Chemists Show Their Work at Meeting in Miniature May 1

The University of Texas at Dallas and the American Chemical Society Dallas-Fort Worth (ACS-DFW) Section are hosting the annual Meeting in Miniature, this year a virtual seminar where 109 undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows who submitted abstracts of their chemistry research will give 10-minute oral presentations Saturday, May 1.

Dr. Mihaela Stefan, Eugene McDermott professor of chemistry and Associate Dean of Graduate Studies for the school of Natural Sciences & Mathematics at UT Dallas is the 2021 chair-elect of the ACS DFW local section. Dr. Stefan has devoted much of her time organizing this year’s meeting.

“I believe in giving students opportunities to present their work. I felt it beneficial to have a virtual meeting in 2021.”

Mihaela Stefan, PhD

Always exciting and insightful, this year’s event features Professor Nicolay Tsarevsky from Southern Methodist University (SMU) as the keynote speaker. Professor Tsarevsky is a leader in polymer science who received his PhD from Carnegie Mellon University and joined the Department of Chemistry at SMU in the summer of 2010. 

He served as editor of Polymers for Advanced Technologies (Wiley) and has served as the program chair of the Division for the History of Chemistry (HIST) of the ACS since 2018. Professor Tsarevsky won the 2020 Wilfred T. Doherty Award. The Doherty Award is given for excellence in chemical research or chemistry teaching and meritorious service to the American Chemical Society.

“This is our first time to organize the ACS Meeting in Miniature online,” said Hanghang Wang, meeting organizer and Dr. Stefan’s teaching assistant in chemistry at UT Dallas. “We hope to provide an opportunity to undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows to present their work since the meeting was cancelled in 2020 due to COVID-19,” she said. 

Dr. Justin Miller, a UTD research assistant in chemistry and past presenter at the 2019 Meeting in Miniature, is one of this year’s judges. He said the meeting has many benefits for participants.

“These local meetings are a fantastic way to find collaborators and to network with other local scientists. The talks themselves are diverse in their topics and are a good way to promote well-roundedness in one’s scientific education. For undergraduate students who are considering graduate school, the talks showcase local research groups they may consider joining in the future,” Miller said.

Miller said as a judge he’ll be looking for both the scientific merit of the work being presented and the quality of the presentation.

For more information, visit the meeting’s website. To view the live presentations, use the links to join the meeting with Blackboard Collaborate. For more information, visit the Comet Calendar posting. A brief question-and-answer period will follow each presentation.