Taking action to engage industry members and diversify national award recipents

Abstract

The mission of the American Chemical Society’s Committee on Professional and Member Relations (P&MR) is to understand and advance, through board-level policy recommendations, the professional and economic interests of ACS members worldwide. We have several key focus areas, including membership, awards. Over the past few years, we have been dedicating extra focus toward engaging industry members more successfully and diversifying the nominations, screening committees, and recipients for ACS National Awards. These focus areas are directly relevant to ACS strategic g oals 2 and 5 . While we have made progress with respect to industry and awards, there is more work to be done. Engaging industry membership ACS industry membership has been in continuous decline for the past 10–15 years . While there have been many contributing factors, most are rooted in the evolving definition of “industrial chemist” and the continuously shifting economic landscape of the chemistry enterprise. Ultimately, many industry