The Program Committee’s main goal is to oversee the division’s technical program, start-to-finish, at the fall and spring national meetings. In working toward this goal, we interact cordially and professionally with the many people involved in programming, respond to their diverse requests in a timely manner and have to follow the protocols and enforce the rules by which all who contribute to the program must play.
In the reporting period, we had a successful Fall 2024 meeting in Denver, CO. We wanted to especially acknowledge the work by CHED co-chairs Aimee Miller and Julianna Smist with support by Ryan Sweeder. For each of the two co-chairs, this was the first meeting that they helped organized (recently).
We have also been planning for the Spring 2025 CHED program which offers many different and exciting symposia. We continued to employ a division-sourced approach to identifying symposia, which has led to the wide range of options. Additionally, we are excited to be able to support symposia in honor of two ACS award winners in spring 2025 and host the award address for a third. This meeting is the first with formally scheduled "Joint" programming and CHED is offering many jointly offered sessions including the GSSPC symposium, "Bonds that Matter: Soft Materials for a Sustainable World." This is meeting the ACS goal of offering 15% of jointly sponsored session by 2026. The ACS has also eliminated any hybrid sessions and virtual poster presentations (without effective communication to the broader community) which caused some additional challenges. Special acknowledgement to the hard work of the co-chairs Pam Clevenger and Faith Yarberry.
In Fall 2024, we also identified a co-chair for the committee (Pam Clevenger) who will be expected to assume the role of chair in 2026 (with current chair, Ryan Sweeder, continuing to support her as her co-chair).
Working on behalf of the division requires interaction with many others: presenters, organizers, program chairs from other divisions, and ACS staff. A number of committee members and ACS staff members have been especially helpful in the planning of this meeting. Sincere thanks go out to:
- Aimee Miller and Cary Supalo for their support and efforts in Fall 2025 CHED program planning.
- Nicole DiFabio, from the ACS in the Undergraduate Program Office, who worked with the undergraduate students and us to address their needs and questions
- Robin Green, Warren Lin, and Josh Blair and others from ACS, for managing and guiding the entire Society’s program changes .
Heather Johnson, for the countless ways she supports each program and our communication with members of the division
We are working to broaden the participation of the Program Committee. As such, we have worked to bring the organizing for the General Papers into the committee (special recognition to Steven Fleming who has done this role for years). Additionally, we are being more intentional about having someone on the committee oversee the General Posters and the Chemistry Education Research Posters. These roles will allow more committee members to engage in the development of the program even if they are unable to attend the national meetings. We anticipate this will help make the committee more rewarding for the committee members and also provide a stepping stone toward co-organizing a national meeting, as these positions will help people gain familiarity with the organization processes and using MAPS,