Fall Semester:
9/9/21 Meeting: Welcome Back Game Night – To welcome back our chemists to our first in-person NUSAACS meeting in over a year, we decided to host a game night! Members brought a variety of board, card, and video games, including Jenga, Catan, chess, and Nintendo Switch games. We all got to mingle and meet some of our newer freshman members, and overall, it was a fantastic kick-off to the new semester!
9/15/21 Meeting: Co-Op Mixer – Several of our upperclassman members volunteered to serve on a panel to talk about their experiences with the co-op program at Northeastern. We covered a wide variety of chemistry careers – organic/medicinal, analytical, computational, materials, environmental, and clinical, to name a few. Students answered broad questions from their peers as a panel, and then split into groups based on the types of co-ops they had worked, so that peers interested in that field could ask them more specific, one-on-one questions. This also allowed our younger chemists to do some networking and get a good word put in for them at some big-name companies!
9/23/21 Meeting: Speaker, Dr. Alicia Taylor – Dr. Taylor, an environmental scientist and chair of the California ACS section, came to speak with us virtually about her career in environmental remediation. She focused on environmental toxicology and wastewater in her talk. She also had the opportunity to discuss the differences between an industrial and a governmental career in environmental science, as she recently had a career change between the two. Our members learned a lot about environmental science and chemistry, which can often be overlooked!
9/30/21 Meeting: Welcome Dinner – After much patience from our members and working through the university’s COVID-19 guidelines, we were finally able to host a welcome dinner for our fourth meeting of the semester! Chemists met in one of the university’s well-ventilated outdoor tents to eat Popeye’s, Lilly’s Gourmet Pasta, and cannolis. Vegan and vegetarian options were provided. We all enjoyed the opportunity to catch up on how classes are going and to finally safely have food at NUSAACS again!
10/7/21 Meeting: Speaker, Patrick DeFlorio – One of our most captivating NUSAACS speakers of all time, Patrick DeFlorio is a scientific glassblower and 30-year member of the American Scientific Glassblowers’ Society. He has designed custom glassware for NASA, MIT, and the DOD, and he occasionally does contract work for some of the Northeastern labs! Patrick showed several slides of glassware he and his family members have worked on, and told stories from his years of glassblowing. Students even got to handle some of the glassware he’s worked on!
10/14/21 Meeting: Speaker, Steve Brehio – This week, we welcomed Mr. Steve Brehio, the director of the Environmental Health & Safety Office here at Northeastern! Steve shared his knowledge of hazardous waste streams, stressed the importance of reducing waste whenever possible, and gave some important safety tips for working in the lab. He also shared some stories with us about hazardous waste noncompliance.
10/21/21 Meeting: Speaker, Dr. Rafael Gomez-Bombarelli – Dr. Gomez-Bombarelli, a computational chemist at MIT, spoke to us about the work done in his lab. His research combines machine learning with atomistic simulations to design and understand novel materials. Students enjoyed learning about computational chemistry from an expert in the field.
10/28/21 Meeting: Mafia Night! – Just in time for Halloween, we held our annual NUSAACS game of Mafia! Friendships were tested and lies were told as the mafia slowly took out all their competition. This year, the mafia managed to pull out a victory with zero deaths of their own!
11/4/21 Meeting: Movie Night! – To help students relax amidst midterm season, we streamed the fan-favorite Ratatouille as a club! Snacks were served, and our members enjoyed the opportunity to relax and watch a fun movie before getting back to studying.
11/18/21 Meeting: Potluck! – In celebration of the fall season, we held a potluck! Our members brought everything from cookies to mac n’ cheese to saag paneer to mashed potatoes. It was fun to taste everyone’s creations, as well as to get caught up with friends and fellow members!
12/2/21 Meeting: Speaker, Hope Meikle – This week, we had a former NUSAACS alum, Hope Meikle, come speak about her research! Hope is completing a Master’s program at Duke University; her research is focused on nanomaterials. She gave an excellent talk summarizing her work and giving advice to the undergrads on figuring out whether grad school is the right choice for them. We loved catching up with Hope!
12/9/21 Meeting: Winter Cookie Decorating – To celebrate the end of the fall semester, we hosted a cookie decorating event! Cookies and decorations were sourced from the local Oakleaf Bakery. Members got creative with colors and sprinkles to make some truly beautiful cookies! Check out our Instagram to see some of their creations.
Spring Semester:
1/20/22 Meeting: Speaker, Dr. Amy Andes – For our opening meeting of the year, we heard an outstanding talk from food scientist Dr. Amy Andes. Dr. Andes founded Banzo Butter, a company using garbanzo beans to create allergy-friendly alternatives to nut butters. She used her knowledge of plant-based formulations and her desire to create tasty foods for people with allergies to create this concept. We learned all about her career in food chemistry and saw how chemistry could create business opportunities!
1/27/22 Meeting: Powerpoint Night! – Our chemists came together to present slideshows on fun and scientific topics of their choosing. Presentations varied from Winnie the Pooh characters to license plate rankings to what food everyone would be served at a banquet. Some topics were controversial, leading to some interesting discussions. This was a fun stress-reliever as the semester pace began to pick up!
2/3/22 Meeting: Game Night! – For this meeting, we gathered to play a bunch of different games, including board and video options. Some members played Nintendo Switch games, like Mario Kart. Other popular games included Catan and Jenga. Things got competitive, and everyone had a blast!
2/10/22 Meeting: Speaker, Dr. Karen Johanesson – Dr. Johanesson, an environmental geochemist at the University of Massachusetts – Boston, came to speak with us about her exciting research and career path. Dr. Johanesson took us through the specific details of her work in chemical speculation and biogeochemical cycling of trace elements in the environment. Chemists left this meeting with a much greater understanding of the specifics of environmental geochemistry!
2/17/22 Meeting: Murder Mystery Night! – Murder Mystery Night, an event introduced last year during our virtual-only meetings, has quickly become a favorite of our chemists! We gathered to investigate the murder of a prominent explorer who was about to embark on an exploration of a newly discovered island in the Atlantic. Chemists worked together (and against each other) to try and discover the murderer before the clock ran out!
2/24/22 Meeting: Speakers, Dr. Robert Knowles and Jake Ganley – Dr. Knowles and Jake Ganley came to speak from Princeton about their work in the space of methodological asymmetric photocatalysis. Ganley, a Northeastern alum, presented on his PhD research and path to PhD, detailing the reactions that made up the bulk of his work. He talked about his experience with getting his PhD and gave our undergrads some advice on picking a graduate school. Dr. Knowles also provided some advice on this topic.
3/3/22 Meeting: Joint Student Chapter; Speaker, Dr. Karin Öberg – For our annual Joint Student Chapter meeting, members of ACS organizations at other universities joined us for a thrilling talk from astrochemist Dr. Öberg. She currently works at Harvard University, studying the chemistry of planet formation. Dr. Öberg discussed her unique path to a PhD, including how she found a balance between her love of chemistry and physics in the field of astrochemistry. Students with a love of space were enthralled to hear about the weird chemistry that goes on in space. Her talk was definitely one to remember!
3/10/22 Meeting: Speaker, Dr. Pam Mabrouk – Our very own Dr. Mabrouk came to talk about the ins and outs of graduate school with our members for this meeting! Dr. Mabrouk is very experienced in the details of this path, and gave advice to our students on how to determine whether grad school is the best next step for them. She also detailed how to apply and when to start looking at schools. Students left this meeting feeling much more prepared for applying to grad school.
3/24/22 Meeting: Trivia Night! – To ease our chemists back into classes after a relaxing spring break, we hosted a Trivia Night competition! Our chemists split up into teams and competed against each other for bragging rights and Pavement gift cards. Categories were mostly science-focused, with some fun facts thrown in (like how many licks it takes to get to the center of a tootsie pop)! It was a close game that went through two tiebreakers, finally ending with an intense round of rock-paper-scissors between the tied teams!
3/31/22 Meeting: Undergraduate Research Symposium – Our annual Undergraduate Research Symposium is a really insightful event for undergraduates who want to get involved with on-campus research, but are unsure where to start. A panel of upperclassmen in NUSAACS gave a brief overview of the work they do in lab and how they’ve benefited from the experience. Then, we split into groups based on field of chemistry research so underclassmen could ask more specific questions about their research and lab environments. This event is an excellent example of how NUSAACS helps our members with professional development.
4/7/22 Meeting: NCDI Mixer – Last year, our club established the NUSAACS Committee on Diversity and Inclusion (NCDI), a subgroup aimed to promote the equity and inclusion of people belonging to historically marginalized identities in our club. For this year’s event, the NCDI collaborated with SASE (Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers), oSTEM (Out in STEM), and BCC (Biochemistry Club) to host a fun dinner and mixers for all the clubs’ members! Each club gave a short overview of what they do on campus, and then attendees split off to grab pizza and get to know each other. To learn more about the NCDI, check out this page on our website.
4/14/22 Meeting: Speaker, Dr. Ayse Asatekin – For our final speaker meeting of the year, Dr. Asatekin, co-founder of Clean Membranes, Senior Scientific Advisor at ZwitterCo, and Tufts University professor, came to speak about her work in the field of membrane technology. Her lab works to develop novel membrane chemistries for clean water and efficient separations. She also guided us through her path to PhD, and discussed why she decided to stick with a career in academia over industry. This meeting was insightful for chemists still figuring out what exactly they want to do for their careers and specializations.
4/18/21: Futures in the Sciences – This year, our annual Futures in the Sciences conference was held on Patriot’s Day! Science students across the university came to hear from a panel of scientists, including Fran Kravitz, Dr. David Bailey, Dr. Francesco Benedetti, Dr. Maddie Smith, and Dr. Eric Kuenstner. They discussed their careers and what got them into science, and emphasized the importance of a good mentor in their professional development. Students were also offered free Lilly’s Gourmet Pasta and professional headshots.
4/21/22 Meeting: Eboard Elections – Check back next week to find out who our new eboard will be!
4/28/22 Meeting: Semester Wrap-Up and Chemmies!
