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Joe Schwarcz sports a foam cut-out of the CIC logo at the Hawkesbury Local Section AGM in April. The
oversized accessory was made by Foam Geometrix, a company in Vankleek Hill, Ont. that creates products from
expanded and extruded polystyrene foam. The cut-out was presented to The Local Section when they toured the
company’s operations in March. At the AGM Schwarcz presented a talk called “Hey! There are cockroaches in my
chocolate ice cream.”
Some 35 chemists and students attended the Edmonton Local Section AGM on April 25. Chris Le of the
University of Alberta spoke on the topic of “International Collaboration on Analytical and Environmental
Toxicology.” Left to right the section’s secretary, Kirk Michaelian, vice chair, Amanda Monarch and past
chair Frances Sutherland chit chat.
Photo credit: Ken Schmidt
Award recipients pose for the camera at the 40th Southern Ontario Undergraduate Student Chemistry
Conference on March 24. Twenty-three prizes for outstanding presentations were handed out at the event which
was hosted by the University of Guelph’s Department of Chemistry, sponsored by the CSC and CIC Chemical
Education Fund and attended by approximately 155 undergraduate chemistry students from all over southern
Ontario.
Photo credit: David Sullivan
Scott Murphy plays a game of “chemical roulette” as part of Science Rendezvous — an annual nation-wide
science festival in which many CIC Local Sections showcase chemistry displays and demonstrations for the
public — which took place on May 12. Murphy is treasurer of the South Saskatchewan Local Section, which used
the event to stage a comeback after the section’s dormancy for over a decade. “ With the growth of industry
in Saskatchewan, we wanted something more for our students to help bridge the gap between academia and
industry,” says Murphy who hopes to see industry tours, student symposia and social events like barbecues be
on the Section’s docket. “These are the things I remember from when I was a student,” says Murphy.
Photo credit: James Lague
The 2012-2013 CSC Board of Directors consists, from left to right, of Roland Andersson, Executive
Director of CIC, Lorenzo Ferrari of LANXESS Inc. (vice president), Michael Wolf of the University of British
Columbia (director of subject divisions), Cathleen Crudden of Queen's University (president), John Sorensen
of the University of Manitoba (director of student affairs), Karen Burke of Amgen Canada Inc. (past
president), Hugh Horton, of Queen’s University (director of accreditation), Cornelia Bohne of the University
of Victoria (treasurer), Ravi Ramachandran, of Syngenta Canada Inc. (director of local sections), Jeffrey
Keillor of the University of Ottawa (director of awards), Joelle Pelletier of the Université de Montréal
(director of conferences) as well as Ken Schmidt (absent) of DK3 Scientific (director of industrial liaison)
and George Duncan (absent) of A&A Environmental Consultants, Inc. (director of professional
status).
About 60 people attended the Victoria Local Section’s AGM in April where John Cosgrove, President of
B.C.-based Axys Analytical (left) was presented with the 2012 Vancouver Island award for his outstanding
contributions to chemical industry, research, and teaching.
Photo credit: Laurie Colebrook
Yannick Bergeron, experiment creator for Les Débrouillards magazine creates a fire ball with lycopodium
powder in his Magic of Chemistry Show, part of Université Laval’s 24 Hours of Chemistry celebration last
March. The event — which included a CSI-style challenge for high school students, demonstrations for
elementary school attendees, and an all-night chemical film festival for members of the chemistry department
— is held every three years.
Photo credit: Marie-Pier Plante
Artistic interpretations of each of the elements comprise an eight metre by five metre mural of the
periodic table adorning a foyer wall at the University of Waterloo. Tiles submitted from every Canadian
province and territory, 20 U.S. States and 14 other countries make up the compilation. The project was funded
in part by the CIC’s Chemical Education Fund during 2011, the International Year of Chemistry. Detail:
Breanna Paige Stafford and Elaine Riegel, from Vilas School, Vilas, Colorado, submitted the tile for rhodium.
The single rose was inspired by the Greek root of the element’s name, meaning rose, and by the metal’s single
isotope.
On March 29, the Hyatt Regency hotel in downtown Toronto was abuzz as over 100 people gathered for the
an¬nual awards dinner for top achievers in the chemical sciences from industry and academia. For the second
year in a row, the dinner - which is hosted jointly by the Society of the Chemical Indus¬try and the CIC -
was preceded by an afternoon seminar series on “Clean, Green and Sustainable Chemistry.” Later, attendees
were treated to a keynote lecture by International Award winner John van Leeuwen of EcoSynthetix. Van
Leeuwen's message for the next generation: the status quo is not an option, and Canada has the potential to
be a world leader in sustainable chemistry.
A group of young job-seekers visit the CIC booth at the National Job Fair and Training Expo held in
Toronto in April. Nearly 12,000 attendees toured the 200-plus booths at the event including fifteen chemical
companies. The CIC booth was co-hosted by the Toronto CIC Local Section.
At the World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology & Bioprocessing in Orlando this spring, Brent
Erickson, Executive Vice President of Washington, D.C.-based Biotechnology Industry Organization and Roland
Andersson, CIC Executive Director discuss strategies on next year’s Congress, which will take place in
Montreal June 16-19, 2013. Canada had a substantial presence in Orlando this year; 110 out of 900 attendees
and nine out of 35 exhibitors were Canadian. The CIC has been a supporting organi¬zation of these meetings
since 2006 and members save 20 per cent on registration.
Save the Date
June 5-8, 2012
24th Canadian Materials Science Conference
London, Ont.
www.eng.uwo.ca/2012cmsc
June 21, 2012
2nd International Lignin Biochemicals Conference
Toronto, Ont.
www.bioautocouncil.com
August 25-29, 2012
20th International Congress of Chemical and Process Engineering (CHISA 2012)
Prague, Czech Republic
www.chisa.cz/2012
August 28-30, 2012
Oilsands 2012 Conference
Edmonton, Alta.
www.ualberta.ca/OILSANDS2012
September 16-21, 2012
15th International Biotechnology Symposium and Exhibition
Daegu, Korea
www.ibs2012.org
September 17-18, 2012
Process Safety Course
Toronto, Ont.
www.cheminst.ca/profdev
September 17-18, 2012
Lab Safety Course
Calgary, Alta.
www.cheminst.ca/profdev
September 19-20, 2012
Risk Assessment Course Toronto, Ont.
www.cheminst.ca/profdev
October 14-17, 2012
62nd Canadian Chemical Engineering Conference (CSChE 2012)
Vancouver, B.C.
www.csche2012.ca
November 12-14, 2012
Interamerican Congress of Chemical Engineering
Montevideo, Uruguay
www.aiquruguay.org/congreso
May 27-29, 2013
3rd Climate Change Technology Conference
Montreal, Que.
www.cctc2013.ca
August 18-23, 2013
9th World Congress of Chemical Engineering (WCCE9)
Coex, Seoul, Korea
www.wcce9.org
Things to Know
The CIC now offers online payment options. As of summer 2012 you will be able to pay for and access CIC services online. All CIC courses, conferences, events, and subscriptions can now be purchased online at www.chemist.ca. When you pay online you will get an immediate transaction confirmation and CIC will send your receipt shortly thereafter. More online services, including award submissions, are expected to be available this summer.
The 2012-2013 CIC Board of Directors consists of Russell Boyd of Dalhousie University (chair), David Fung of ACDEG Group (vice chair), Maja Veljkovic of the National Research Council Canada (past chair), Cathleen Crudden of Queen’s University (CSC president), Emily Moore of Hatch Engineering (CSChE president) and Chris Meintzer of Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (CSCT president).
The 2012-2013 CSC Board of Directors consists of Cathleen Crudden of Queen's University (president), Lorenzo Ferrari of LANXESS Inc. (vice president), Cornelia Bohne of the University of Victoria (treasurer), Karen Burke of Amgen Canada Inc. (past president), Jeffrey Keillor of the University of Ottawa, (director of awards), Joelle Pelletier of the Université de Montréal (director of conferences), John Sorensen of the University of Manitoba (director of student affairs), Michael Wolf of the University of British Columbia (director of subject divisions), Ravi Ramachandran, of Syngenta Canada Inc. (director of local sections), Ken Schmidt of DK3 Scientific (director of industrial liaison), Hugh Horton, of Queen’s University (director of accreditation), George Duncan of A&A Environmental Consultants, Inc. (director of professional status).
The deadline for award nominations for the CIC, CSC and CGCEN awards is July 3. Find out how to nominate someone at cheminst.ca/awards.
Members of the 2012-2013 CIC Fellowship Committee are Pudupadi Sundararajan (chair), Yves Deslandes, Andrew N. Hrymak and Gerry Phillips, all Fellows of the CIC.
The 2011 audited financial statements for the CIC, CSC, CSChE, CSCT, Chemical Education Fund and Gendron Fund are now available online at www.cheminst.ca.
You can check out photos from the 95th Canadian Chemistry Conference and Exhibition held in Calgary in May by clicking on the banner at the top of www.csc2012.ca.
Chemical Education Fund
International chemical education conference coming to Toronto
Some 500 chemical science educators from around the world will gather in Toronto in July 2014 thanks to a successful bid by the University of Toronto to host the 23rd IUPAC International Conference on Chemical Education. The bid, presented to the IUPAC Committee on Chemical Education last July in San Juan, Puerto Rico, proffered Toronto’s metropolitan and multicultural charms, as well as the organizing committee’s past experience in helping to carry out the Canadian Chemistry Conference and Exhibition, to seal the deal. Delegates are expected to be largely post-secondary instructors, although considerable effort is being made to draw high school chemistry teachers. Under the conference theme “Developing Learning Communities in the Chemical Sciences,” symposia planned to date include “Communicating Across the Educational Levels,” “Outreach to the Lay Community,” “International Student Learning Communities,” “Technological Support of Chemistry Learning and Learning Communities,” and “Greening Attitudes in Chemistry Education.” The conference will be sponsored in part by the CIC’s Chemical Education Fund.
“We’re all very excited,” says Judith Poe, co-chair of the conference. “Of course now we have to get down to the work of it.”
Partnerships
Engineers sign agreement with oilsands network
The CSChE entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Canadian Oilsands Network for Research and Development (CONRAD) in May. The MOU represents a statement of “goodwill and intent” to “strengthen the friendship and cooperation between the two organizations … in the field of chemical engineering as it relates to oilsands research and development.” The agreement lists some specific areas of cooperation including the spread of best practices, participation and co-promotion of events and conferences, support of human capacity building in sustainability and academic programs at colleges and universities, exchange of information, and collaboration in communicating Process Safety Management standards.
“This agreement is an important step forward for chemical engineers in Canada,” says CIC Executive Director Roland Andersson. “It recognizes how integral their profession is to the development of one of the country’s most important energy assets.”
Carolyn Preston, Executive Director of CONRAD, says chemical and petroleum engineers are critical to the development of environmental and pre-competitive technologies that make the Canadian oil sands industry a world energy leader. “New technologies and engineering practices have seen the industry grow in leaps and bounds since Great Canadian Oil Sands began commercial operation during the 1960s,” she says. “The industry now provides the single largest supply of imported crude oil to the United States, the world's largest energy market.”
Awards
2012 Green Chemistry and Engineering Awards announced
The Canadian Green Chemistry and Engineering Network (CGCEN), a network of the CIC, announced its 2012 award winners in May. The awards recognize individuals and organizations for advancements in green chemistry and engineering.
Philip Jessop of Queen’s University won the Canadian Green Chemistry and Engineering Award for an individual, which is sponsored by GreenCentre Canada, for his research in C02 and H2 chemistry.
Paul Charpentier of Western University won the Ontario Green Chemistry and Engineering Award for an individual, which is sponsored by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, for his research in developing new “green nanotechnologies” for environmentally-friendly and alternative energy applications.
Finally, the Xerox Research Centre of Canada (XRCC) won the Ontario Green Chemistry and Engineering Award for an organization, which is sponsored by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment for innovations in the areas of greener materials and processes that have been instrumental in reducing energy consumption and waste in both the manufacturing of consumables and printing. Three of these innovations include emulsion aggregation toner, long-life photoreceptors and cartridge-free solid ink for full-scale multifunction devices. “Green chemistry and engineering is now a critical part of our materials design process,” says Paul Smith, vice president of XRCC. “As chemists and engineers, we have great potential to impact the world in a positive way. This is something we take very seriously at XRCC.” The XRCC, based in Mississauga, Ont. is Xerox’s global materials research centre.
For more information on these awards, visit www.cheminst.ca/awards.
Grapevine
The Dalhousie Research in Energy, Advanced Materials and Sustainability (DREAMS) program received an Award for Exemplary Work in the Incorporation of Sustainability into Chemistry Education from the American Chemical Society this spring. DREAMS is an interdisciplinary program for chemistry, physics and engineering students that draws top-level researchers from across Canada.
Mark MacLachlan of the University of British Columbia Department of Chemistry is one of six winners of this year’s Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowships. The fellowships, which were announced in March, include a research grant of up to $250,000 over two years. The host university also receives up to $90,000 a year to fund a replacement for the fellow’s teaching and administrative duties during the course of the fellowship.
Suning Wang of Queen’s University Department of Chemistry is one of seven winners of the 2012 Killam Research Fellowships awarded by the Canada Council for the Arts. The fellowships, which were announced in February, provide $70,000 a year for two years.
In Memoriam
The CIC wishes to extend its condolences to the families of Lionel Cooper, MCIC, Ted Ondrus, Robert
Rushowy, MCIC and Maurice A. Ryant, FCIC. 
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