Meetings & Events

Upcoming Events
(click anywhere on calendar image above to view the latest event information)

September 2025

September Section Meeting
Thursday, September 18th, 5:00-9:00 pm
Fegley's Allentown Brew Works
812 Hamilton St, Allentown, PA 18101
Guest Speaker: Rigoberto Hernandez, President-elect, ACS
“Reach for the Stars, Settle for the Moon!”
Social Hour: 5:00pm-6:00pm
Dinner: 6:00pm-7:00pm
Meeting & Awards: 7:00pm-8:00pm
Presentation by Professor Hernandez: 8:00pm-9:00pm
STUDENTS: GREAT OPPORTUNITY TO BROADEN CAREER PERSPECTIVES!
POST FLYER EVERYWHERE!
Members: $30; Students/Retired & Unemployed Members: $15
Parking available in PPL deck at 7th & Linden or Spiral deck at 8th & Linden
REGISTER NOW - DEADLINE FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12TH 

October 2025

October Section Meeting
Thursday, October 9th, 5:30-8:30 PM
Lafayette College
730 High St, Easton, PA 18042
Speaker: Prof. Christina Vizcarra, Barnard College
"Cytoskeletal regulation by formins: effects of disease-associated mutations and small molecule inhibitors"
POST Flyer everywhere!
5:30 - 6:00pm - Welcome, Appetizers & Drinks in the Clay Ketchum Room (Marquis Hall)
6:00 - 7:00pm - Dinner in the Clay Ketchum Room (Marquis Hall)
7:00 - 7:30pm - Business Meeting in Hugel Science Center (Room 103)
7:30 - 8:30pm - Seminar in Hugel Science Center (Room 103)
$25/$15 student/retirees/unemployed
REGISTER for the October Meeting
CONTACT: Heidi Hendrickson, hendrihe@lafayette.edu

National Chemistry Week
October 19-25
"The Hidden Life of Spices"
Saturday, October 18th, 10:00 am until 5:00 pm
Join our Public Outreach Event at 
Da Vinci Science Center at PPL Pavilion, 
815 W. Hamilton Street, Allentown, PA 18101
Hands-on demos include 'Invisible Writing with Turmeric,' 'Why does Cinnamon float on water,' and 'How your nose detects even the smallest difference in odor molecules (left vs right-handed molecules)' plus more!
POST Flyer everywhere!
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED (any experience/time slot)!
CONTACT: Nigel Sanders, nigel53.sanders@gmail.com


November 2025

November Section Meeting
Thursday, November 20th
Lehigh University, Mountaintop campus
111 Research Drive, Bethlehem, PA 18015
Annual Ned D. Heindel Lecture
Speaker: Sam Niedbala, CEO, CryoConcepts LP
SAVE THE DATE! MORE DETAILS SOON

YEARLY MEETING AND EVENT SCHEDULE
The section holds regular meetings about 8 times per academic year, September-November and January-May. There are also special events scheduled throughout the year such as celebrations around National Chemistry Week (incorporating Mole Day, October 23) and Chemists Celebrate Earth Week (incorporating Earth Day, April 22). Recurring meeting themes include: student poster session, careers night, industry tours, high school teachers night and awards night. LVACS participates in many local Science Fairs throughout the year. Family events typically take in local sports (LV Iron Pigs AAA baseball) or tour/sample at wineries/microbreweries.

Keep watching this page for timely announcements of our next events! 
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January 25th Section Meeting at Moravian University Explored AI and Chemistry
https://youtu.be/MN5hxD3d7MM
Wolfram|Alpha's Jason Sonnenberg's talk with LVACS in January 2024 "Chemical Superpowers with ChatGPT + Wolfram" explored how ChatGPT is a much smarter “chemistry assistant” when given access to Wolfram|Alpha and Wolfram Language. The resulting Wolfram GPT can generate chemical structures in two- and three-dimensions which the ChatGPT 3.5 and ChatGPT 4 can not. Additionally it can also pull from expert-curated chemical data and propagate experimental uncertainty in chemical conversions and computations. Wolfram|Alpha & ChatGPT 3.5 are both free resources, while Wolfram GPT & ChatGPT 4 require a subscription from OpenAI.
*|END:WEB_VIDEO|*

A lecture by Lauren Zarzar of Penn State University entitled “Color from Colorless Materials.” Lauren is an assistant professor of chemistry and an affiliate of the Materials Research Institute. The Zarzar Lab studies stimuli-responsive materials, the behavior of active matter, and laser fabrication methods to synthesize and pattern both inorganic and organic materials. https://www.zarzarlab.com/. In this lecture, Lauren explained why interference (structural) color can arise from even microscale structures (~ 100 microns) by Total Internal Reflection, such as when water droplets of different sizes form by condensation on a clean, low energy surface.

Like to Post or Suggest Future Meetings?

Have an event you'd like to post
or an idea for a future LVACS section meeting or event?
Please submit the event information to the webmaster on
the attached form or simply let us know your idea!

Newsletter Editor and Webmaster

Nigel Sanders, webmaster@lvacs.org
+1 (610) 597-5645
Program Chair / Chair-elect

Carl Salter, salterc@moravian.edu
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LEHIGH VALLEY SECTION OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY

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