American Chemical Society
Division of Physical Chemistry
Spring 2007 Newsletter

        Officers
        Remarks from Chair
        Election Information and Ballot
        Notes from the Secretary
        Council Report
        Biophysical Subdivision
        Theoretical Subdivision
        Poster Session Awards
        Request for Symposia Topics and Speakers
        Recent Symposia Topics
        Technical Program — 233^st National Meeting — Chicago, IL
        Call for Papers — 234^nd National Meeting — Boston, MA
        Restrictions for Speakers for PHYS Symposia
        Submission of Abstracts
        General Information for Contributed Papers
        Future ACS Meetings
        Membership Information
        Membership Application

Bruce D. Kay

The Spring National ACS Meeting in Chicago is coming up March 25-29, and I look forward to seeing many of you at the outstanding program that Greg Voth has put together. The list of symposia is given later in this newsletter and the full technical program is available at the ACS web site (http://oasys2.confex.com/acs/233nm/techprogram/) .

• Rodney J. Bartlett, University of Florida, ACS Award in Theoretical Chemistry sponsored by IBM Corporation.
• A. David Buckingham, Cambridge University, United Kingdom, Ahmed Zewail Prize in Molecular Sciences sponsored by Elsevier
• Michael D. Fayer, Stanford University, E. Bright Wilson Award in Spectroscopy sponsored by Rohm and Haas.
• Jean H. Futrell, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Frank H. Field and Joe L. Franklin Award for Outstanding Achievement in Mass Spectrometry sponsored by Waters Corporation.
• Keith E. Gubbins, North Carolina State University, Joel Henry Hildebrand Award in the Theoretical and Experimental Chemistry of Liquids sponsored by ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company,
• Robin M. Hochstrasser, University of Pennsylvania, Ahmed Zewail Award in Ultrafast Science and Technology sponsored by the Ahmed Zewail Endowment Fund established by Newport Corporation.
• John T. Yates, Jr., University of Pittsburgh, Peter Debye Award in Physical Chemistry sponsored by E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company.

We also have three additional award winners who will be presenting their award addresses in award symposia cosponsored by both the Physical and Colloid and Surface Chemistry Divisions.

• Charles T. Campbell, University of Washington, Arthur W. Adamson Award for Distinguished Service in the Advancement of Surface Chemistry sponsored by Occidental Petroleum Corporation.
• Hans-Joachim Freund, Fritz-Haber Institut der Max-Planck Gesellchaft, Germany, Gabor A. Somorjai Award for Creative Research in Catalysis sponsored by the Gabor A. and Judith K. Somorjai Endowment Fund.
• Bruce E. Koel, University of Southern California, George A. Olah Award in Hydrocarbon or Petroleum Chemistry sponsored by the George A. Olah Award Endowment.

The Physical Chemistry Division also gives awards for the best student posters at each meeting. The awardees for the Fall 2006 meeting in San Francisco are given later in this newsletter. Their pictures can be found on the web. (http://hackberry.chem.trinity.edu/PHYS/PosterAwardWinnersF06.html) The winners of the student poster awards in Chicago will be posted on this site shortly after the meeting. The PHYS Division functions because of the excellent volunteers within the division. I would like to invite all Physical Division members to become more active in the Division, as officers or executive committee members or as symposium organizers. If you are interested in being an officer or being on the Executive Committee, please contact me (bruce.kay@pnl.gov), and I will forward your name to the Nominating Committee. If you would like to organize a symposium, Laurie Butler (L-Butler@uchicago.edu) is Program Chair for 2008 and Martin Head-Gordon (mhg@bastillee.cchem.berkeley.edu) is the Program Chair for 2009.

Finally, I would like to thank the all officers and staff of the Physical Division for their unwavering dedication and hard work. The past two Chairs, Barbara Garrison and David Nesbitt provided endless advice, help, and encouragement that has made my job much easier. Our past Secretary/Treasurer, Ken Jordan, and his assistant, Elaine Springel, worked tirelessly on behalf of the Division for the past five years. Their efforts have been essential to the smooth running of the PHYS Division and I would like to give them thanks from all of us in the Division. I am delighted that Anne McCoy (mccoy@chemistry.ohio-state.edu) from Ohio State, a former member of the Executive Committee, has agreed to take on the responsibilities of Secretary-Treasurer of the Physical Division for the next five years. In this role, Anne will be expertly assisted by Betsy Foran (acspchem@chemistry.ohio-state.edu).

We can all take great pride in the health, vitality, and scientific diversity of physical chemistry. Let's keep up the good work! I hope that you will take the opportunity to let me know (bruce.kay@pnl.gov) of any ways in which you think that the Physical Chemistry Division can better serve its membership and help contribute to our field.

The Bylaws of the Division of Physical Chemistry, approved in 1999, call for the Division Chair to appoint a three-person, Nominating Committee before the spring meeting.  A complete slate of candidates prepared by this committee will consist of one candidate for Vice-Chair-Elect, one candidate for each vacancy on the Executive Committee, and one candidate for each vacancy that may have developed in the ranks of the division Councilors, Alternate Councilors, and Secretary/Treasurer position.  The Vice-Chair-Elect automatically becomes the Vice-Chair, Chair-Elect, Chair, and Immediate past-Chair in each succeeding year.  Thus, this person makes a commitment to serve five years on the Executive Committee.  In the year this person serves as Chair-Elect, the duties of Program Chair are also his or hers.  The term of office for other Executive Committee members, Councilors, and Alternate Councilors is three years.  The Secretary/Treasurer serves five years.

The Secretary/Treasurer is required to announce the slate of candidates in the fall newsletter.

To increase the input of the members in this nominating process and to broaden the pool of candidates, the Executive Committee seeks input directly from members for use by the Nominating Committee.  Any member may suggest nominees to any of the officers of the PHYS division in writing.  The nominee must agree to serve.

Additional nominations can come from the membership in the following fashion:  A petition candidate must be supported by the signatures of not fewer than 4% of the members of the PHYS division in good standing (presently approximately 4,000). No signature shall be valid if it appears on more than one nominating petition for the same vacancy during the same calendar year.

A letter shall be submitted from each petition nominee stating willingness to be a candidate for election and to serve the Division for a full term if elected.  No nominee may be a candidate for more than one vacancy.  If nominated for more than one vacancy, the nominee must choose which nomination to accept.

Four weeks from the date of the mailing of the fall newsletter shall be allowed for additional nominations to be received by the Secretary/Treasurer.  All valid nominations received within that period shall be accepted and no others.

If no valid nominations are forthcoming from the membership, the nominees submitted by the Nominating Committee for Vice-Chair-Elect, Secretary/Treasurer, and membership on the Executive Committee are declared elected.

Regardless of whether petition nominees are validated or not, the Bylaws require the Secretary/Treasurer to mail to every PHYS division member a ballot that bears at a minimum the names and biographical sketches of the single candidates for each Councilor and Alternate Councilor vacancy submitted by the Nominating Committee.

New Officers for the PHYS division follow. The first six physical chemistry officers assumed their respective offices at the close of the national meeting in San Francisco, CA. The Councilors and vice-councilors begin their terms of service on January 1, 2007.

The Physical Chemistry Division thanks outgoing officers Barbara Garrison (Chair), Bruce D. Kay (Chair-Elect), Gregory A. Voth (Vice-Chair), Laurie Butler (Vice-Chair-Elect), Robert Levis (Executive Committee), Ellen Stechel (Councilor) and Patricia Thiel (Alternate Councilor) for their service to the Division.

Anne B. McCoy

This newsletter contains information about the ACS national meetings and any other items of interest to significant numbers of PHYS Division members.  All members of the PHYS Division are welcome to submit items to the Secretary for inclusion in this newsletter.  The deadlines are generally around December 1 and May 1 for the newsletters appearing before the Spring and Fall ACS meetings, respectively.  Submissions may be made via mail, FAX, or e-mail.

The current ACS Bylaws & Regulations may be viewed at: http://www.chemistry.org/portal/Chemistry?PID=acsdisplay.html&DOC=committees%5Ccnb%5Cindex.html.

Click on the link to Documents of the Committee and then on the link to Charter, Constitution, Bylaws, and Regulations of the American Chemical Society (Bulletin 5).

A copy of the bylaws and regulations is also included on the Division’s web page (http://hackberry.chem.trinity.edu/PHYS.)

John E. Adams

The major items expected to be on the agenda for the upcoming Council meeting in Chicago include votes on three proposed Bylaw changes and the selection of the President-Elect candidates for next fall’s election.  One of these proposals, permitting prepayment of dues for two or three years at the current dues rate, is not likely to stimulate much debate. A second item is a little more controversial.  That proposed Bylaw amendment would restrict the ability of the Council Committee on Nominations and Elections to nominate its current and former members for national offices (President-Elect and members of the Board of Directors). The hot-button issue, though, is the proposed change in the number of signatures needed to qualify petition candidates for spots on election ballots. Some Councilors feel that it is too easy to sidestep the normal nomination procedure and that the nomination-by-petition process has been abused.  Others feel that the current system works well and does not need revision. (The change would increase the number of signatures need by a President-Elect petition candidate by about a factor of 5 and would more than double the number needed to qualify an individual for a Director-at-Large election.  The petition also contains wording that would affect the way that run-off elections are handled, but those provisions have not attracted much attention.) At the meeting in San Francisco, positions on this issue appeared to be polarized, thus I would not hazard a guess on how the Council deliberations will turn out.

Although the audited financial numbers from 2006 are not yet available, my report of last October indicating that the society would end the year showing a strong financial performance appears to have been on target.  We will get an update on the current situation in the Committee on Budget and Finance and at Council, but it looks like we finally have made up for the losses in unrestricted net assets that resulted from the economic downturn of 2001.  I invite all members of PHYS to visit the Budget and Finance committee pages at chemistry.org for more details about the society’s financial position.  Let me just mention one issue, though, that is getting more and more attention by B&F and by the Board of Directors.  At one time, member dues covered nearly the entire cost of ACS programs; however, those costs now are being covered primarily from revenue generated by the business units (Chemical Abstracts Service and ACS Publications).  Those units are expected to do well in the short term, but the future is never a sure thing.

As always, members of PHYS are invited to contact me if they have any question about Council activities.

Jeffrey Saven

Subdivision membership is free to dues-paying members or affiliates of the Division of Physical Chemistry. To join the Biophysical Subdivision, notify the Chair, Jeffrey Saven, at the address in the table of officers.  Indicate that you wish to join and mention that you belong to the PHYS Division. If you do not belong to the Division, you may join both the Division and the Biophysical Subdivision by completing the application form at the end of this newsletter.

Angel Garcia

Subdivision membership is free to dues-paying members or affiliates of the Division of Physical Chemistry. To join the Theoretical Subdivision, notify the Chair, Angel Garcia, at the address in the table of officers. Indicate that you wish to join and mention that you belong to the PHYS Division.  If you do not belong to the Division, you may join both the Division and the Theoretical Subdivision by completing the application form at the end of this newsletter.

Martin Head-Gordon

The Executive Committee solicits formal suggestions for symposia and speakers for the meetings to be held in future years. The Executive Committee will meet in Chicago, IL in March, 2007, to plan the programs for 2009. Please send your suggestions to the 2008 Program Chair, Laurie J. Butler, at the address in the table of officers. The deadline for receipt of suggestions is November 1, 2007. These suggestions will be essential input for organizing the programs of the meetings.  For greatest effectiveness, follow these guidelines:

      a) Recommend a symposium topic, organizer, and list of suggested speakers (a list of recent PHYS symposia follows for informational purposes).

      b) Provide a brief description of the significance of the symposium.

Recent Symposia Topics

The 233^nd American Chemical Society National Meeting will take place in Chicago, IL during the week of March 25-29, 2007. 

Dr. Gregory A. Voth, 2007 Physical Chemistry Division Program Chair, has arranged a broad range of topics in modern physical chemistry to be featured in symposia and a general poster session at this meeting.  The topical symposia and their organizers are:

• Capturing Complexity in Physical Sciences Simulations, William F. Schneider (University of Notre Dame), Chris Wolverton (Ford Motor Company), and Krishnan Raghavachari (Indiana University)
• Dynamics on the Nanoscale, Oleg Prezhdo (University of Washington) and Philip Reid (University of Washington)
• Measures of Accuracy and Reliability in Molecular Simulation, Richard A. Friesner (Columbia University) and Thomas E. Cheatham III (University of Utah)
• Structure and Dynamics at the Liquid-Liquid Interface, Mark Schlossman (University of Illinois) and Robert Walker (University of Maryland)
• The Biophysics of RNA, Jody Puglisi (Stanford University) and James Williamson (Scripps Research Institute)
• Vibrational Spectroscopy as a Probe of Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics:  Theory and Experiment, Martin Zanni (University of Wisconsin) and John Straub (Boston University)
• Implications and Applications of Chirality in Physical Chemistry, T. Daniel Crawford (Virginia Tech), Patrick H. Vaccaro (Yale University) and Kenneth B. Wiberg (Yale University)

Program Chair: Gregory A. Voth, Department of Chemistry, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112; voth@chem.utah.edu

Online abstract submission for this meeting closes April 2, 2007. Please see http://oasys.acs.org/. for abstract submission access and guidelines.  Only electronic abstracts via the ACS online submittal system, OASys, will be accepted, except by special arrangement with the ACS symposium organizers.  You can check the Division’s website for specific deadlines. The web page is http://hackberry.chem.trinity.edu/PHYS.

Submit your abstract online at the ACS website: http://oasys.acs.org/. Please see the following for more information regarding submission. As is now customary, Program Chair Voth has arranged for the presentation of contributed talks in each of the topical symposia.  The contributed talks will be selected by the individual symposium organizers from among abstracts that explicitly request consideration for oral presentation. The criterion for selection will be close connection with the topics addressed in the symposia. Abstracts not selected for oral presentation will be assigned to the poster session(s), unless the authors request otherwise.  Since the organizers will not be able to accommodate all requests, the poster sessions will be specifically organized to group posters by symposium topic.  While the symposia do cover a wide range of topics, they cannot cover the full depth and breadth of physical chemistry. The Division, therefore, also welcomes general contributions to the poster sessions, which will be grouped by subject area.

The planned symposia and their organizers are:

• Single Molecule Spectroscopy and Novel Imaging Techniques for Biomolecular Systems, Xiaowei Zhuang (Harvard University), Haw Yang (U.C. Berkeley), and Paul Selvin (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)
• Emergence of Function in Molecular Assemblies, Rigoberto Hernandez (Georgia Tech), Deborah Evans (University of New Mexico), and Nadrian Seeman (New York University)
• Computational Electrochemistry for New Energy, Michel Dupuis (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory) and Donald Truhlar (University of Minnesota)
• Hydration: From clusters to Aqueous Solution, Daniel Newmark (U.C. Berkeley) and Kenneth Jordan (University of Pittsburgh)
• Structural Determination, Refinement, and Modeling of Large Biomolecular Complexes, Jianpeng Ma (Baylor College of Medicine), Michael Diehl (Rice University), and Shuanghong Huo (Clark University)
• Excited Electronic States in Chemistry and Biology: Theory and Experiment, Todd Martinez (University of Illinois) and Spiridoula Matsika (Temple University)
• Quantum Mechanics and Statistical Mechanics: Can One Avoid the Other?, Jiali Gao (University of Minnesota) and Sharon Hammes-Schiffer (Penn State)
• Biological Ion Channels: From Molecular Structure to Cellular Function, Rob D. Coalson (University of Pittsburgh) and Maria G. Kurnikova (Carnegie Mellon University)

A speaker may give, at most, one invited talk in the PHYS Division in any given meeting.  Note that this rule does not apply to contributed talks and posters, so there is still plenty of opportunity for all physical chemists to present their research results in the PHYS Division.

Abstract Requirements Submit a 150-word abstract via the ACS web-based submission system, OASys. Submission instructions and information on abstract requirements can be found at the ACS Web site, http://www.acs.org/meetings.

Request for Contributed Oral Presentations:  Authors who submit a contributed paper to the program and wish their abstract to be considered for possible oral presentation in a topical symposium must indicate such preference. The abstract should be submitted to the symposium in which oral presentation is desired and is due one week prior to the deadline.

General Papers – Members are cordially invited to present papers at the poster sessions. Abstracts should be submitted as instructed on the ACS Meetings web page, http://www.acs.org/meetings. The deadline, as published in C&E News, on the OASys web site, and the call for papers must be observed to allow the ACS to compile the program and to print and to circulate the abstracts.

1. No paper will be accepted unless an author expects to be present.

2. ACS Bylaws 3(a) require that “papers by American Chemists or chemical engineers not members of the Society shall not appear on the program unless they be joint with one or more Society members.”

3. Prospective poster presenters who also submit papers to other Divisions should inform the Chairman-Elects as to the Division, titles of papers and co-authors by the deadline date.

4. Each poster paper will have a poster board measuring 4’x8’.

5. All illustrations, charts, and textual material to be posted must be prepared in advance since materials for these purposes will not be available at the meeting.

6.  Posters should be mounted prior to the opening of the session and left in place until the close.  Authors are encouraged to be present the entire session.

7. There must be a heading (with letter at least 1” height) giving the title of the papers, the author(s), their affiliation(s), and the number assigned to it in the program.

8. Illustrative material will be read by attendees from a distance of 3’ or more, so lettering on illustrations should be at least 3/8” high.

9. There should be a logical sequence (introduction, development and conclusion) to the display and each sheet should be numbered.

10. Mounting the sheets on colored construction paper and using other techniques for improving graphic impact will enhance the presentation’s effectiveness. Ease of reading is far more important than artistic flair.  Certain color combinations, for instance, may look beautiful but may be almost impossible to read, especially in the absence of optimum lighting.

11. Do NOT mount illustrations on heavy stock, which is difficult to mount on the poster boards.

12. Each author is responsible for mounting his or her material at least ˝ hour prior to the opening of the assigned poster session and removing it within ˝ hour after the close of the session.  ACS cannot assume any responsibility for materials beyond those time limits.

13. Do provide sign-up sheets to record names and addresses of attendees who wish more information.

14. Do bring duplicates of data and conclusions. Duplicating facilities are unavailable through ACS.

15. ACS provides a modest supply of pushpins, masking tape, and felt-tipped pens, but it is wise to bring your own.  Upon advance request, ACS will arrange for blackboards to be available in the room.

16. Admission to poster sessions will be by ACS meeting badge only.

17. A poster paper submitted to the Program Chair (before the deadline) for presentation at a national meeting should be considered accepted unless the author is specifically notified to the contrary by the Division of Physical Chemistry Program Chair.

American Chemical Society, Division of Physical Chemistry

Subdivision of Theoretical Chemistry and Subdivision of Biophysical Chemistry

We invite you to encourage non-members to join the PHYS division.  It is the professional organization devoted to physical chemistry and physical chemists and can be most successful with maximum participation by physical chemists.  Some of the more practical advantages of membership are:

1. Members receive, in advance, abstracts of the papers to be delivered in the Division of Physical Chemistry programs at national meetings of the ACS
2. Members receive a newsletter with the abstracts of the National meetings listing future symposia and divisional meetings and giving the deadlines for submission of papers to be presented at these meetings.  The newsletter is included with the abstracts of papers for convenience.
3. Members receive discounts on the purchase price of the complete bound books of meeting abstracts.  Discounts for other books and journals are also available, and new arrangements are negotiated from time to time.
4. The Division of Physical Chemistry is an affiliate of the American Institute of Physics, and members of the Division are eligible for a discount on various AIP publications including The Journal of Chemical Physics.
5. The Division holds mixers at each national meeting of the ACS at which a division program is presented.  These events are held in conjunction with a poster session and provide an excellent opportunity to meet other physical chemists.
6. Members may vote and hold office in the Division and participate in its activities.  Division Affiliates may not vote and may not hold office.  Members and Affiliates are invited to suggest symposium topics, speakers, and organizers.
7. The Division maintains a close relationship with the Journal of Physical Chemistry.  Through the Division programs and through cooperation with the Journal of Physical Chemistry, we seek to call attention to the vigorous and dynamic character of physical chemistry in this country and to stimulate intellectual cross-fertilization between the different fields of research in physical chemistry.
8. The Division hosts important awards symposia.  The Debye, Hildebrand, and Theoretical Chemistry awards are given each year, the Langmuir Award every other year by the ACS.  In addition, the Pure Chemistry and Nobel Laureate Signature awards are frequent features in Division symposia.
9. In 1978, the Division established the Subdivision of Theoretical Chemistry.  There is no additional fee for membership in the Subdivision.  The subdivision provides special services and participates fully in developing symposium topics at the national meetings, specifically for the theoretically inclined.
10. In 1978, the Division established the Subdivision of Biophysical Chemistry. There is no additional fee for membership in the Subdivision.  The subdivision provides special services and participates fully in developing symposium topics at the national meetings, specifically for the biophysically inclined.

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