News
General Chemistry Competition
The Mt. San Antonio College Chemistry Department has held its General Chemistry Competition for over 20 years. Current students are invited to form teams to participate in this pub-trivia style event. The ACS San Gorgonio Local Section has regularly sponsored this incredibly fun evening. Participating students are provided with t-shirts that claim “I am a general chemistry genius.” Participants, families and guests enjoy a complimentary dinner. Numbers were drawn for door prizes between rounds of competition. The top 3 teams were presented with gifts cards. Congratulations to the winning team “Doshi Survivors” with their professor and Mt. San Antonio College president Dr. Martha Garcia!
ACS 2024 U.S. Chemistry Olympiad Update
Wholehearted congratulations to the following three students (and their teachers) whose outstanding performance on the National U.S. Chemistry Olympiad exam them “Honors” recognition!
Fernan Michael Jose Coo Redlands High School Mackensey Farmer
Hadi Faour Claremont High School Carolyn Lee
Yuxi Zhu Diamond Bar High School Jose Marquez
ACS SGS Travel Grants
The Fall National Meeting is scheduled for August 18-22 in Denver. Our Section has approved two $750 travel grants for students who will be presenting at this meeting. If you are presenting a paper or poster and need some $ assistance for travel, please email Ana Bahamonde (ana.bahamonde@ucr.edu) to apply.
Project SEED Update
Many thanks to UCR for supporting this program over the years! Any many more thanks to Dr. Dennis Pederson who spearheads this project every year. Congratulations to the two students who have been selected to participate. Here are their projects:
Sarah Okandey Grand Terrace High School
Cobalt Catalysis for the Chemical Synthesis of Medicinally Important Molecules
Working with Dr. Kevin Kuo
Emmanuel Pudussery Riverside STEM Academy
Optical Spectroscopy and Measurements of Air Pollutants
Working with Dr. Jingsong Zhang
Volunteer of the Year 2023
Please join us in congratulating the ACS San Gorgonio Section 2023 Outreach Volunteer of the Year, Dr. Michael Nalbandian!
As chair of the San Gorgonio Section's Environmental Improvement Committee, Dr. Michael J. Nalbandian planned the Chemists Celebrate Earth Week community outreach event for the Local Section. Through the efforts of Dr. Nalbandian and that committee, over 190 people enjoyed various bug-themed demos and activities and guided tours of a local botanical garden. In addition to this successful event, Dr. Nalbandian is a consistent outreach volunteer for the section, and he is also a primary contributor to NCW and Olympiad outreach events. He has been a section volunteer since 2019. We appreciate the outreach work he has done for the section over the years!
Volunteer of the Year 2022
Please join us in congratulating the ACS San Gorgonio Section 2022 Outreach Volunteer of the Year, Dr. Ana Bahamonde!
Dr. Ana Bahamonde is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at UCR. She attended our College & University Professor Mixer in the fall of 2021 and immediately got involved with Section activities. She was instrumental in recruiting over 20 UCR grad students to host several demo tables during our 2021 National Chemistry Week Celebration. Her efforts helped to make the outreach event a massive success, where we were able to show 250 K-8 students, teachers, and parents how fun chemistry can be. Dr. Bahamonde is on the executive board as Alternate Councilor and is the chair of the Women Chemists' Committee for the Section. Thank you, Dr. Bahamonde! We appreciate all you have done for the Section in such a short time, and we look forward to working with you for many years to come!
