In the late 1980’s, as the Soviet Union and the Communist bloc of Eastern Europe began to disintegrate, the ACS International Activities Subcommittee on Human Rights and Scientific Freedom started to turn its attention to other parts of the world in which connections between scientists there and in the U.S. were tenuous and fragmented, specifically, the Middle East and Cuba.  In the case of Cuba, licenses were obtained from the Treasury Department to permit small delegations of ACS members, including those in ACS governance, to travel to that country to attend international conferences of the Cuban Chemical Society and regional chemistry education meetings.  After the initial visit to Havana in 1998, six more delegations of ACS members went to Cuba.  According to the rules of the licenses, every participant was required to make an oral presentation, which the members of the Cuban Chemical Society appreciated very much.  At the 2002 trip to Santiago de Cuba to the national conference on chemical education, ACS members conducted workshops for high school teachers and visited several schools.  As a result, ACS CHED members began to communicate regularly with their colleagues in Cuba and exchange ideas about chemical education.  The personal contacts and friendships that were made led to the organization of a CHED symposium on U.S.-Cuba relationships at the ACS national meeting in Orlando in 2002, for which visas were obtained for two scientists from Cuba to attend as invited speakers.  Two members of the ACS delegation who attended the 2004 international conference in Havana were inaugurated as honorary members of the Cuban Chemical Society in a ceremony that was attended by hundreds of chemists and was covered on national television.  Many of the relationships that were formed continue to this day.

Developing relationships between Cuba and the American Chemical Society since 1998

255th National Meeting (2018)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.