American Chemical Society

The American Chemical Society (NUS Student Chapter), or NUS ACSSC for short, was founded in 2014 by a group of chemistry undergraduates seeking a two-fold charge: To provide career guidance to fellow peers, as well as to promote chemistry as a choice of study to secondary and junior college students. The 8th executive committee comprised eleven members, with one president, two vice presidents, one secretary/treasurer, two programme officers, two strategy officers, two publicity officers and one welfare director.

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We seek to offer career guidance and academic information to current chemistry undergraduates by organizing events such as mentorship programmes, industrial visits and talks with professionals. ​ We wish to promote chemistry as a choice of study for secondary and junior college students through running outreach events such as workshops and lessons.

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This June, NUS ACSSC held an esterification workshop for pre-university students, teaching them the real process of synthesizing an ester instead of the simplified version they learn in their school syllabus of acid + alcohol -> ester. 1-Propyl acetate (pear oil) was synthesized from 1-propanol and acetic acid using a distillation setup. The workshop began with a short briefing on safety and procedures, and the participants were given 4 hours to perform the experiment according to the lab manual provided, under the supervision of ACS members. Through the workshop, participants learnt various new techniques and apparatus in a fun and engaging manner.