SERMACS 2009 - Simposia Information

History, Chemistry, and Art of the Elements

Puerto Rico Convention Center, Room: TBA; Friday, October 23, 2009; 1:30 – 5:20 PM
(click to download session program)

Mary Virginia Orna is Professor of Chemistry at the College of New Rochelle, New Rochelle, New York. She is a well-known lecturer and tour speaker for the American Chemical Society, and has written or edited ten books on chemical education and numerous journal articles. She is the Principal Investigator for ChemSource, a teaching strategy for pre-service and in-service chemistry teachers. She is also very active in the governance of ACS, being a member of the ACS Council and the Council Policy Committee.

Cheryl Safren is a graduate of the High School of Art & Design in NYC, received her undergraduate degree from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and her M.S. with distinction from Hofstra University. The artist has had 15 solo show in museums, art centers and galleries and has participated in well-over a hundred juried group exhibitions. Her specialty is using the chemical elements in art. In 2008, Safren was chosen as one of Pulse magazine's  VIP artists and www.Copper.org also did a feature on the artist's work in their CopperArts section.  The October 26, 2006 issue of Chemical and Engineering News showcased Safren's chemistry art. Her work was also included in Hyle: International Journal for Philosophy of Chemistry, special issue “Aesthetics and Visualization in Chemistry” published in Germany November, 2003.

Anshul Samar is a 10th grader, the CEO of Alchemist Empire Inc, and the creator of Elementeo, the chemistry card game. Elementeo is a battle game designed to inject fun into chemistry and ignite an interest in 3rd - 8th graders.  In Elementeo, players create compounds, combat with elements, and conquer chemistry.  Anshul has presented Elementeo at the National ACS meeting where Dr. Tom Lane, ACS president, bought 50 games on the spot.  Anshul and Elementeo have also been covered by New York Times, Scholastic, PBS, C&EN, FOX, and NPR. He has given talks at the National Academies of Sciences and the National Association of Gifted Children organization.

Darleane C. Hoffman, Professor Emerita, University of California, Berkeley (UCB), Department of Chemistry is also Faculty Senior Scientist in the Nuclear Science Division of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and advises students and postdoctoral fellows in heavy element nuclear and radiochemistry and actinide chemistry. In addition she serves on a number of national and international advisory committees and is currently (2008-2009) a member of the National Academy Committee on Nuclear Forensics.

Theodore Gray is the author of Mad Science: Experiments You Can Do at  Home–But Probably Shouldn’t and of Popular Science magazine’s “Gray Matter” column. He is the proprietor of www.periodictable.com and the creator of the iconic photographic periodic-table poster seen in universities, schools, museums, and on TV shows from MythBusters to Hannah Montana. He is co-founder of the software company Wolfram Research, creators of the world’s leading technical software system, Mathematica®, and WolframlAlpha. He has a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.