Pittcon Awards More Than $1.1 Million in Science Grants

The Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy (Pittcon) has announced its 2011 Pittsburgh Conference Memorial National College Grants (PCMNCG) Program recipients. The grants, totaling approximately $120,000, are awarded to college science departments at colleges with less than 5,000 full-time students for the purchase of scientific equipment. This includes audio-visual or other teaching aids, and/or library materials for use in the teaching of science at the undergraduate level.

Since 1974, PCMNCG, which is conducted in conjunction with Pittcon’s co-sponsoring technical societies, The Society for Analytical Chemists of Pittsburgh (SACP) and The Spectroscopy Society of Pittsburgh (SSP), has awarded more than 270 grants to over 200 institutions.

This year’s grant awardees are:

• Guilford College and Mars Hill College (both in North Carolina)

• Presbyterian College (South Carolina)

• Alverno College (Wisconsin)

• Centre College (Kentucky)

• College of Saint Benedict (Minnesota)

• Pacific University (Oregon)

• St. Louis College of Pharmacy (MO)

• the University of Rio Grande (OH)

• The Pennsylvania State University-Harrisburg

• Westminster College

• Wilkes University

In recent years, as budgets have been reduced, these grants have become even more important to the recipients. For example, Keene State College in New Hampshire (a 2010 PCMNCG grant awardee), noted that the award “made it possible for its Chemistry Department to “advance their work in both the classroom and the lab.”

According to Edward Ladner, the 2011 PCMNCG Program Administrator “these grants put a big smile on our organization’s face because they provide these colleges and universities with much-needed funding for the laboratory and classroom.” Another plus is “these grants are totally in sync with PCACAS’ core mission, which is sponsoring and sustaining educational and charitable activities for the advancement and benefit of scientific endeavor. That’s significant.”

In addition to the PCMNCG Program grants, in 2011, The Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy will be providing over $1 million in science equipment grants to the SSP and the SACP. The SSP and SACP grants are funded by Pittcon, and are used to support science-related education, including equipment, in K-12 schools and colleges, in western Pennsylvania and parts of Ohio and West Virginia.

For additional information, including 2012 PCMNCG Program applications, please visit: http://www.pittcon.org/science/grants.php

About Pittcon

Pittcon is a registered trademark of The Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy, a Pennsylvania non-profit organization. Co-sponsored by the Spectroscopy Society of Pittsburgh and the Society for Analytical Chemists of Pittsburgh, Pittcon is an annual conference and exposition on laboratory science. Proceeds from Pittcon fund science education and outreach at all levels, kindergarten through adult. Pittcon donates approximately $1 million each year in the form of science equipment grants, research grants, scholarships and internships for students, awards to teachers and professors, and grants to public science centers, libraries and museums.