Greetings from the Chair

Well, the lifeblood of the university, our students, are back, and I imagine everybody is quite busy. Your local ACS section had a very successful spring with turn-outs for our meetings ranging from as few as 20 to as many as 50 attendants. The resume workshop was another very successful event. This fall we are going at a more moderate pace compared to the spring, but we still have some fun events coming up. First of all, on September 13, we will have our annual social meeting in combination

with our fall speaker, Dr. Robert Bates from Florida State University. Although we had requested only one food chemist as speaker for this year, national ACS gave us two, but his topic, "What you always wanted to know about chemicals in foods but were afraid to eat", is well suited for a dinner meeting, don't you agree? More infomation on this meeting can be found in a subsequent section of this newsletter and please look for flyers, e-mails and announcements in various departmental outlets. In early November (4th to 10th), we will celebrate National Chemistry Week (NCW), the theme of which is "Chemistry and the Arts". I wish I could give you the national ACS web address for this important event, but they are in the process of revamping their website and the NCW site is currently not accessible. As part of NCW, your local ACS section is sponsoring the highly successful chemistry workshop for girl scouts, coordinated by Dr. Sheryl Tucker and Rebecca Bergfield, which is in its third year and will be held during NCW this fall. We are also working on some other activities in connection with NCW, and will conclude the year with a Christmas party for our students, faculty and staff.

Call to Arms

It is the time of the year again when we are looking for volunteers to continue the work of our section. I would like to strongly encourage you to consider volunteering for your local ACS section and to please send me an e-mail (GruenI@missori.edu) if you are inclined to help out in any of the positions (such as chair-elect, treasurer-secretary, newsletter editor). I have greatly enjoyed my two years, have met people that otherwise I wouldn't have met, and the amount of work was very little compared to the benefits I reaped. Thus, I hope to hear from you!

Baumann Award

While we received only one application for the John Bauman Travel Award, the applicant, Brian Hodgen was extremely well qualified and was well rewarded for his efforts. Brian is working with Dr. Rainer Glaser and will be presenting his paper entitled "Nitrosative Adenine Deamination. A Quantum Mechanical Study of the Decomposition Pathways of Adeninediazonium Ion." at the 34th Midwest Theoretical Chemistry Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota this fall. Congratulations Brian! By the way students, it is not too early to start thinking about your travel plans for next year!

Have a productive fall semester, y'all (that's what two years in Texas do

to you)

Cheers, Ingolf

The September meeting will be the social meeting for the year. It will September 13 at 154 Stringer Wing (the new addition to Eckles Hall across from the Sanborn Field). The meeting, a joint meeting with the St. Louis Institute of Food Technologists, will start at 5 p.m. with a social hour. The meal and talk will be at 6:00. The speaker is Dr. Robert Bates from The University of Florida. His talk is titled "What You Always Wanted to Know About Chemicals in Foods but Were Afraid to Eat". The meal is $16.00 for members and $8.00 for students. A reservation form is attached.

Foods are complex mixtures of chemicals, but with difference. There is a very important legal distinction between naturally occurring food constituents and other chemicals that end up in food by design or default. Conversely, the much more important matter, chemical compatibility, dictated by human physiology and nutritional biochemistry and vital to well-being, health, performance, and survival -- is often ignored or misinterpreted by vocal yet chemically illiterate groups. Despite considerable progress in understanding the science and technology of foods, culture and perception have a far greater influence upon food acceptance and regulation than the reality of nutrition and toxicology. Paradoxically, as science uncovers more about the complex interactions of foods with the human body, the less confident and more confused the public becomes regarding the safety, value, and nutritional efficacy of the U.S. food supply. Food additives and now phytochemicals are examples of food consumption concerns that should also stress total diet, lifestyle, and common sense. This presentation will deal with both essential and trivial food constituents and emphasize some of the positive and negative aspects of each. Despite our imperfect and changing knowledge, a better appreciation of the chemistry and metabolism of foods has dramatic potential for improving health and well-being, while ignorance is sure to have the opposite effect.

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Reservations for social meeting.

Name

Amount enclosed

Please return by September 5 to:

Ms. JoAnn Lewis

Department of Food Science
University of Missouri-Columbia

256 William C Stringer Wing
Columbia, MO 65211