American Chemical Society President-Elect Visits UA

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – On Friday, Sept. 24, the president-elect of the American Chemical Society will visit The University of Alabama to talk about how to make the next generation of students more “chemically literate.”

Dr. William F. Carroll will give a general lecture at 7 p.m. in Shelby Hall, room 151. Shelby Hall is located at 500 Campus Drive on the UA campus. Earlier in the day he will speak to a chemistry majors’ class about major trends in the chemistry profession (10 a.m., Shelby Hall 150).

Carroll is vice president of the Dallas-based Occidental Chemical Corp. He received a doctorate in organic chemistry from Indiana University in 1978. The ACS is the world’s largest scientific society.

“While 60 percent of high school students take chemistry, few will take it from a chemist,” he said. “On the other hand, many, if not most, career chemists cite an early teacher as the inspiration for their career. When we engage students in chemistry we increase the chances that bright students make it a career.”

He added that a chemically literate population is aware of the many ways chemistry has created and continues to support modern life, and a chemically literate government both values those contributions and helps them to continue.

The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization, chartered by the U.S. Congress, with a multidisciplinary membership of more than 159,000 chemists and chemical engineers. It publishes numerous scientific journals and databases, convenes major research conferences and provides educational, science policy and career programs in chemistry. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

The department of chemistry is part of the College of Arts and Sciences, the University’s largest division and the largest public liberal arts college in the state with 6,600 students and 360 faculty. Students from the College have won numerous national awards including Rhodes Scholarships, Goldwater Scholarships and memberships on the USA Today Academic All American Team.