CINF E-News
Volume 6 Number 2
Spring 2005
Edited by Bruce Slutsky
Table of Contents
· Editors Note
· CINF Sponsors
· Reports from the San Diego Meeting
o Executive Committee Meeting
o Technical Sessions
o Awards
§ Herman Skolnik Award
§ Lucille M. Wert Scholarship
§ Marion E. Sparks Award
o Photos
· CINF Scholarship for Scientific Excellence Sponsored by IO Informatics
· Highlights from the ACS Council Meeting
· Chemistry Site Seeing
· Cheminformatics Ph D Track at Indiana University
· Future Meetings
o Noordwijkerhout (7th International Conference on Chemical Structures)
o ASIST (American Society for Information Science and Technology)
o SLA (Special Libraries Association)
o Pacifichem
· CSA Trust - grant applications invited for 2006
· Obituary - Jacques-Emile Dubois (1920-2005)
· Sponsor Announcements
o Chemical Abstract Service
o MDL
o Wiley
o FIZ-CHEMIE Berlin
· CINF People in the News
Editor’s Note
By Bruce Slutsky
The CINF E-news, published about 6 weeks after the ACS National Meeting, helps members keep in touch with divisional activities whether or not they are able to attend. I would like to thank all who sent contributions to the Spring 2005 edition. I would also like to thank my fellow member of the Publications Committee (Norman Santora, Cathy Misner, Graham Douglas, and Helen Yun) who produced the Chemical Information Bulletin (CIB) that is issued before each meeting. Kudos to Webmaster Kerryn Brandt who authored and maintains the CINF Website (http://www.acscinf.org) . I hope to see many readers of the CINF E-News at the Washington, D.C. meeting in August.
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CINF Sponsors in 2005
Submitted by Guenter Grethe
Fundraising Chair
The Division of Chemical Information again was fortunate to receive generous financial support from our sponsors to maintain the high quality of the Division’s programming at the 2005 National ACS Meeting in San Diego, to promote communication between members at social functions and to support other divisional activities during the year, including scholarships to graduate students in Chemical Information.
The Division gratefully acknowledges contribution from the following sponsors:
Platinum Level
Chemical Abstracts Service
Elsevier MDL
Silver Level
Chemical Diversity
FIZ CHEMIE Berlin
Wiley Interscience
Springer Science + Business Media
Bronze Level
Rusch Consulting Group
Accelyrs
Sunset Molecular Discovery
Contributor Level
Inpharmatica
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Reports from the San Diego Meeting
Minutes of the Executive Committee Meeting
Submitted by Svetlana Korolev
The draft minutes from the Executive Committee Meeting held March 12, 2005 in San Diego is posted at the Publications page of the CINF
web site.
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Technical Sessions
Abstracts of the technical sessions from the Philadelphia meeting may be found at http://www.acscinf.org/cinf/meetings/229nm/229cinfabstracts.htm There are links to many of the Powerpoint files that were shown.
Presentations given at CINF symposia have been posted to the CINF website with express permission granted by the authors who retain the original copyright. These presentations are for information purposes only and cannot be further disseminated without the author's prior written permission.
The Editor thanks the speakers at the San Diego meeting who sent me their Powerpoint files to share their information with CINF members who could not attend.
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Awards
Submitted by Bill Town
2006 Herman Skolnik Award - call for nominations
The ACS Division of Chemical Information established this Award to recognize outstanding contributions to and achievements in the theory and practice of chemical information science. The Award is named in honor of the first recipient, Herman Skolnik.
By this Award, the Division of Chemical Information is committed to encouraging the continuing preparation, dissemination and advancement of chemical information science and related disciplines through individual and team efforts. Examples of such advancement include, but are not limited to, the following:
· Design of new and unique computerized information systems;
· Preparation and dissemination of chemical information;
· Editorial innovations;
· Design of new indexing, classification, and notation systems;
· Chemical nomenclature;
· Structure-activity relationships; and
· Numerical data correlation and evaluation.
· Advancement of knowledge in the field
The Award consists of a $3000 honorarium and a plaque. The recipient is expected to give an address at the time of the Award presentation. In recent years, the Award Symposium has been organized by the recipient.
Nominations for the Herman Skolnik Award should describe the nominee's contributions to the field of chemical information and should include supportive materials such as a biographical sketch and a list of publications and presentations. Three seconding letters are also required. Nominations and supporting material should be sent by email to me (). Paper submissions are no longer acceptable.The deadline for nominations for the 2006 Herman Skolnik Award is June 1, 2005.
As reported in Volume 6 Number 1 of the CINF E-News Lorrin Garson won the award for 2005. Lorrin will organize a symposium at the Fall 2005 ACS National Meeting.
Lucille M. Wert Scholarship 2005
This year the scholarship, which is designed to help persons with an interest in the field of Chemical Information to pursue graduate study in Library, Information or Computer Science, will be presented to Jeffery Loo who has a BSc, Chemistry, Simon Fraser University, 2001 and MLIS, Library and Information Studies, University of British Columbia, 2003. Currently, he is at the Welch Medical Library of the Johns Hopkins University, where he is completing the second year of his National Library of Medicine/NIH Associate Fellowship. In fall 2005, he will begin studying for a MSc in Chemoinformatics at the University of Sheffield, UK.
Jeffrey Loo
Meritorious Service Award 2005
The CINF Executive committee, at its Spring meeting, has voted unanimously to recognize an outstanding member of the division, Marge Matthews, with the 2005 Meritorious Service Award
Extracts from the nomination letters for the Meritorious Service Award explain why she has been nominated to receive this award:
'Her service to the division has spanned all of the nominator's years with the division (1980's onward). In her capacity as the Bulletin editor, newsletter editor, and in the role of treasurer, her efficient "get the job done" attitude has provided a base of consistency and confidence for many of the Division officers who have served with Marge. She has helped many a chair-elect through the budget preparation process and has worked to make our division a successful one.'
'Marge has been a diligent volunteer for CINF since the 1970's when she worked on the then very labor-intensive Chemical Information Bulletin and ultimately took over as editor - a role she filled for many years. She has worked on a variety of CINF committees, and most recently has served as CINF Treasurer for more years than I can remember.'
'During her tenure as Treasurer Marge was exemplary in her fulfillment of her fiduciary responsibilities. She maintained accurate and complete records, insured that CINF funds received the maximum interest possible, entered CINF into the ACS investment pool for Divisions, worked tirelessly to resolve the many problems created by ACS systems in generating bills, reimbursement checks, etc., and served as a voice of reason at every CINF Executive Committee meeting to ensure that CINF functionaries created a reasonable and balanced budget. Most recently Marge established a CINF Finance committee to oversee the Division's funds and to ensure continuity in the financial knowledge and experience required by the CINF Treasurer and Division Chair.'
'Marge has been responsible, continuing to attend CINF meetings at her own expense for many years after her employer no longer subsidized such volunteer activities. And she continues to serve, most having recently agreed to actively participate on the CINF Awards committee.'
'Marge did an amazing job as CINF's Treasurer which she held for a decade (1995-2004). Her knowledge, pragmatism, dedication, and long-term efforts have been a tremendous service to CINF. She did far more than make sure that the accounts for the Division were in order. She carefully monitored and analyzed income and expenses, keeping the CINF Executive Committee fully informed of the status of the budget and CINF Officers to potential problems or issues. Her leadership has played a seminal role in keeping the Division's financial health strong. If there was bad news, she always had the courage to deliver it. She always offered sound options, suggestions, and alternatives. In short, Marge was an excellent Treasurer for the Division and we were very fortunate to have her excellent contributions for such a long time. She is someone who is most deserving of CINF's Meritorious Service Award.'
2005 Marion E. Sparks Award
Submitted by Svetlana Korelev
The 2005 Marion E. Sparks Award will be given to Hilary Davis. A recent graduate, Hilary is a Fellow at the North Carolina State University Libraries since January 2005. She holds a Master of Library Science, University of Missouri - Columbia 2004, and a Master of Science in Biology, University of Missouri - St. Louis 2001.
Hilary Davis has been selected to receive the award from amongst a large group of strong candidates. A honorary certificate and a check for $1500 will be presented to her at the SLA Chemistry Division Annual Business Meeting on Tuesday, June 7, 2005, 7:30-9:00 AM, Toronto Convention Center.
The Marion E. Sparks Award for Professional Development, established in 2002 by the Chemistry Division of the Special Libraries Association, is designed to recognize the ambitious individuals and assist them with their career growth.
The award is named to honor Marion E. Sparks, http://www.sla.org/division/dche/sparks.htm, a chemistry librarian at the University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign from 1913 until her death in 1929. Ms. Sparks contributed a great deal to the field of chemical information, her achievements include teaching courses on chemical information, and authoring and publishing what is argued to be the first book to formally address chemical literature and library instruction.
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Photos from the San Diego Meeting
Submitted by Wendy Warr and Eric Shively
From left, Josef Eiblmaier, InfoChem, Roger Schenk of CAS, Valentina Eigner-Pitto, InfoChem, Peter Loew of InfoChem
W. Todd Wipke and his wife Corrinne
At the Chemical Abstracts Service Luncheon
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CINF Scholarship for Scientific Excellence Sponsored by IO Informatics
The scholarship program of the Division of Chemical Information (CINF) of the American Chemical Society (ACS) funded by IO Informatics is designed to reward graduate students in chemical information and related sciences for scientific excellence and to foster their involvement in CINF. For further information please see:
http://www.acscinf.org/cinf/awards/IO-CINF.htm
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Highlights from the ACS Council Meeting
Submitted by Bonnie Lawlor and JoAnne Witiak
The Council of the American Chemical Society met on Wednesday, March 16, 2005 in the Marina Ballroom of the San Diego Marriott Hotel in San Diego, CA. The meeting was opened at 8:00am with a resolution and moment of silence honoring recently deceased ACS Councilors, including past-Presidents Clayton Callis and Warren Niederhauser.
SAN DIEGO REGISTRATION
Total registration at the Dan Diego meeting was 15,385. This included 8,372 Full members, 4,160 student affiliates, 1,624 exhibitors (representing 328 companies), 628 exhibit-only visitors, and 601 guests. This conference had the second highest number of exhibitors in ACS meeting history.
ELECTION ISSUES
Candidates for Fall ACS Elections
Council elected Catherine T. Hunt (Rohm and Haas Company, Spring House, PA, Philadelphia Section) and John W. Kozarich (ActivX Biosciences, La Jolla, CA San Diego Section) as the two candidates for ACS President-Elect 2006. It was announced that George Heinz has been certified to run for President-Elect as a petition candidate. The ballots will be mailed to all voting-eligible ACS members in the Fall.
The Committee on Nominations and Elections reported that the Council selected Catherine C. Fenselau and Madeleine M. Joullié as the District III candidates for the ACS Board of Directors. Bonnie A. Charpentier and Stanley H. Pine were elected as District VI candidates.. In addition, James D. Burke, Edwin A. Chandross, C. Gordon McCarty, and Frankie Wood-Black have been selected to run for Director-at-Large (2006 - 2008). Ballots for all of these elections will be mailed on or before October 10, 2005 to the appropriate segments of the Council.
Electronic Ballot on the Horizon
In August 2004 the ACS Council approved a petition to allow electronic balloting in ACS elections. The Council Policy Committee has since approved the revised Bylaws and, if all of the technical requirements can be put in place within the next few months, the elections scheduled for October 2005 (see above) will have an electronic option for those who prefer to vote in this manner.
Petition Candidates
Ron Breslow, former ACS President, expressed some dissatisfaction with how the current ACS Bylaws handle the process for petition candidates. He believes that petition candidates should have to stand in front of Council along with the nominees selected by the Committee on Nominations and present to Council to take their chances on being one of the final two candidates. At present, ACS alternates the formal selection of nominees for the Presidency - one year they are from industry and the following year they are from academia. However, in any given year petition candidates can come from either sector. Dr. Breslow suggested that petition candidates should not even be permitted or perhaps they should be required to wait until the appropriate sector election. He believes that the freedom for a petition candidate to run out of their sector can put nominated candidates at a disadvantage.
Dennis Chamot stated that petition candidates allow the membership to have a say in who runs for office - exclusive of Council. But he offered the possibility of having petition candidates address Council in the Fall - not for selection purposes, but in order to have them fully participate in the process.
Valerie Kuck, Chair of the Committee on Nominations and Elections, asked all Councilors to supply their input on this issue as it is one that N&E is attempting to address in the near future.
Nomination & Election Procedures Discussion
The Committee on Nominations & Elections will hold an open forum at the 2005 Fall National meeting in Washington, DC for the discussion of the current procedures that are followed for nomination and election to ACS offices. The committee plans to do another member survey prior to the forum to determine members' understanding of and level of satisfaction with the current process. An earlier survey was done two years ago.
2004 YEAR-END POSITIVE FINANCIAL RESULTS
The Society ended 2004 on a positive financial note as follows:
* Net from Operations $ 5.1 Million
* Investment Gains $14.1 Million
* Unrestricted Net Assets $24.0 Million added (total: $185 Million)
In addition, all pre-established financial guidelines were met with full compliance.