Our American Chemical Society – Student Affiliates (ACS-SA) chapter continues to be nationally recognized. For the 2024–2025 academic year, we achieved an Outstanding ACS Student Communities Award and the Green Chemistry Award, which was awarded to only 33 out of 375 student chapters from around the country. Although largely chemistry majors, the reputation and leadership of our program attract members from a variety of STEM majors such as engineering, neuroscience, and biology. Students from other majors are an important part of our community and are actively engaged in our meetings and activities. We love in sharing our passion for chemistry and science throughout the entire undergraduate community.
This year, we are continuing the same tremendous efforts to be a significant part of our undergraduate chemistry students’ community and the broader surrounding communities of Pittsburgh. Throughout this past year, our student chapter hosted 5 research presentations, 8 professional development events, and 10 student development and social celebrations events. We invited professional speakers to present on topics covering career opportunities, research development in both academia and industry, and current green chemistry issues in our lives. Moreover, we make a point of hosting several social events each semester such as back-to-school activities, holiday parties, and senior farewell. In addition, we make a point to serve our department and undergraduate students through university-wide activity fairs, monthly newsletter, weekly hoagie sale, and Department of Chemistry merchandise. Finally, to provide all our members opportunities to actively participate, they are encouraged to tutor, engage in our community outreach events, and present their own undergraduate research from both within and outside of our department.
Our strong outreach program positively impacts both our chapter members and our community. Through community outreach, we work to improve access to science education for our local elementary and middle school students. By focusing on schools and programs in under resourced areas of our community, we work to provide hands-on science education that might otherwise be inaccessible. We have collaborated with local programs including the Pittsburgh ACS, Carnegie Science Center, Backyard Nature, Science Olympiad, Biomedical Engineer Society, University of Pittsburgh’s Glass Shop, Hill District Community Center, Girls Inc., Kamin Science Center, Ronald McDonald House, Neighborhood Learning Alliance, and Gwen’s Girls. In summary, our members actively coordinated and participated in over 15 various outreach activities. This year, our ACS-SA awarded Outstanding Service Award to Professor Sunil Saxena, Tess Callaghan, Ella Chanen, and Ella Frounfelker for their hard work and remarkable dedication to our undergraduate program and community.
Finally, our ACS-SA chapter representing University of Pittsburgh participated in the national ACS ChemBiz Competition: Where Chemistry Meets Entrepreneurship. Our students developed an idea using the abundant cellulose in peach processing waste to create a biodegradable polymer that replaces polyethene microbeads in certain agriculture and cosmetic settings. Our team was one of top 6 finalists selected to present in Atlanta, GA at the National ACS Spring meeting on March 24, 2026, where we won first place!
We are very proud of our members and their achievements. We hope to continue our strong legacy here at the University of Pittsburgh.
