Message from 2010 Chair Ambarish Singh

Dear Fellow Members of the American Chemical Society,

I am truly honored and excited to represent you as the Chair of 2010 American Chemical Society- North Jersey Section (NJ-ACS). I want to take this opportunity to thank Joseph Potenza (2009 Chair) and Michael Miller (2008 Chair) for their leadership. I also wish to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of our members, who have served the Section in various capacities. The self-less service and hard work of the volunteers are admirable. My hearty congratulations to Jeannette Brown, Maureen Chan, Edwin Chandross, George Heinze, Elsa Reichmanis, Marian Smith, Susan Fahrenholtz, Malcolm Sturchio (posthumous) and William Greenlee for being inducted into the Inaugural class of ACS Fellows for Excellence in Chemistry, Service to Society. Well deserved!

Over the last 85 years, the NJ-ACS has grown to become one of the largest Sections, with over 7000 members. This has been possible because you believe in what ACS and NJ-ACS offer to you. We should all be very proud that under the leadership of Michael Miller, NJ-ACS was the winner of three ChemLuminary Awards for 2008: (1) Outstanding performance by a local Section in the very large category, (2) Greatest community involvement in Chemists Celebrate Earth Day and (3) Outstanding community involvement in National Chemistry Week.

NJ-ACS is committed to the goal of bringing quality programs during the upcoming year. However, we are living in difficult times and it is becoming increasingly challenging to run a non-profit organization such as NJ-ACS. Due to economic hardships, I no longer can rely on the generous support provided by the local companies. The issues we face over the coming year(s) cannot be addressed by me alone or the executive committee.Your help as an individual is crucial. The Power of One can be multiplied several hundred times over if you get involved.

NJ-ACS executive committee supports activities of a number of Topical Groups — from Organic Chemistry to Chromatography, from Drug Metabolism to Polymer sciences. I believe it is also important to continue to support and promote programs such as Project SEED and National Chemistry Week. These programs are the life blood of NJ-ACS. So, how do we continue to support such programs? I believe it is doable through innovation, collaboration and effective communication. Let me elaborate on this further.

Innovation will come from your involvement in the activities of the topical groups and other programs. Become a member of the ACS, join the topical group of your choice and discuss your innovative ideas that will not only benefit the organization but also benefit the society. I must admit that the value of my own membership was not apparent until I started doing the voluntary work for the Organic Topical Group.You will find that such voluntary work is highly satisfying and rewarding.

The time may be ripe to create additional Topical Groups to address the needs of those colleagues whose line of work may not be distinctly covered by the current Topical Groups. For example, it might be worthwhile to consider creating a “Regulatory Science” Topical Group as a forum to discuss issues and challenges faced by the pharmaceutical industry in getting approval of a new drug in this ever changing regulatory climate.

Through joint collaboration, we can tap into the talents of other local Sections in NY/NJ/PA to organize major events. This will require up-front creative thinking and planning but the rewards are enormous. We will need to explore how we could effectively use webinars to bring the various sections in NY/NJ/PA together, which will keep the overall cost down without compromising the quality of the programs.

Effective communication within the Section and across Sections is of paramount importance. As an example, The Indicator is now delivered to you electronically. This has improved the coverage of the Section activities, while reducing the cost. Likewise, we need to think about the types of electronic communication that would be suitable for other activities. I’d also like to see that we remain focused on those activities that provide greater rewards and satisfaction; we make timely and crisp decisions and maintain transparency.

I am committed to ride through the challenges with your involvement, commitment and collaboration. I welcome your ideas. I encourage you to visit our website www.njacs.org to learn about what this Section offers you and how you could help the Section. If you have any questions or would like to share your thoughts, please do not hesitate to contact me at

I wish you a very joyful and peaceful New Year.

With kind regards,

Ambarish K. Singh
2010 Chair, North Jersey Section ACS

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