The 37th Northeast Regional Meeting (NERM), which was hosted by the Northern New York Local Section, was held on Wednesday-Saturday, June 2-5, 2010, in Potsdam, New York, on the bucolic campus of the State University of New York (SUNY) Potsdam; Martin Walker and Maria Hepel, both of SUNY Potsdam, served as the General Chair and Program Chair, respectively. More than 500 attendees, including about 60 undergraduate students, were present for the 350 oral and poster papers that were offered across a wide range of the chemical sciences: nan- otechnology, drug development, envi- ronmental and green chemistry, organic and inorganic chemistry, bio- chemistry, and chemical education. In addition, the meeting exhibition fea- tured 15 commercial vendors and two graduate school representatives. Work- shops on careers and leadership train- ing, a half-day program for high-school science teachers, and a vendor sympo- sium were also scheduled.

Plenary lectures about sustainabil- ity were given by Catherine Hunt (Dow Chemical Co.), who was the 2007 ACS President, and by Berkeley Cue (BWC Pharma Consulting), who received his undergraduate education at the Univer- sity of Massachusetts Boston. The Cope Scholar Awardee, John Porco (Boston University), was recognized by a symposium on natural product synthesis in his honor, and William Bonnez (University of Rochester Med- ical Center) gave the keynote address in a symposium on “Chemistry and the War Against Cancer.”

The following 2010 Northeast Region awards were presented at the banquet on Friday evening: The ACS Division of Chemical Education Award for Excellence in High School Teach- ing to Joan Pease (Hall High School, West Hartford, CT); The E. Ann Nal- ley Award for Volunteer Service to the ACS to Richard Partch (Clarkson Uni- versity); The Award for Achievements in the Chemical Sciences to Stan Whit-
tingham (SUNY Binghamton); The Stanley C. Israel Award for Advancing Diversity in the Chemical Sciences to Luis Colón (SUNY Buffalo).

Among the professional network- ing and social events were the ACS Governance Breakfast with District I Director Neil Jespersen and Director- at-Large and 2005 ACS President William Carroll, and a performance of woodwind chamber pieces by the Aria Reed Trio from the Crane School of Music of SUNY Potsdam. One of the highlights of the meeting was the evening performance of the musical comedy, “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” which was pre- sented by the Chemistry and the The- atre and Dance Departments. Among the four individuals chosen from the audience to participate on stage was the University President, John Schwaller, an historian, who was elim- inated in the first round; he was unable to spell “lysergic acid diethylamide.” Surviving alone into the fourth round was John Michael Sophos, Meeting Planner from the ACS Department of Meetings and Expositions, who cor- rectly spelled “cow,” “intolerant,” and “Mandingo;” he faltered on the name of some obscure furry animal from the mountains of Tibet, and was eliminated just before the end of Act I.

Details of the program of the meeting and the abstracts of the pre- sentations are available at

<http:// pluto.potsdam.edu/nerm2010/index.ph p/Main_Page>.

NERM was also the occasion for the annual meeting of the Board of Directors of the Northeast Region of the ACS, Inc., which includes the fol- lowing local sections: Binghamton, Central Massachusetts, Connecticut Valley, Cornell, Corning, Eastern New York, Green Mountain, Maine, Mid- Hudson, New Haven, Northeastern, Northern New York, Norwich, Penn- York, Rhode Island, Rochester, Syra- cuse, Western Connecticut, and Western New York. The Board reelect-
ed Christopher Masi (Westfield State College) as Secretary and Wayne Jones (Binghamton University) as Treasurer of the Region; Julianne Smist (Spring- field College) and Richard Cobb (East- man Kodak) will continue as Chair and Vice Chair, respectively, for another year.

The Treasurer reported that the Northeast Region was fiscally solvent, with $35,446 in the bank; the $4,000 starter loan to NERM 2010 is expected to be repaid very soon. When the treasury reaches $50,000, the Board will consider changes in the distribu- tion of meeting surpluses and will look into the possibility of creating addi- tional regional awards, including grants for young chemists to travel to the meetings.

The Board received a final report on NERM 2009 (Hartford, CT) from its General Chair, Julie Smist; the meeting featured 329 abstracts, 592 attendees, 12 exhibitors, and eight graduate schools. Its surplus of income over expenditures was approximately $15,000, which will be split 60%/40% between the Connecticut Valley Local Section host and the Northeast Region, according to the by-laws of incorpora- tion. Martin Walker gave an interim report on NERM 2010; where a budg- etary surplus is also anticipated. Christopher Masi, the General Chair of NERM 2011, reported on the loss of the venue for the meeting in Worcester, MA, due to the recent abrupt sale of the hotel site, making it impossible for the meeting to be properly organized, especially with regard to location and finances, in the time remaining before its scheduled start. The Central Massa- chusetts Local Section withdrew its bid for NERM 2011, which the Board received and accepted with regret.

The next NERM will take place on September 30-October 3, 2012, at the Radisson Hotel in downtown Rochester, NY, and will be hosted by the Rochester Local Section in celebration of its 100th anniversary. Expressions of interest to host future NERMs were made by the Binghamton, New Haven, and Cornell Local Sections.

The Board will meet next in 2011 at an ACS national meeting.