As highlighted in C&ENews, the Southeastern/Southwest Joint Regional Meeting received Outstanding Regional Meeting with Greater than 1,000 Attendees. Hosted by the Orlando Local Section, it convened over 1,700 attendees, showcasing large-scale scientific exchange through 49 symposia and extensive poster sessions. Cross-regional collaboration, career-focused programming, and networking events strengthened connections across academia, industry, and government sectors.

The Orlando Section Executive Committee would once again like to express its gratitude to Chris Chouinard for his dedication and service as General Chair and to the organizing committee including Chris Avery (co-chair), Sara Hubbard (SWRM chair), Vasileios Anagnostopoulos (program chair), Michael Johnson (exposition chair), Van Quach (treasurer), Chris Randles (education chair), Darlene Slattery (awards committee chair), Nicole Lapeyrouse (graduate fair chair), Duy Le (website committee), Laura Sessions (website committee), and Brian Mosby (Orlando local section chair).

The Orlando Section received the ChemLuminary Award for Outstanding Community Involvement in National Chemistry Week at the ACS Fall 2023 Meeting in San Francisco. National Chemistry Week celebrates the importance of chemistry in everyday life. On October 22, 2022, about 400 attendees were able to participate in experiments related to the theme: Fabulous Fibers, The Chemistry of Fabrics.  The Orlando Section offered ten safe and exciting activities for attendees at our partner institution, the Orlando Science Center. This event was organized by Dr. Denisia Popolan-Vaida, assistant professor in the chemistry department at UCF, and supported by volunteers, faculty and students, from UCF, FIT, and Valencia College. The Orlando Section extends its appreciation to all the volunteers who made the event possible.

Edwin shared that volunteering for the National Chemistry week ‘was a very enriching community engagement experience. I always enjoy any opportunity to share about chemistry and science with a diverse audience. This event allowed me to combine both of my passions and provide meaningful learning experiences to kids and young adults. Sharing chemistry knowledge with the participants and observing their sparked curiosity gave me a deeper appreciation of the importance of science. The collective teamwork done by the Orlando section and group of volunteers was incredible, and showcased the greater impact we can achieve working together to generate a positive and safe environment to foster scientific interest in the future generations.’

You can see pictures from the event here: https://orlandoacs.org/2022-national-chemistry-weeks-event-the-chemistry-of-fabrics/

Look for us at the Orlando Science Center again for National Chemistry Week celebrations in October 2023. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Denisia.Popolan-Vaida@ucf.edu.

At the 24^th ChemLuminary Award ceremony on August 23, 2022, at the ACS National Meeting in Chicago, the Orlando Local Section received the Outstanding Ongoing CCEW Event award sponsored by Committee on Community Activities (CCA). This award recognizes a local section for an outstanding CCEW event that has been conducted for at least three years.

For more than a decade, except for 2020 thanks to the pandemic, each year, our local section participates in Central Florida Earth day to promote the positive role that chemistry plays in the world. Our events often attract hundreds of attendees to our tent for chemistry demonstrations and hands-on activities as well as discussion with volunteers.

This is the first ever ChemLuminary Award received by the Orlando Section.

In addition, our National Chemistry Week event at the Orlando Science Center is in the finalist of the Outstanding Community Involvement in NCW award.