Thirty years of National Chemistry Week

Abstract

This fall, we will celebrate 30 years of National Chemistry Week (NCW). In 1987, when then-ACS Immediate Past President George Pimentel launched National Chemistry Day, only he appeared to imagine the lasting impact that the outreach event would have on the American Chemical Society and the greater chemistry community. During that first celebration, Pimentel led ACS members and staff in a parade down 16th Street in Washington, D.C., past the ACS headquarters building. By 1989, more than half of ACS’s local sections had expanded their celebrations to a week, and in 1993 National Chemistry Day was officially renamed National Chemistry Week. This year’s 30th anniversary theme of “Chemistry Rocks!” calls on NCW coordinators and ACS volunteers to bring the excitement of geochemistry to children and adults across the U.S. and the world the week of Oct. 22–28. NCW enables ACS members to participate in two of ACS’s four strategic goals: