Member Spotlight

Every month the ACS New Haven section highlights one of it’s members. Have someone you’d like us to highlight? Submit their information for us to contact here.

Bill Cesario - May 2021 Spotlight

I have been a member of ACS for 35 years, initially joining because I was a consultant with a small CT new product/new business consulting firm, many of whose clients were major US/EU chemical and/or materials companies.  Accessing past issues of C&E News and ACS’s proprietary materials, was very helpful in rapidly “getting up to speed,” in a client’s industry sector and its competitors.  Often, such an industry scan would uncover activities, of which our client was unaware.  I continued my ACS membership, following my exit from that company, because I found C&E News a valuable source of information about an industry, that is critical to mankind’s moving forward.  I enjoyed attending meetings, interacting with members and speakers, and having continued access to ACS’s proprietary resources.  

Another benefit I find is that, if I know a friend is working on a project, and I see a relevant article in C&E News, I can send it on to him.

The coverage of a wide variety of topics, is excellent for someone who does not have a PhD.  The perfect example has been COVID-19.  For months, every C&E News issue had articles on aspects of the virus and the various scientific disciplines being developed/marshalled, to address it.

Gerald (Jerry) Putterman - January 2021 Member Spotlight

We showed our appreciation of Jerry’s many years of service to the section by awarding him this year with the ACS Outreach Volunteer of the Year Award.

Reflections from Gerald Putterman, Councilor

Before my last board meeting as an officer of the New Haven Section of ACS, I wanted to share some memories and thoughts with the Executive Board of ACS.  I joined ACS and the New Haven Section as a first-year biochemistry (yes, before the merger) graduate student in 1960.  This was not my first contact with ACS.  As a college sophomore and junior, I spent my summers working in the Sales Lab of Perkin-Elmer in Norwalk, CT.  There I operated the new model 21 infrared spectrophotomer, running samples submitted by potential buyers and demonstrating the use of the instrument to people who had bought the instrument or were thinking about purchasing it. At that time the company was so small that one day the director of advertising came in with a photographer and asked me to pose in front of the instrument. I got a great kick out of seeing my picture in Science and Scientific American that year.  After two summers of service PE rewarded me by sending me to the ACS National Meeting held in New York City. I certainly enjoyed seeing some of my graduate student instructors who had come up from Baltimore and wore student registration badges while I sported the badge of a general registrant.

While at Yale as a graduate student, I attended many ACS Section Meetings which were held late afternoon in Sterling Chemistry Lab.  In those years, meetings were attended by a large number of Yale faculty.  After graduation, I moved to the Chicago area, where I attended meetings of the Chicago Section.  The section was so large that not only was there a main speaker but there were also smaller interest group meetings with featured speakers prior to the main dinner meeting. I chaired one of those group meetings, but my only recollection of it was the tornado that hit west of the city while the meeting was occurring. A few years later I was living and working in the suburbs of Washington, DC and attended meetings sponsored by the Chemical Society of Washington.  Both the Chicago Section and the DC Section meetings were well attended, perhaps because local companies provided food and drink at the meetings.

I returned to the New Haven area and New Haven Section of ACS in 1982 and started going to Section Meetings.  Attached is a listing of my years as an officer of the section, which I obtained some time ago from the business office at one of the National Meetings.  Over the years I have seen enthusiasm for the New Haven Section surge and dissipate and surge again.  One of the highlights occurred during the planning and running of NERM 2013.  Thanks to Jeff Chin among others, our section obtained a nice surplus which I doubt that other sections will ever achieve; New Haven Section members did much of the work while current sections tend to hire consultants to make arrangements.  Following NERM 2013, enthusiasm in the section started to dissipate but thanks to the current board I am happy to see a new surge of enthusiasm.  Thus, I leave office gratified that the section is in good hands and I look forward to attending meetings either virtually or in person.  

Years of Service as a Section Officer:

Councilor, 1994-2000

Alternate Councilor, 2005-2007

Alternate Councilor, 2008-2010

Councilor, 2011-2011

Councilor, 2012-2020