Thank you to all who were able to attend and participate in our 2nd virtual Annual General Meeting. We are pleased to introduce our 2021/22 Board of Directors and Committees to lead us into a new year and proud to announce our Award and Scholarship recipients of 2021 below.

If you were unable to join us online on April 28th, the 2021 AGM Minutes and Presentation are now available in the Members Only section of the website under 'Annual General Meeting > 2021 AGM' for your convenience.

Shane Harnish, President-Elect

Shiva Zohrehvand, Treasurer

Atosa Kavousian, Director

Mark Poirier, Director

Sarah Dougherty, Director

The ACPA is pleased to have issued the 2021 Frank W. Bachelor Award for Service to the Chemical Profession to ACPA member Mark Rice. This award is the highest honour for a Professional Chemist in Alberta.

Mark is a well-deserving recipient of this award. Among Mark’s contributions to our profession, one that stands out the most is his leading the development of ACPA’s first formal Strategic Plan. Mark’s other contributions include helping to establish the governance policies for our association, enhancing our professional development maintenance program, serving as ACPA webmaster, organizing and hosting a chemical health and safety symposium on behalf of our organization, and serving multiple terms on ACPA’s Board of Directors.

Mark has been a Professional Chemist and member of the ACPA since 2000. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry, a Master’s degree in Public Administration, a certificate in Occupational Health and Safety, holds professional designations of Professional Chemist, Canadian Registered Safety Professional, and Certified Industrial Hygienist; plus has graduated from leadership and management development programs. In his professional capacity, Mark is an expert in chemical health and safety, occupational health and safety, occupational hygiene, and public administration. He wears multiple hats and is currently a statutory director under both Alberta’s Occupational Health and Safety Act and Radiation Protection Act. He has served as the lead for Alberta’s WHMIS, asbestos, and radiation programs, co-authored indoor air quality guidelines, has been published in Canadian Government Executive Magazine, and has received multiple Premier’s Awards of Excellence, among other achievements. Prior to joining government, Mark was team lead for a private-sector Hazmat (chemical emergency response) team, and worked in the hazardous waste, cement, and food processing industries, to name a few.

Congratulations, once again, to Mark Rice for receiving the 2021 Frank W. Bachelor Award for Service to the Chemical Profession.

From Red Deer, Ashley Elgersma is completing her BSc in Chemistry at The King’s University in Edmonton, to be completed in the spring of 2022. She has also been a teaching assistant at King’s for a non-majors chemistry course, where she has learned strategies for teaching Chemistry to a broad audience.

Ashley has spent her summers working for the King’s Centre for Visualization in Science (KCVS.ca), where she focuses on creating online, interactive, learning tools for chemistry education, primarily in the area of climate change. Ashley’s current project is a learning tool to convert IR spectra to sound, to help students with and without visual impairments to understand the mechanisms of global climate change through the concept of resonance. In 2019, Ashley also had the opportunity to spend four months working in computational and theoretical chemistry at the National Research Council in Ottawa.

When not completing chemistry assignments or trying to solve the climate crisis, Ashley enjoys cross country skiing, hiking, kayaking, and playing oboe.

“Our professional order brings together members with varied skills, particularly in analytical chemistry, clinical biochemistry, pharmacology and molecular diagnostics. This is why we are pleased that the authorities concerned recognize our expertise to participate in the war effort deployed in response to COVID-19. We hope that our participation in the vaccination operations will be beneficial so that the entire Quebec population has the right to a first dose of vaccine by the summer as hoped by the Quebec government ”, affirms the president of the OCQ, Mr. Michel Alsayegh.

This new virtual Ethics course will retain much of the material and the interactive elements that our members valued in the previous one-day course. The course will provide an introduction to the ethical framework that guides professional chemists in the conduct of their duties. The course still focuses on solving practical issues that arise in professional practice.

The Chemist's Ring is available for sale to any ACPA Professional Chemist who is a member in good standing. Completion of the Professional Ethics for Chemists and the Jurisprudence courses is a requirement to remain a member in good standing.

Note: Limited quantities of all sizes of titanium rings are currently in stock.

Job postings are now FREE to post for both members and non-members! To share your employment opportunity, log in or create an account today.

Job postings are listed on the Job Board page on the ACPA website. Please check this web page regularly for new postings that may have tight application deadlines.

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