Communicating the Value of Our Science

ACS continues to be a leader in communicating with the public and policymakers about chemistry’s vital role in addressing global challenges.

In 2013 news about chemistry from ACS journals, Chemical & Engineering News and national meetings reached the public in record numbers. Independent monitoring data for 2013 shows that ACS-generated publicity resulted in more than 23,000 news media articles, a significant increase from 2012, resulting in potential readership or viewership of billions. These include stories from media outlets such as Time, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Yahoo! News, Scientific American, the Associated Press, NPR, PBS, ABC News, Huffington Post, U.S. News & World Report, The Economist and Science. Science Communications staff publicized this research by issuing press releases (including the weekly ACS PressPac), holding press conferences, blogging and tweeting.

The award-winning ACS Productions team (formerly Digital Services) produced more than 350 videos in 2013 for Office of Public Affairs and other ACS divisions. These videos were viewed more than 2 million times last year. They include popular YouTube series like Bytesize Science (renamed ACS Reactions in 2014), broadcast-quality promotional videos for ACS Publications and collaborations with sister scientific societies like the American Institute of Physics’ Inside Science TV series.

Bytesize Science (now Reactions), the ACS' most popular ongoing series, uncovers chemistry’s role in everyday life with episodes on the chemistry of alchemy, chocolate, hangovers and more. In 2013, an episode on the “Periodic Table Table,” an actual table filled with samples of every element available (at least the stable, non-radioactive ones), received awards and recognition from eight international film festivals. The series has been featured on NPR, in Wired, Time, and The Washington Post, among many others, and is available here.

In 2013, the Bytesize Science series became one of the most popular YouTube channels ever launched by a scientific organization.  The channel now has more YouTube subscribers and/or views than channels belonging to the Royal Society of Chemistry, Environmental Protection Agency, National Science Foundation, and other large scientific organizations. 

Under the banner of ACS Chemistry Ambassadors, our members are encouraged to be compelling spokespersons and advocates for their profession.  During 2013 they took ACS scholarship information to teachers and guidance counselors; talked to elected officials about why funding for research matters; visited  schools and scouts with ACS Kids and Chemistry kits; and they had a great answer ready for the inevitable “So what kind of work do you do?” question at family reunions, backyard barbeques, and in countless plane trips all around the globe. They put a human face and voice on chemistry, and they talked less about what they do and more about why what they do matters—to everyday people, every day.

Following a 2013 recruitment campaign, the number of ACS Chemistry Ambassadors topped 10,000 at year-end, marking a 27 percent increase over membership at the start of the year.  New recruits included Science Coaches, National Chemistry Week volunteers, Student Chapter and ChemClub
advisors, and local section public relations chairs, among others. 

The long-running Science & the Congress program that provides information about the role of science and technology in public policy issues also achieved a milestone in 2013, holding the 200th briefing since the program began in 1995.  Aimed at elected officials, congressional staffers and D.C.-based thought leaders, Science and the Congress held nine briefings in 2013. Together, they featured 41 panelists and drew a collective audience of nearly 750 Hill staff, federal officials, and other policy stakeholders. Topics included STEM education, big data, energy, synthetic biology, biodiversity, extreme weather, space technology, electronic waste, and technology transfer.

ACS launched the ACS Experts Program in 2013. Less than three months after the inaugural class of 20 ACS Experts was selected and trained in September, 17 of them were engaged in speaking to news media, policymakers, students and educators about the role of chemistry in our world. The 20 Experts were recruited to serve as spokespersons in their respective fields, to be part of public dialog about jobs and innovation, STEM education, green chemistry, and other topics of national interest that involve chemists and chemistry. By year-end, they had 29 interactions with the news media and other public audiences, resulting in three op-eds, two TV appearances, a radio interview, and several newspaper and magazine items. They also delivered talks to students and to a Washington, D.C.-area gathering of community leaders and politicians about the need to invest in STEM education.

In 2013, ACS and its members celebrated National Chemistry Week (NCW) with the theme “Energy: Now and Forever!”  Thousands of families and children of all ages celebrated with our members through hands-on activities for the public, contests, experiments, puzzles, online and printed publications, and various lectures and seminars.  More than 90 percent of ACS local sections participated, distributing more than 137,000 copies of Celebrating Chemistry, the hands-on activity publication.  The print editions were made available in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, with French and Mandarin versions available online.

The “Sparkle” communication workshop was offered again in 2013, for members interested in serving as public relations (PR) chairs for their local sections, divisions and student chapters, bringing the total number of trained PR chairs in office to 99.

These volunteers learned how to write news releases that will get coverage, how to work effectively with the news media, and how to “speak simply” about chemistry in order to increase community awareness of the important activities of the local section, division, student chapter and their fellow members.  “Share Chemistry! Spark a Reaction!”

In 2013 the National Historic Chemical Landmarks (NHCL) program recognized three subjects of importance in the history of chemistry with public events at the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research at Carnegie Mellon University, the Purdue University Wetherill Laboratory of Chemistry, and the USDA ARS Western Regional Research Center. The program reached more than 250,000 unique visitors through its website, and others through articles in general press and local section media.