Fall Semester:
9/10/20 Meeting: Fall Welcome – This was our very first normal virtual meeting, held on Zoom! We started off with introductions from each of our executive board members. Then, we played a “speed-dating” game where each of our members was paired up with two other members in a breakout room so they could get to know each other, sort of recreating the in-person atmosphere of Chem Central. Finally, we moved on to some virtual games, such as scribbl.io. It was a fun and casual reintroduction to the club!
9/17/20 Meeting: Speaker, Dr. Chris Liu – Dr. Chris Liu, Vice President of Chemistry at Kaleido Biosciences, virtually spoke to us about his extensive career in drug discovery. Specifically, he taught us about the field of pharmaceuticals in relation to the microbiome, and how the microbiome can be used to address many different diseases.
9/24/20 Meeting: Co-op Mixer – Several students, who had been on at least one co-op, served as a panel to answer questions from students curious about the co-op experience. We went through a brief tutorial of NUWorks, Northeastern’s new co-op search website, and then broke off into breakout rooms by field of chemistry to have discussions on specific co-ops within those fields.
10/1/20 Meeting: Speaker, Prof. Oyinda Oyelaran – Professor Oyelaran, an accomplished Northeastern organic chemistry professor and career chemist, joined us from her sabbatical to tell us all about her path through various fields and universities to becoming our beloved professor! She gave an excellent introduction to the academic side of chemistry, as our speakers tend to be from industry.
10/8/20 Meeting: Movie Night – We picked a science-themed movie for our Movie Night this year – Flubber! Students joined on Zoom to talk to each other; we watched the movie together via Kast. We had excellent new member turnout, and had a lot of fun goofing off in the chat!
10/15/20 Meeting: Speakers, MFA Series Pt. 1, Richard Newman and Charlotte Ameringer – Richard Newman, Head of Scientific Research, and Charlotte Ameringer, Paintings Conservator, came to talk to us about their work in art conservation. We learned about how this field intersects with chemistry, and how a chemist could pursue a career in art conservation.
10/22/20 Meeting: Trivia Night – In honor of Mole Day the following day, we hosted a trivia night event! Three teams competed for the prize of a coffee shop gift card. The question topics varied from chemistry, to Boston, to Halloween-themed. The competition was intense, and, although trivia night is typically an in-person event, went off without a hitch in the virtual format. The team It’s Reining Chem, comprised primarily of new members of the club, won in a close Jeopardy-style final round!
10/29/20 Meeting: Undergraduate Research Symposium – Several of our members served as a panel in this meeting. Each gave a brief description of their on-campus research experiences. Then, they answered student questions regarding these experiences and on-campus research in general. Also, at this meeting, we ratified an updated form of the NUSAACS constitution, which included a measure to form a NUSAACS Committee on Diversity and Inclusion (NCDI).
11/5/20 Meeting: Speaker, Dr. Joseph Francisco – Dr. Francisco, an atmospheric chemist at the University of Pennsylvania and former ACS President, came to speak to us about his career path and his research. We got to hear his life story, in addition to how he ended up deciding on a career in chemistry. He was a very captivating speaker!
11/12/20 Meeting: Speaker, Dr. Derek Lowe – Dr. Derek Lowe, Director of Chemical Biology and Therapeutics at Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (NIBR) and independent pharma and drug discovery writer for AAAS’s Science Magazine, spoke to us about his career path and his experiences in the fields of synthetic chemistry and science writing. In addition, we got to hear a bit about his experience as a contestant on Jeopardy!
11/19/20 Meeting: Speaker, MFA Series Pt. 2, Mei-An Tsu and Laura Panadero – Mei-An Tsu, Art Conservator, and Laura Panadero, Claire W. and Richard P. Morse Fellow, came to speak to us about two specific fields within art conservation – objects and paper-works conservation. We learned more about how one enters this field, and how these specific subfields of art conservation relate to chemistry. This meeting was the second part of our speaker series with the Museum of Fine Arts.
12/3/20 Meeting: Powerpoint Night – This event was held on Gathertown and was our introductory experience to this cool videoconferencing platform. In this meeting, several members came prepared with presentations on random, varied topics to present to the group! These topics ranged from things like “You Know the Vibe: The Philosophy of Vibrations and Equilibrium” to others like “The Best Song Off Each Taylor Swift Album.” It served as a fun way to destress towards the end of the semester, and everyone learned something new!
12/10/20 Meeting: Baking Night and Semester Wrap-Up – For this meeting, we all virtually baked together! One of our eboard members led us in baking spice cake, with options for either a sheet cake or mug cake recipe, based on the tools available to each member. Supplies for baking were provided. Everyone had fun decorating and chatting while we baked!
Spring Semester:
1/21/21 Meeting: Welcome Back! – For our first meeting of the spring semester, we played some computer games (like skribbl.io!) and got to know our new members! Some NUin chemistry majors came to our club for the first time, so we introduced them to everyone else, and got competitive with the games!
1/28/21 Meeting: Murder Mystery – Suspicions and suspense abounded at this meeting! Everyone was assigned a fun character with secrets they had to keep as they attempted to figure out who the murderer was at this beachy mansion “party.” Those who guessed correctly were given a prize! We all had fun dressing up and getting into character with fun Zoom backgrounds.
2/4/21 Meeting: Speaker, Sam Ellman – Sam Ellman, a senior scientist at the Warner Babcock Institute (WBI), came to talk to us about his impressive career in chemistry, as well as his academic experiences as a recent Master’s graduate. He told us all about his green chemistry work at the WBI, as well as his previous research.
2/11/21 Meeting: PowerPoint Night #2 – Based on popular demand, we decided to host a second PowerPoint Night, this time on Zoom! Topics this time ranged from chemistry classes to insect pheromones to donuts. This event was a more relaxed meeting that helped to form social bonds within the club. We wanted to give members a fun way to unwind and learn more about each other!
2/18/21 Meeting: NCDI Networking Event – This February, our chapter hosted its first ever event to celebrate and honor Black History Month in the form of a virtual mixer with other STEM-related affinity organizations at Northeastern. The newly formed NUSAACS Committee on Diversity and Inclusion (NCDI) organized the event (read more about it in the NCDI tab on our website!). They coordinated with several student organizations as well as the Social Justice Resource Center (SJRC) on campus to introduce these organizations to club members at our weekly meeting. Members of the Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers (SASE) and the Black Engineering Student Society (BESS) shared insights into their clubs’ missions and shared laughs with our members. Members of the NCDI shared a presentation detailing the multitude of resources available to minority students at Northeastern, ranging from other student organizations to scholarships, mentoring, career building, and campus centers. There was also discussion of various Black History Month events being hosted by our chemistry department, such as a presentation on inequity in Black principal investigator funding. The event was an excellent way for our chapter to network with scientists across the disciplines in a way that fostered community building and inclusion.
2/25/21 Meeting: Valentine’s Baking! – Based on the popularity of the winter baking night, and the continued requirement for NUSAACS activities to be virtual, we put on another baking-together event! This time, the cake options were a classic southern-style Coca Cola chocolate sheet cake or an eggless chocolate mug cake. An executive board member guided the club through the baking process, teaching about the chemistry behind the usage of certain ingredients. All supplies were provided, and some members even made their cakes in NUSAACS mugs purchased this year! Everyone enjoyed the cakes, and had fun chatting with other members while baking.
3/4/21 Meeting: Joint Student Chapter with Speaker Dr. Marinda Wu – This year, we held our first ever fully-virtual Joint Student Chapter meeting between the ACS student chapters of the greater-Boston area (specifically, those of Salem State University and Tufts University). Dr. Marinda Li Wu – former ACS President and founder of Science is Fun! – was welcomed by all as the honored speaker of the night! As Dr. Wu is heavily involved with the California chapter of the ACS, several of their members were in attendance as well. Dr. Wu spoke in depth on her long and successful career in chemistry, highlighting her endeavors in academia, industry, and education, and the challenges she was able to overcome as an Asian American woman in STEM. Following her speech, Dr. Wu joined attendees in Zoom breakout rooms for a brief networking/Q&A session.
3/11/21 Meeting: Speaker, Dr. Ed Miracco – Dr Ed Miracco, the associate director of External Technology Investments at Moderna, came to speak to our members, detailing his prior position as the associate director of Analytical Technical Operations at Moderna. Miracco gave students his perspective on the science of biopharmaceutical companies, as well as how they can become successful. He also took some time to walk through the various mRNA-based medicines and vaccines produced there. Students were also given the privilege to get a comprehensive look into the drug research and development of their Covid-19 vaccine! He wrapped up by asking students about their future plans and giving advice about what different career paths can be taken with a degree in chemistry.
3/18/21 Meeting: Mafia! – In the middle of the semester, the most anticipated event of the year took place: Mafia! Full of betrayal, deceit, and good old-fashioned trickery, the game that has ended many friendships took place over Zoom. Members were each assigned a role via the Zoom chat and given instructions on what to do. Over the course of an hour, a story was woven that described how certain members were murdered, saved, and accused, with breakout rooms being created to discuss the potential innocence of each accused member. After a majority of the people had died, the murderers were finally revealed, and for the first time in recent NUSAACS history, the Mafia did not get away with their crimes.
3/25/21 Meeting: Speaker, Dr. Mircea Dincă – As March came to a close and students prepared for the last month of the semester, NUSAACS welcomed MIT Professor Dr. Mircea Dincă, whose work is largely focused on addressing research challenges related to energy storage and global environmental concerns. Of specific focus during this meeting was his study of novel organic-inorganic hybrid materials, particularly microporous materials, which Dr. Dincă hopes to use in electrocatalytics. This was one of the more technical speaker meetings we had this year, and offered students a valuable look into the subfields of material science and electrochemistry.
4/1/21 Meeting: Speaker, Dr. Henry Lee – Dr. Henry Lee, one of the world’s foremost forensic scientists, came to speak to NUSAACS about his distinguished and experienced career in forensic chemistry, as well as some of the science involved in the application of the discipline. Currently, he is an emeritus professor and the Director of the Forensic Research and Training Center at the University of New Haven. He has help solved over 8,000 cases, and discussed a couple of them during this meeting, including the famous “Woodchipper” murder (the first murder conviction in Connecticut without a body) and the Michael Peterson case. In addition, he went through his life path and how he ended up as one of the most esteemed forensic chemists in the United States. He even showed some crime scene photos and photos of forensic evidence from his career. This certainly was a meeting to remember, and NUSAACS is very fortunate to have been able to host him!
4/8/21 Meeting: 2021-2022 Eboard Elections – Our annual executive board elections were held virtually for the second time this year. Each candidate had to be nominated and confirm the nominations prior to elections. Elections are run by the current president, and we vote for each position separately, starting with the president. Each candidate was allowed 5 minutes for a speech and each speech was followed by a Q&A session. Once each candidate finished their speeches, they were put in a breakout room and the rest of the club was allowed 5 minutes to give constructive feedback on the candidates. As our club is focused on building a strong community, it is really important that our feedback focuses on each candidate’s abilities, and if negative comments are made, that do not attack anyone’s character. There were over 10 candidates who ran, many of them being first year students, and a fantastic new executive board was elected!
4/15/21 Meeting: Futures in the Sciences – The Futures in the Sciences Conference is an annual conference open to anyone in Northeastern University’s College of Science. In collaboration with other clubs, we formed an interdisciplinary panel of scientific professionals, who each discussed their current work, educational and career paths, and advice for future scientists. This conference was moderated by two club members who asked panelists prepared questions as well as questions from the audience. This year’s panelists were Dr. Laura Landrum, Dr. Soumitra Athavale, Mary James, Meg Murphy, and Bronia Bosen-Grose. Dr. Landrum is an oceanographer and climate change scientist at NOAA who studies polar climate and uses model projections to investigate the future impact of climate change on polar ecosystems. Dr. Athavale is a postdoctoral scholar in the Arnold group at CalTech working in the lab of Nobel where they investigate the catalytic potential of certain enzymes. Mary James is Senior Acquisitions Editor at Springer Nature and spoke about her experience in the science publishing industry and her work in highlighting diversity in science. Meg Murphy & Bronia Bosen-Grose of The Best Bees Company spoke about the inner workings of beekeeping, honey harvesting, and insect population maintenance. Both coming from non-STEM backgrounds, Murphy and Bosen-Grose also spoke about their unorthodox career paths and how we can encourage more people to go into STEM fields. This was our 8th time holding the event, and we can’t wait until next year’s!
4/22/21 Meeting: Chemmy’s! – As our last meeting of the year, the annual Chemmy Awards were held over Zoom. A NUSAACS tradition, this event presented the results of a number of superlative awards as decided by the members of the club via an anonymous survey. With awards ranging from silly (most likely to sleep through Zoom class) to serious (the Michael Pollastri Memorial Award), this event allowed our club members to express their appreciation for each other and spend a night in a positive, social manner! The newly elected e-board presented the winners with a fun PowerPoint, while members pitched in with their opinions on each award. The winners of each award were rewarded with small trophies as prizes, as well as a treat of cannolis from Boston’s North End.
