RACI WA Branch Newsletter: November 2011

THE ROYAL AUSTRALIAN CHEMICAL INSTITUTE INC (WA BRANCH)

A.B.N. 69 030 287 244 A.I.R.N. A00 403 86D A.R.B.N. 102 726 429

PO Box 114, North Beach WA 6920 Telephone: 0403 022 968 E-mail: wabranch@raci.org.au Website: www.raci.org.au/wa

FROM THE PRESIDENT

Welcome to the November 2011 edition of the WA Branch Newsletter. With Christmas fast approaching we have the last of the key events for 2011 looming. Most importantly in November, we have two IYC2011 events that should not be missed. Firstly, we have the Chemfest at Curtin Stadium on the 12th, which can also be fun day for all the family. Professor Dame Julia Higgins will present one of her lectures and the Periodic Table on Show will be exhibited. The second event on the 15th at the Curtin University Exhibition Space (Building 500) is the Selby Lecture also presented by Professor Dame Julia Higgins. The numbers for the AGM / Dinner are currently low, so I urge you all to make the effort to come along and have a great evening. Please see the advanced notice for our Christmas social event on the 14th December. This is a low key, low cost, fun event to catch up with old friends and make some new ones. I look forward to seeing a great turn out for this one. The Hacker’s Golf Day has been delayed till the 22nd November and we are still hoping for a record field to tee off. The attendance at our fourth Monthly Chemistry Meeting was lower than expected given the topical presentation on work being done to support the oil and gas industries. Tamsin Collins gave a very interesting talk on life as a Field Chemist at Champion Technologies. I hope to catch with you over the next month or so and welcome any feedback on how you think the RACI WA Branch is meeting your needs. Shane Koenig, FRACI President, RACI WA Branch

Are YOU interested in promoting chemistry in schools?

Australian National Chemistry Quiz (ANCQ) Plaques need to be presented at school assemblies over the next 2 months. If you are interested in representing RACI by presenting plaques

to students then contact Ben (Branch coordinator) wabranch@raci.org.au

RACI WA Branch Newsletter: November 2011 2

WA BRANCH ANNUAL AGM & DINNER

Friday 18th November 2011

Esplanade River Suites,112 Melville Parade, Como

7pm registration and pre-dinner drinks for 7.30pm AGM & Dinner Dinner will be soup, a choice of main and dessert,

followed by tea and coffee. Registration and pre-dinner drinks subsidised by RACI WA.

$65 member and partner, $55 student or retiree, $85 non-members

Please book on: Click here to register

RACI WA Branch Newsletter: November 2011 3

RACI WA Branch Newsletter: November 2011 4

IT’S BACK!! BIGGER AND BETTER THAN EVER!!

The

THIRD ANNUAL RACI “HACKERS” GOLF DAY

1pm Tuesday November 22nd 2011 (NEW REVISED DATE)

At HILLVIEW GOLF COURSE

$60 gets you nine holes, golf cart and a BBQ.

Come along if you play every week and go round in Par.

Come along if you play once a year and don’t know what PAR means.

Prizes for all grades of golf, with an emphasis on an enjoyable afternoon among colleagues

Places are limited, so please register your interest ASAP!!

peter.anstis@measurement.gov.au

Interested in sponsoring? Donating Prizes?

Call Al Day on 0429 190 200

RACI WA Branch Newsletter: November 2011 5

The National Touring Lectures for the International Year of Chemistry, 2011

are proudly brought to you by RACI & CSBP

Upcoming

Chemistry Events

Travelling Chemistry Exhibitions – As part of IYC 2011 the RACI have touring displays made up of showcases and banners travelling around Australia being displayed in public libraries. The WA display is ‘Eat, drink and chemistry’. Mandurah Library: 24 October – 21 November. Wanneroo Library: 21 November - December

Lecture - Professor Dame Julia Higgins, Imperial College, London will be in Perth as part of her Selby Fellowship. Professor Dame Higgins is a champion of women in science and engineering, honoured by the Queen as a Dame of the British Empire. Previously the Principal of the Faculty of Engineering at Imperial College and the Foreign Secretary and Vice President of the Royal Society. Professor Dame Higgins chairs the Athena project responsible for investigating reasons for the scarcity of senior women in science and technology.

Date: Tuesday 15th November Time: 6.00pm for 6.30pm start Venue: Exhibition Space BLDG 500 Curtin University RSVP: to wabranch@raci.org.au by 5th November Lecture Title: Polymers and Neutron Scattering A life in polymer science: new techniques and opportunities for understanding polymer behaviour; international collaborations and a global network of colleagues. Dame Julia Higgins was introduced to the new experimental use of neutron scattering as a doctoral student and fortunate to be at the frontline as new techniques for exploiting the neutron have been developed. A thread running through her scientific career has been the successful application of a number of these techniques to understanding the organisation and behaviour of long polymer molecules. She will outline the basis of the techniques and their relevance to fundamental questions in polymer science.

IC11 – 2011 RACI INORGANIC CHEMISTRY DIVISION CONFERENCE Date: 4-8 December Venue: UWA Visit at the website www.ic11.org.au

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The Periodic Table on Show on the RACI website! For the last 12 months 79 Australian chemistry professionals and 38 Tasmanian printmakers have worked together to interpret each of the 112 elements. The results can be seen in three exhibitions touring Australia and New Zealand, and also as an interactive web tool on the RACI website.

Visit the online Periodic Table on Show at www.raci.org.au/periodic-table-on-show A full-size Touring display will be in WA so everyone can see the entire set of artworks for themselves: At Scitech until 10th November , At Chemfest on 12th November and Geraldton Library from 14th November.

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Q: If H-two-O is the formula for water, what is the formula for ice? A: H-two-O-CUBED

Q: What is the chemical formula for the molecules in candy? A: Carbon-Holmium-Cobalt-Lanthanum-Tellurium or CHoCoLaTe

Q: What is the name of the molecule CH2O? A: Seawater

RACI WA Branch Newsletter: November 2011 8

UPCOMING FUNCTIONS: Chemfest - Saturday 12th November, Curtin Uni, http://www.sciencewa.net.au/chemfest.html RACI Christmas function - Wednesday 14th December, 5.30pm, Barefoot Bowls at Melville.

Joint function with AIFST and maybe DIAA (numbers will be limited). More details in next Newsletter.

Breakfast Seminar: Hazards Associated with ‘Clan’ Labs - Probably early 2012 The Health Safety and Environment Group is partnering with the Occupational Health Society of Australia and Safety in Workplaces Australia to plan a breakfast presentation function dealing with the many hazards created when offenders use residential, businesses, vehicles and even crown bush land for the purpose of manufacturing methamphetamines and similar illicit drugs. These highly dangerous operations create hazards for all involved. Houses explode on a regular basis, neighbours are terrified and the house becomes uninhabitable. Waste products are flushed down sewers and into septic tanks causing disastrous damage to the environment, creating high risk to any one required to work in these areas. The bush environment is damaged, causing lasting harm to flora and fauna. Police and all combat and investigatory authorities required to deal with the mess are placed at risk and, when full protective clothing is not worn, often suffer lasting and sometimes incurable illnesses. If you are interested in attending the breakfast (time date and location to be arranged), please express your interest to by contacting Kathryn Linge, Chair of HSEG (k.linge@curtin.edu.au), or Dave Lampard, Safety Officer at The WA Police Union (davelampard@wapolun.org.au)

RACI Members - If you aren’t getting an email notice about the Newsletter in the first few days of each month please contact Ben at wabranch@raci.org.au. If you have a colleague with this problem, please pass this message on. RACI has recently become aware of some anomalies in the members database so some people are missing out on this notification. We will fix the problem if we know who is being affected.

RACI WA Branch Newsletter: November 2011 9

RACI ANNUAL WA BRANCH COMMITTEE ELECTIONS Nominations are invited for the following positions on the RACI Western Australian Branch Committee for the Year 2011/2012: PRESIDENT, VICE PRESIDENT, HON SECRETARY, HON TREASURER,

AND FOUR BRANCH COMMITTEE MEMBERS. Nominations are also invited for the positions of: Chair (Ex Officio Branch Committee member), Secretary, Treasurer and Committee Members for the following Groups: Analytical Chemistry; Chemical Education; Health, Safety and Environment; Management and Career Development; Synthetic and Organic Chemistry; and Tertiary Chemistry Students.

A candidate for the Branch Committee must be nominated by two Corporate Members and indicate her/his willingness to accept office by signing as nominee on the nomination form below. Nomination forms can be emailed to wabranch@raci.org.au by Friday 4 November 2011. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

(Please detach here)

WA NOMINATIONS FOR 2011/2012 BRANCH COMMITTEE BRANCH COMMITTEE MEMBERS AND EX-OFFICIO MEMBER GROUPS – ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY;

CHEMICAL EDUCATION; HEALTH, SAFETY & ENVIRONMENT; MANAGEMENT AND CAREER DEVELOPMENT; SYNTHETIC & ORGANIC CHEMISTRY, AND TERTIARY CHEMISTRY STUDENTS.

We,..................................................................................…......(Member/Fellow)

and.....................................................................................…....(Member/Fellow)

hereby nominate.................................................................………........................

for the position of..........................................................………............................. (specify office)

for the 2011/2012...... WA Branch Committee...or......................……..........................Group (if not Branch, specify Group)

……….................................................................................. (Signature of Nominators)

.......................................................................………........... (Signature of Nominators)

I consent to this nomination ............................................................…………….. (Signature of Nominee)

Date: ....................................

RACI WA Branch Newsletter: November 2011 10

CALENDAR OF EVENTS FOR 2011 Presented by Rowe Scientific Pty Ltd

www.rowe.com.au Date Event Location/ Comment Source ongoing Touring Periodic Table Scitech 11.11.2011 Cocktail Evening The Blue Duck, Cottesloe Curtin Chem Club 12.11.2011 Chemfest Curtin Stadium 15.11.2011 Lecture - Professor Dame Julia Higgins Exhibition Space, Curtin University 18.11.2011 AGM & Symposium Dinner Esplanade River Suites, Como WA Branch RACI 22.11.2011 Hackers Golf Afternoon In conjunction with ACG. Hillview Golf Course, Maida Vale M&CD, AC Groups 26.11.2011 National Assembly Meeting Melbourne National Office 2.12.2011 One Day Symposium Bayliss Building, UWA S&OC 4-8.12.2011 Inorganic Division Conference University of WA 14.12.2011 Barefoot Bowling Melville Bowling Club, Melville WA Branch RACI

Enquiries to Branch Coordinator Ben Fletcher: 0403 022 968, wabranch@raci.org.au

Beguiling ideas about science gleaned from essays, exams, and classroom discussions: There is a tremendous weight pushing down on the centre of the Earth because of so much population

stomping around up there these days. Lime is a green-tasting rock. Many dead animals in the past changed to fossils while others preferred to be oil. Vacuums are nothings. We only mention them to let them know we know they're there. Some oxygen molecules help fires burn while others help make water, so sometimes it's brother against

brother. Some people can tell what time it is by looking at the sun. But I have never been able to make out the

numbers. We say the cause of perfume disappearing is evaporation. Evaporation gets blamed for a lot of things

people forget to put the top on.

E-MAIL ADVERTISING RATES

Three-quarters of the total RACI WA Branch membership and Environmentalists (totalling about 700 of a select and highly targeted group) are registered to receive e-mail notices from the Branch Committee. Those RACI members who have a need to circulate an urgent message or advertisement of general interest to WA Branch members can request approval (wabranch@raci.org.au) to have the advert (sans attachment) circulated free of charge. If the advert is of a revenue producing nature then the following charges apply:

ADVERTISEMENT WITHOUT ATTACHMENT, i.e. the message is contained within the body of the e-mail, a charge of $120 +GST will be made.

ADVERTISEMENT WITHIN AN ATTACHMENT, i.e. the message is contained in an attachment to the e-mail, a charge of $167 +GST will be made.

PAYMENT for advertisements must be made within 7 days of receipt of invoice.

NEWSLETTER ADVERTISING RATES

SINGLE ADVERTISEMENT: $120 +GST for one-quarter A4 page, $160 +GST for one-third A4 page, and multiples thereof, for print ready artwork or a print ready MS Word file.

MULTIPLE ADVERTISEMENTS: for three or more consecutive newsletter issues, a discount of 25% applies.

PAYMENT for all issues must be made in advance and within 7 days of receipt of invoice.

Branch Newsletter Deadlines For 2011/2012

Month of Journal Deadline Date

December Fri 25 November No January issue

Deadline is close of business (5 pm) on the nominated dates.

Please submit all articles to paula.mclay@measurement.gov.au