vote of the full MPPG. At this time, the five largest Division
members include INOR, ORGN, POLY and MEDI. Guenther (CINF) was
among the latter group of elected representatives. The group structure
has been set forth but the mechanics (link to thematic programming,
listing in the program, etc.) has yet to be announced. Previous benefits
for thematic programming included extra room(s) and not having to comply
with even programming. It is unknown if this will continue. It is thought
that, in the time going forward, there will be a one day plenary and/or
Presidential session. Otherwise, the thematic programming will be presented
within a Division’s program/location.
Philadelphia thematic programming
for the Fall 2008 meeting was also discussed. The main theme of
Pharmaceuticals will include subthemes in Drug Discovery, Drug Delivery,
Clinical Imaging, Chemistry on the Desktop, Nanotoxins, Entrepreneurship
in Pharmaceuticals and the Theoretical in Pharmaceuticals. Kinam Park
will be the Thematic Organizer. Guenther is organizing a symposium on
Drug Delivery and already has agreement for programming input from BIOT,
AGFD, ORGN and BIOL. He is looking for additional programming
for this effort. MPPG will meet in November to iron out mechanics for
Philadelphia. They are also still in search of organizers for the other
sub-topics. BTEC Division representatives are asked to feed info/input
to Guenther about interest in various sub-topics.
The Spring 2009 ACS National
Meeting will be in Salt Lake City where the theme will be Nanoscience.
The sub-topics are to be worked out later. Guenther will email the details
to the BTEC Committee as soon as they are available. The Fall 2009 ACS
National Meeting will be in Washington, DC where the theme will be Globalization
of Chemistry – Energy, Environment, Education and Economics.
Webmaster Andy Berks reported
that the website was acquiescent lately with no input from the Steering
Committee for some time. He asked if there was still interest in keeping
up the website. The answer was a resounding “Yes”. John Finley
and Lisa Nash will help feed info to Andy to update the website.
New Business – Potential
BTEC contributions to Regional Meetings could serve to increase student
participation. POLY/PMSE is programming at MARM and BIOL is programming
at the Western Regional Meeting.
The role of Secretariats in
programming is still unclear. An overdue report on Secretariats
has been in the works for >2 years under the oversight of Jim Burke
and William Carroll.
The meeting was adjourned at
9:30 am.
Attendees:
Anna Wilson (CHED),
John Finley (AGFD),
Fred Heineken (BIOT),
Lisa Nash (PETR)
Sharon Shoemaker (BIOT)
Guenter Grethe (CINF)
Kathryn Uhrich (POLY/PMSE)
Ali Ahmed (CHAL)
Scott Sieburth (ORGN)
John Kozarich (BIOL)
Andy Berks (CINF/CHAL)
Gopal Coimbatore (ENVR)