Applied Spectroscopy Online

Dear SAS Chicago Members, Section Patrons and Visiting Guests Of The Web Site,

The 2006-2007 year for the Chicago Section of the Society for Applied Spectroscopy was a very successful year as many of you can attest to that. The Workshop, the Monthly Meetings and the Student Night were very well attended. I hope that the upcoming year will be as successful. As always, we always need your participation and support to make the Society work.

As I assume over the chairmanship of the Chicago local section, I want to express my thanks to Fred Swiecinski, the Immediate Past Chair, and the rest of the Chicago Section Board members for their loyalty and work. Their efforts have resulted in the successes of the past year, and they are also responsible for getting the Section off to a strong start this year. Prior to the September monthly meeting, the first meeting for the upcoming year, a significant amount of work was required to get this year’s events of the ground. These individuals have donated their free time to attain the main goals of the Society which are to disseminate latest/newest in spectroscopy developments of interest to the spectroscopists in the greater Chicago area and also to provide a convenient venue where the spectroscopists can meet, exchange ideas, and create contacts to better their understanding and knowledge of the field of Spectroscopy. The Chicago Section of Society for Applied Spectroscopy holds monthly meetings from September through May. Most of the meetings are accompanied by a speaker discussing the most current topics in the field of spectroscopy. The speakers are selected and approved by the Governing Board of the Chicago Section. We as a Board are also open to suggestions from the members for any recommendations that would enhance the proliferation and effectiveness of the Society. Please e-mail your suggestions to any of the Board members of the Chicago Section. The Newsletter, sponsors, abstract, topic, dates and times of the monthly meetings and the Boar members e-mails can be found on the SAS Chicago section website. I would encourage you to visit the SAS-Chicago section web site on regular bases to obtain the latest information on the Society’s activities and news (also don’t forget to visit the sponsors websites). The Chicago Section web address is http://www.sas-chicago.org/default.htm (please copy and past the link your web browser). The website can also be reached through the SAS national web site link.

I cannot stress enough the need of the Society for new members and volunteers. I’m encouraging anyone that has some free time to volunteer and help with day to day activities of the Society. We are also always looking for new members and everyone is encouraged to bring or recommend new members to the Society. If anyone has any information on companies with Spectroscopy/Analytical chemistry departments or personnel to e-mail the information to either me or any board member so that we can directly contact them.

As I mentioned earlier the Society has started this year very favorable. We have the speaker list for all the meetings lined up for this year. Our monthly meeting schedule is now complete and can be viewed on the Chicago Section SAS website. We are also fortunate to have Kate Martin back on the Board. Our student liaison for this year is Paula Allotta from Northwester University. She will be instrumental in organizing the Student Poster Night scheduled for the March, 2008 meeting. The topic for this years workshop is “AA/ICP/Atomic spectroscopy”. Doug Shrader and Jerry Shkolnik will be the main organizers for the workshop which will be held in May of 2008.

The Chicago section bylaws have been revised and approved. They can be viewed on the Chicago section web site.

This year the Chicago Section of SAS is institute a forum called “Ask a Spectroscopist” which will be conducted during the social hour prior to each monthly meeting. Anyone with a spectroscopy related question should submit the question by e-mail to any board member of the Chicago Section. The questions will be reviewed by the appropriate experts in the field and will be addressed accordingly. The question can be any pressing spectroscopy related question, including a work related spectroscopy question, provided the wording of the question does not reveal proprietary company information. Once an answer is arrived at, the person who has submitted the question will be notified. This question and the corresponding answer (Q/A) will be displayed via PowerPoint software on the projection screen during the social hour prior to the meeting and be available for further discussion by anyone present. Up to five questions will be considered per meeting. The social hour PowerPoint presentation will also include the Section sponsors, current job postings of interest, and breaking news in spectroscopy of interest to the meeting attendees.

Once again, I thank you all for the past support and encourage you to participate in the Society’s future activities. For information, news and current development in spectroscopy, the Society is the next best source to none.

SAS Chicago Members and Section Patrons:

As we begin the 2006-2007 year of the Chicago Section of the Society of Applied Spectroscopy, I want to thank Mary Kaplar, the Past Chair, and the rest of the Board members. Their efforts have resulted in the successes of last year and are responsible for getting the Section off to a strong start this year. Over the summer, much has been accomplished. The following are some of the highlights.

* There are three new Board members: John Bondarowicz of S&C Electric, Paul Haschke of Smurfit-Stone and Phil McKittrick of Nalco.

* The 2007 Workshop will be on “Current Topics in Spectroscopy”. An internet survey has been created to get your input to select the topics of greatest interest. (www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=673062426588)

* The Section has almost 50 years of documentation. Members of the Board will review these documents and hope to create an archive of the History of the Chicago SAS Section.

* Revised Section Bylaws will be presented to the Section membership January 2007.

* The 2006-2007 program is nearly finalized, however, there is still much the Board wishes to accomplish. Contact me to learn more.

Phil McKittrick, a past Board member, recently returned to the Chicago area and was elected Section Secretary at the April meeting. Paul Haschke and John Bondarowicz, both regular attendees of the Section meetings joined the Board over the summer. As Chair of the Board for this year, I appreciate their efforts and the contributions they have already made to the Section. At the April meeting, Slav Stepanovich was elected Chair-Elect and our Student Liaison for the year will be Nilam Shah from Northwestern University. Nilam presented the winning poster at the February “Student’s Night” meeting. The rest of the hardworking Section Board are listed on our website (www.sas-chicago.org).

The 2006-2007 year program is nearly complete and is listed below. Your Board has identified and scheduled some very talented researchers to present some diverse subjects at our meetings. For Student Night, we are planning to put out a call for spectroscopy papers from students of local universities. The Board will select the three papers that we feel will be of greatest interest to the membership. The authors of these papers will be invited to present their papers at the February meeting and will be given a membership to the SAS as well as an award their presentation.

Your assistance is needed to select the subjects for the “Current Topics in Spectroscopy” workshop planned for May. The Board has come up with thirteen subjects that they feel will interest the membership. The number is too large for a one-day workshop, so it is up to you to let us know which topics interest you the most. The two-questions survey can be taken by clicking on the following link. Feel free to forward the link to anyone that may be interested in the workshop. As always, the workshop and our monthly meetings are not restricted to SAS members, but open to all.

www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=673062426588

2006-2007 SAS Chicago Program Schedule

Date	Speaker	Topic
Tues., Sept. 12, 2006	Mark SubbaRao, Adler Planetarium	Spectroscopy to Map the Universe
Tues., Oct. 10, 2006	Rich Bormett, Renishaw	Raman/AFM
Tues., Nov. 14, 2006	Anthony Serianni, Notre Dame Univ.	NMR - Carbohydrates
Tues., Dec 12, 2006	Allan LaPointe, Shedd Aquarium	Water Chemistry for Aquatic Life
Tues. Jan. 9, 2007	Rina Dukor, BioTools	CD/FT-IR Protein Secondary Structure
Tues. Feb 13, 2007		Student Night
Mon. Mar. 12, 2007	J. Gardea-Torresdey, U. Texas - El Paso	Heavy Metal Remediation
April 2007		SAS National Tour Speaker
May 2007	Workshop	Currents Topics in Spectroscopy

It has been a few years since the Section Bylaws have been revised. Last year, lead by David Lankin, the bylaws were revised by the Board. A few additional changes are being considered. The Board plans to present the revised bylaws to the membership in January.

The Section has boxes full of documents from the near fifty years of the Section’s existence. The Board is planning to organize these documents, scan ones of historical interest and prepare a history of the Chicago Section. For anyone interested in taking a more active role in Chicago Section of the Society of Applied Spectroscopy and providing assistance and input, for not only this project, but Student Night, the Workshop or other activities, please contact me.

I look forward to seeing you at a SAS meeting soon.

Fred Swiecinski
SAS Chicago Section Chair
fswiecinski@nalco.com