This year’s American Chemical Society national meeting included two presentations by a Loyola chemistry professor and student.
Laura Thomas, chemistry senior, and Kurt Birdwhistell, chemistry professor, presented Loyola’s projects in Boston from Aug. 19 to Aug. 23.
The meeting, the 234th of its kind, featured the Loyola projects “Acylation of Ferrocene: A Greener Approach” and “Loyola University Green Chemistry Outreach Program.”
The presentations consisted of talks, poster sessions and an exposition. The topics revolved around a full array of chemistry issues. At the exposition, a fair of 1,000 chemistry-based companies tried to promote their businesses.
“The whole experience was very positive and also fun at the same time,” said Thomas, who is also the American Chemical Society chapter president.
The Loyola University Green Chemistry Outreach Program entailed going to different high schools and giving demonstrations and presentations in hopes of involving the community. For instance, members of Loyola’s ACS make liquid nitrogen ice cream, silly putty and slime to start up other local schools’ science clubs.
The program, Thomas said, teaches modern-day green chemistry to local schools and also tries to broaden students’ interest in chemistry.
In addition, Loyola offered the opportunity to study green chemistry on campus as well as at Xavier University with Loyola chemistry students.
Birdwhistell outlined two goals of the program. The first goal is to decrease energy required for experiments, while the second is to devise ways to make chemistry safer for workers and students.
“It’s important that chemistry students learn about green chemistry because people want to improve the environment. The United States is a better place to apply technology to solve problems. There is a bigger impact when change is made from within,” Birdwhistell said.
According to Birdwhistell, Thomas hopes to officially make the Loyola chapter a green chapter.
As far as the ACS is concerned, its plans are to host the next meeting in New Orleans with undergraduate and graduate students attending.
Birdwhistell and the chemistry students are optimistic about Loyola’s participation as well as ACS’ work in green chemistry.
“I am especially interested in seeing how their research and outreach program have progressed over these next months,” said Thomas.
Rachel Funel can be reached at
