Good day CHAS & CCS members,
I hope you are all doing well and gearing up for the 2026 ACS Fall Meeting
& Conference in Chicago, IL August 22nd - 27th. I would like to personally and cordially invite you all to a jam packed Monday of exciting presentations & events, starting with the CHAS/COMSCI "Celebrating
150 Years of ACS: Shaping Safer Science for All" Symposium on Monday, August 24th at the McCormick Place Convention Center (8am
- 12:00pm), as well as the (CHAS) "Artificial Intelligence and Safety Education and Training: How AI Can Enhance and Inform a Safer Workplace for All" (2 - 4:05pm),
(CHAS)
Best Practices Handling High Hazard Reagents (4:15 - 5:30pm)
and
poster session @ SCIMIX later that night (8 - 10pm). There has been much conversation on ways to increase attendance
at our symposiums, so why not start with our own members! Having done years of promoting events, one of the things that brings people into a room that they may not be familiar with as they are walking by is seeing that same room full of engaged and attentive
individuals. Everyone wants to know what's going on and how they can be included! The thing that makes this even easier is Debbie Decker (our presider) and Monica Soma Hensley (Programming co-chair) have already done an excellent job organizing great topics
and speakers for all to enjoy and gain valuable knowledge from. Many of us will be in Chicago, so if your schedule allows,
PLEASE join us on Monday morning, August 24th so we can show ACS how strong and united both CHAS (including CANN) and CCS are, as we start the week off as strong as possible and continue the momentum all week long! As the days progress,
we will also be advertising the other upcoming CHAS symposiums that will be taking place, with hopes that as many of us will attend those as possible. I have listed information for the Monday sessions below. For a full list and schedule of events, please
click on the attached schedule. Thank you all for your time, and I look forward to seeing you in Chicago!...............................
MONDAY – August 24th, 2026
McCormick Place Convention Center
(CHAS/COMSCI) Celebrating 150 Years of ACS: Shaping Safer Science for All
Location: W190b
8 - 11:40 A.M.
Presider: Debbie Decker, Marta Gmurczyk
8:00 Introductory Remarks
8:05 The Power of We M. Gmurczyk | L. McEwen
| E. Bolton| P. Dorhout | M. Hensley | R. Hill
8:40 Professional Growth Through the ACS Chemical
Safety Experience A. Chung | S. Keyser | D.
Jacques | D. Henry | W. Tallmadge
9:05 Panel Discussion: ACS EICs on Safety M B Mulcahy
| M. Kozlowski | S. Minteer | C. Bertozzi| S. Dehnen
| E. Carreira
9:50 Coffee Break
10:00 From tragedy to transformation: How a 1966
explosion shaped chemical safety at Dow
P. Martinelango
10:20 From Bhopal to the AI Era: Enduring Technical and
Organizational Lessons in Process Safety Q. Wang
10:40 The 2008 UCLA laboratory accident: What happened,
what changed, and what still needs to be done C.
Merlic
11:00 Phillips Petroleum Company Explosion, 1989
R. Heald
11:20 Ted Style Talk - Mary Beth Mulcahy M. B. Mulcahy
11:40 From Data to Decisions: Reimagining Chemical
Safety Information for Global Risk Reduction
P. Reinhardt
Also don't miss.............
(CHAS) Artificial Intelligence and Safety Education and
Training: How AI Can Enhance and Inform a Safer
Workplace for All
Location: N226
Presider: Frankie Wood-Black
2:00 Welcoming Remarks
2:05 AI-integrated safety training and interactive laboratory
education S. Kim
2:30 Lessons learned: Implementing AI-driven safety training
in the organic chemistry laboratory H. Weizman
2:55 North Carolina State University’s AI tool for chemical
procurement tracking O. Christian
3:20 AI-enhanced professional: Navigating safety, ethics, and
innovation in technical workplaces F. Wood-Black
3:45 Panel Discussion
(CHAS) Best Practices Handling High Hazard Reagents
Location: N226
Presider: Debbie Decker, Sandra Keyser
4:15 Introductory Remarks
4:20 Tip of the iceberg: Recognizing and managing high
hazard reaction chemistry P. Martinelango
4:45 Safety protocols for handling toxic and reactive
chemicals in laboratories T. Chandra
5:10 Avoiding the next fire: Lessons learned from incidents
with high hazard reagents C. Merlic
Sci-Mix
Monday, March 23
8:00 – 10:00 PM
McCormick Place Convention Center
Hall F2
• Vertical distribution and mobility of PFAS in vadose zone soils at an
AFFF-impacted site Y. Zhao
• Trends in accumulation of organic peroxides in peroxide forming
chemicals: An analysis of the effect of storage conditions on peroxide
concentrations observed in university research laboratories K.
Woolard
• Nebulized calcium therapy for respiratory fluoride exposure S. Hess
• GraphRAG-powered chatbot for chemical hazard assessment and
safer alternatives identification Y.J. Tseng
• Rapid retrieval and search for safer chemical alternatives in industry
P. Du
• NeuSolv: a rapid, safe, and effective nucleophile-based
decontaminant for chemical warfare agents M. Akter
• Quantitative risk assessment and standardised handling protocols for
air- and moisture-sensitive organometallic reagents in academic
laboratories P. Dutta
• Development of the guided risk evaluation and environmental
navigation (Greenn) system: a computational approach for greener
chemical evaluation and visualization Y. Hsu
Visit the Division of Chemical Health and Safety on Division Row
And
the Committee on Chemical Safety on Committee Row
Dwayne F. Henry
ACS CHAS 2026 Chair-elect/2-Year College Lab Safety Community of Practice Chair
Instructional Lab Manager of Chemical and Biological Science
Collegewide Chemical, Physical, & Biological Hazards sub-committee
TPSS Biology Club Advisor / TPSS Shepherd's Club Advisor
ACS Committee for Chemical Safety Executive Board
ACS CHAS Peer-Led Workshops Mentorship Team
Montgomery College TP/SS campus
(240) 567-1418
