The CIC Toronto Section will host the 2016 Student Awards Night following the Café CIC to celebrate the academic excellence of high achieving undergraduate students across the GTA.
Some refreshments after the event will be provided.
To register: tinyurl.com/CafeCICSAN
By Kim Osten
The CIC Toronto Section held their Annual General Meeting on May 26th at the Mill Street Beer Hall. At the AGM, members and non-members enjoyed a catered meal by Mill Street while listening to their beer enthusiast, Dan, talk about the process and the history of beer. The term’s Chair, Kazim Agha, highlighted the many events that CICTor organised including Industry tours, CICTor Votes, Outreach and educational events, the annual Career Fair, and some CIC sponsored events. Chaired by Judith Poe, the members of the section elected the incoming 2016-2017 Executive Committee (see our “Current Executive” page for details).
The Treasurer’s Report can be found here.
By Kim Osten
On May 7th, 2016 Science Rendezvous in collaboration with the Toronto Section of the Chemical Institute of Canada (CICTor) held the inaugural Science Rendezvous Toronto Science Fair at the University of Toronto’s St. George Campus. Over 100 people attended the event, including over 40 students from various schools in the Toronto area, along with their teachers and families. The students presented science posters on a variety of topics in three different competition categories: junior (grades 4-6), intermediate (grades 7-8) and senior (grades 9-12). Science Rendezvous sponsored the junior and intermediate categories, for which the winning students won $1000 for their teacher to upgrade their science classroom. The senior category was sponsored by CICTor and encouraged students to explore the formulation chemistry of various household products, with the possibility to win $300, as well as $700 for their teacher’s classroom. Volunteers from Science Rendezvous and CICTor judged the posters in the initial round and identified the top three presenters from each category. Our honorary guest judges, Dr. Andy Dicks, Professor in the chemistry department at UofT, Mike Layton, Toronto City Councillor for Ward 19, and Dr. Jagdish Yadav, Senior Advisor in the Education Services Sector for the City of Toronto, judged the top three participants in each category after the initial judging round and identified the winners as: Aidan Stanbrook from Fieldstone Day School (Junior), Julie Apolot from Montessori Village and Education Centre (Intermediate), and Aubrey Uy, Aisha Malik and Kristia Laygo from Senator O’Connor College School (Senior).
All photos by Kamil Krawczyk
We are deeply saddened by the sudden loss of our friend and colleague, Lorenzo Ferrari.
As the CIC/SCI Canada Chair and former CSC Chair, Lorenzo has been a great influence and presence in the Canadian chemistry community. He has also helped strengthen the role of Canada’s chemical industry as the Manager of Business and Market Development with BASF Canada.
In addition to his professional successes, Lorenzo is remembered with fondness for his enthusiasm to connect with members of the chemistry community. He has touched many lives, and we at the CIC Toronto Section extend our condolences to all those who knew him.
By Jennifer Huynh and Laura Reyes
On April 21st, over 100 students from across southern Ontario attended the Chemistry Career Fair this year. The event was hosted in collaboration with UofT’s ChemClub. To improve on last year’s event, we took suggestions from last year’s attendees to have on-site interviews. Alphora, IntelliSyn, Systems for Research Corp. (SFR) and Dalton Pharma all stepped in to host on-site interviews.
The panel discussion was insightful as the panelists answered student questions and shared their experiences and struggles with the audience. All the keynote speakers gave inspiring and intellectual talks and the booth session was buzzing with dialogue on various career pathways.
The round table discussion was new this year as well. We had 20 industry representatives join in to share their experiences and talk to all the attendees. There were 9 tables and attendees were rotated every 20 minutes, giving everyone the chance to speed network. During the workshop on “Career Opportunities: Converting your Ideas into a Business” by the Ontario Centre for Excellence (OCE), there was a lot of information on where to get started and the resources available to you.
We would like to thank all the companies and UofT ChemClub for making this year’s Career Fair a grand success, and we hope to see you all again next year!
All photos by Alan Chan.
On March 11, CICTor held our annual brewery tour at Mill Street Brewery in the Distillery District. Over 40 CIC members and guests from industry, academia, and government gathered at Mill Street Beer Hall for a night of networking, food, and brewery tours. The evening started with some announcements made by Vice-Chair Mokit Chau who announced the upcoming AGM being held in May before the first group of attendees were whisked off to tour the brewing facilities.
Mill Street’s Distillery District site now acts as “test brewery” where smaller batches of new beers are brewed and tested in the brewpub. Mill Street’s Technical Manager Kaitlin Vandenbosch (MSc. in Brewing and Distilling) led tours through the brewing room and described what kinds of ingredients Mill Street uses to develop their various flavour profiles and explained the keys steps to brewing a quality beer. Samples of different grains and hops were passed around for attendees to smell (and nibble on!).
The tour continued in the distilling room where Kaitlin was involved in starting Canada’s first Bierschnaps productions using beer brewed on site in 2013. The distilling process is very different from brewing and requires copper stills that were imported from Germany. It was also revealed that Mill Street has some whiskies planned for the future – news that a number of CIC members were excited to hear. Throughout the tours, samples of Mill Street’s Pilsner and Cobblestone Stout were available for tasting, with the Stout being a particular favourite among attendees. After the tours ended, CIC Members were invited to stay and chat with other GTA chemical professionals and enjoy some hors d’oeuvres and more beer.
CICToronto would like to thank Mill Street for hosting us again as well as Kaitlin Vandenbosch for guiding the tours. And of course, thank you to everyone who attended and supported this event. Since it’s inception, the CICTor Annual Brewery Tour has been a popular mainstay in our lineup of events and we always look forward to seeing new faces and old friends join us every year for a night of learning and networking. We hope to see you all at the AGM!
Blog by Molly Sung. Photos courtesy of Laura Reyes and Jay Chi.
As parent you watch your child grow a bit day by day. Coming home from school, telling you about their day, what they have learned, good things that happened, and sometimes bad things. But through it all, they learn, and grow.
And occasionally, you wonder, what will become of my child? What will my child be when they grow up? a doctor? A banker? A lawyer? A police officer? A teacher? A software developer? A baker? A chemist?
The list is endless, and it is only natural for parents to ask their child: What would you like to be when you grow up?
But not anymore. The world is changing in front of our eyes. Traditional jobs no longer exist, new jobs are created which didn’t
exists a decade ago. And the change is happening faster and faster.
Jaime Casap, Chief Education Evangelist at Google, said “Don’t ask students what they want to be when they grow up. Ask them what problems they want to solve and what they need to learn to build the knowledge, skills and abilities to solve the problem!”
What problems are there? Plenty to choose from: Climate change, mass extinctions, water crisis, aging populations, energy shortage, and these are just the big ones. People face problems on smaller scale too, like mobility challenges, learning challenges, information accessibility challenges, and more.
So how can you help your child prepare for the future? How can you give your child the greatest potential to explore the problems they may wish to solve? SCIENCE.
WHY SCIENCE?
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) are crucial subjects in today’s world. STEM education provides your child with global skills that can open up many different education and career pathways in the future. But science is not the answer. Science is the process. A journey of discovery that starts with a simple observation. Then comes guessing an explanation and testing it. If it works – GREAT. If it fails – back to the drawing board.
Give your child the opportunity to engage with both Science and Scientists and be INSPIRED!
OUR CAMP
Our Science camp offers unique experiences with a combination of ageappropriate, handson STEM activities and visits to cuttingedge research facilities at Canada’s #1 research university: The University of Toronto.
We are also proud to have IBM Canada as a collaborator, and will have IBM employees deliver a half-day robotics workshop
during the camp. Kids will get a chance to learn coding for the same people who pioneered computers – IBM.
The camp is organized and administered by scientists with backgrounds in a variety of STEM subjects, and is designed for children currently in grades 16.
REGISTRATION
Dates: March 14 - 18, 2016
Location: The Abelard School,
203 College Street
Time: 9 am - 4 pm
(Extended hours available at an additional fee) Registration: $300
$270 before Feb 1 (financial assistance is available for those who qualify)
For more information and for registration, please visit: www.puebloscience.org/parents Questions? email camp@puebloscience.org
Who would have thought that just in a few hours you can learn so much? On October 21st CIC Toronto in collaboration with Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) did it! They invited students for an intense and interesting program, where students not only could learn about the chemistry research being done at OICR, but also attend a career advice panel discussion and tour Biology and Drug Discovery labs! Indeed, it was the event not to be missed by any student! Why? First of all, students had a unique opportunity to see the government facilities from the inside, where chemists of various specialties work together to efficiently translate cancer-related academic discoveries into novel oncology therapies. Second of all, they learnt about the recent research projects done at the Institute. Third of all, they had a lifetime chance to speak to the scientists about their career paths as well as the responsibilities they have and skills they need to succeed in their current positions. After the visit students attended the social at Prenup Pub with some food and refreshments, where in a less formal environment they could discuss their experience at OICR, talk about their research and build their network. No wonder so many students from various universities and colleges attended this visit. If you couldn’t make it to the event this year, don’t worry – we are working on repeating it next year. Keep an eye on this and other events organized by CIC Toronto!
We would like to thank the OICR for hosting this event.
The CIC Toronto section hosted the annual Student Awards Night (SAN) to promote and recognize student academic achievements. This year, the SAN was held on November 20that the George Vari Engineering and Computing Centre at Ryerson University. A total of 23 students representing high schools, colleges and universities across the GTA were awarded that night for various achievements in their chemistry-related programs (see below for a list). All awardees also received a free one year membership to the Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC). We thank our sponsors this year, UofT Mississauga and the UofT ChemClub.
The master of ceremony of the night, Dr. Bryan Koivisto from Ryerson University, smoothly facilitated the awards and even added in a dash of humour to keep families and friends in a happier mood.
In addition to the award-giving ceremony, Dr. John Purdy graced the attendees with an informative and eye-opening talk about the “Chemistry of Bees”. The audience learned the huge impact of bees within the food chain.
We would like to thank everyone who participated in this event, as well as all the volunteers and executives who helped organize this event, all the teachers and professors who were able to make it out and recognize these students, as well as our sponsors UofT Mississauga and the UofT ChemClub. Hope to see you next year!
CSC/CSCT Silver Medal Award Winners
| Nicolas Zeidan | U of T Scarborough |
| Alexandra Chee | U of T Mississauga |
| David Hrovat | U of T Mississauga |
| Richard Fuku | U of T Mississauga |
| Maotong Xu | U of T St. George |
| Maniranjan Kaur Sra | Sheridan College |
| Oskar Martynyuk | Sheridan College |
| Bahar Ameri | Ryerson University |
| Trevor White | Durham College |
| Kyle Hulse | Durham College |
| Woojin Choi | Seneca College |
CIC Book Award Winners
| Egor Larin | U of T Scarborough | |
| Neil Hyde | U of T Mississauga | |
| Kwan Woo | U of T St. George | |
| Jamie Barbe | Sheridan College | |
| Scott Kieran | Sheridan College | |
| Koushan Farshad | Ryerson University | |
| Brandon Binder | Durham College | |
| Brandon Roberts | Durham College | |
| Koji Yoshikawa | Seneca College |
High School Award Winners (47th International Chemistry Olympiad in Baku, Azerbaijan)
Silver Medalist
Alexander Cui
Bronze Medalist
| Spencer Zhao |
| Jeff An |
The CIC Toronto Section Annual General Meeting 2015 was very successful, producing 72 attendees, which is a record high. Preceeding the AGM was the first CIC Café, a chocolate themed Networking event where members listened to Guest Speaker Dr. Derick Rousseau share his research on chocolate, characterizing the different crystal structures of Cocoa Butter with their implications on taste, melting point and texture. Chocosol, an Artisan Chocolate Manufacturer in Toronto, presented historical and cultural significance of Cocoa (Cacao) to the Ancient Mayan Civilization. Following the guest presentations, Judith Poe acted as AGM Chair and efficiently opened the meeting with review of minutes and introducing Raj Dhiman (provided a Chairs Report) and Mokit Chau (Presented Treasurer’s report and Tabled New Charter). The Chairs Report showed an increase in number of events coordinated through the year (National Chemical Week, ICCE Brewery Tour) as well as a return of highly successful past events (Brewery Tour, Career Day, Crystal Growing Contest). Mokit’s Treasury Report showed a Surplus in the budget, as strong sponsor support and access to Special Event grants helped meet and exceed the growing CIC Toronto members additional participation costs (a great problem to have!). The Charter was successfully adopted with new Executive positions, and a record number of Nominees. Judith adjourned the meeting, commending the 2014 Executive committee (Raj Dhiman, Mokit Chau, Kazim Agha and Patrick Tuck) while welcoming the New 2015 Committee (Kazim Agha as Chair, Mokit Chau as Vice Chair, Charlie Kivi as Treasurer, Sam Smith as Secretary, and 14 other Officers to assist with Events, Public Outreach and Communications.
