238th American Chemical Society, National Meeting & Exposition
ACS kicked off the event with a discussion and networking reception titled "Addressing Global Challenges through Chemistry" on August 15. To follow this reception, the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany hosted a German-American transatlantic "Networking Dinner" to discuss "global challenges" at the DFG's Washington office. The Embassy jointly organized the evening with the ACS, the German Chemical Society, and the German Research Foundation. One of its main topics was energy sustainability and possible solutions deriving from the field of chemistry, reflecting on an earlier bilateral event “Using the Sunlight to Address the Energy Issues - Sunlight to Power the World" (Chemical Sciences and Society Symposium CS3), on July 23-25.
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At this year's exposition, the German Research Foundation (DFG), American Friends of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (AFAvH), German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and German Chemical Society (GDCh) jointly represented the "Research in Germany" booth. Of the foreign exhibitors, both Germany and the United Kingdom had the largest representation of exhibitors present. Roughly half of those stopping by the booth were current postdocs at various U.S. universities and institutes, inquiring about postdoctoral research opportunities in Germany. They were especially interested in the DFG's Emmy Noether-Program and Temporary Positions for Principal Investigators programs. These attendees greatly profited from the participation and advising of DFG's Chemistry and Chemical Engineering specialists Dr. Georg Bechtold and Dr. Markus Behnke, as well as chemist Dr. Karin Schmitz from the GDCh at the "Research in Germany" booth. In addition to postdocs, twenty percent of further attendees were graduate students and another twenty percent were more distinguished researchers. Of course some visitors just came by to chat about their German heritage, previous vacations or research experiences in Germany. However, for the most part, the exposition allowed "Research in Germany" access to countless chemists, chemical engineers, academicians, graduate and undergraduate students to effectively communicate the attractiveness of the cutting edge chemistry landscape in Germany, portrayed in the "Working and Researching in Germany at a Glance" information leaflet for chemists on the occasion of the 238th ACS National Meeting & Exposition. (MP)
