Message from the President-Jun 2021
Written by Danny Wong
Dear members,
I like to begin my report by thanking all attendees at the Fellows and Honorary Life Members Lunch on 7th May! Despite a Covid-19 announcement in Sydney made a day or two before the lunch event, we welcomed almost twice the number of members expected in the early organising stage. It was just so exciting and lovely to be able to stereochemically see all members in three dimensional structures in the first social event by the Branch in 2021, after not being to do so for more than a year. I was particularly encouraged to hear from many members, either before they left the venue or later in an electronic mail, how much they had enjoyed the lunch, the restaurant ambience, and to share a laughter or two, in the company of all the familiar faces. Congratulations once again to all the New Fellows and Honorary Life Members for your achievements! A special thank you goes to Emeritus Professor Ben Selinger AM for his entertaining presentation that had stimulated many questions during discussion time. Of course, we were also grateful to all the musicians (Joseph Clemmit, Amber Garth, Sophie Oates, Lauren Jenkinson, Andy Ward, accompanied by their teachers Mr David Stratton and Mr Michael Teterin) from Northholm Grammar School for their most mesmerising performance during the event. I like to thank the subcommittee (Tania Notaras (Envirolab Services Pty Ltd), Vipul Agarwal (UNSW), Sinead Keaveney (University of Wollongong)) once again for their tireless effort in organising the lunch event. For anyone who would like to view / download pictures taken during the lunch event, please visit
https://mcusercontent.com/0bb0d29e2909914e756525fd5/files/0c136d35-af50-6ce0-e5d7-d15500cd2bcb/Memories_of_2021_Fellows_Lunch1.pdf.
As expressed in my closing remark on the day, our next social event is The Presidents’ Dinner on 6th August. I’m glad to inform all members that we have recently secured the Concord Golf Club, a venue with a spectacular view across the golf course, for this annual function. The organising subcommittee (Nigel Lengkeek (ANSTO), David Springer (Envirolab Services Pty Ltd) and Maree Stuart (Lab Law Pty Ltd)) and I can’t wait to see many members again in the upcoming event. Please refer to our flyer for The Presidents’ Dinner in this Newsletter.
I’m also particularly excited that Dr Clarrie Ng had agreed to be featured in the Chemist-of-The-Month segment of this Newsletter. Clarrie’s name is synonymous with RACI, particularly the NSW Analytical and Environmental Chemistry Group and the NSW Branch. He was the Chair of the NSW Analytical and Environmental Chemistry Group when I first joined RACI in the 1990s. Clarrie’s easy-going nature always made new members, including myself, welcomed in committee meetings and activities run by the Group. It is therefore easy to understand why many committee members remained loyal to the Group for many years. Under Clarrie’s leadership, the Group was among the very active groups in NSW organising many meetings / symposia, including a well-received biannual symposium, “What’s New in Laboratory Instrumentation?”, which provided a perfect opportunity for academic, government and industry members to interact with each other. Meanwhile, the Group also offered generous prizes to top-performing students in analytical and environmental chemistry from many tertiary institutions in NSW. I tremendously enjoyed reading the interview with Clarrie and so will you! Thank you, Clarrie, for taking us down the memory lane, and thank you, William Li, for conducting the interview.
Following an annual general meeting at the end of October 2020, quite a few new members were elected to the NSW Branch Committee. We therefore introduced a new “Getting to know Branch Committee Members” segment in the Newsletter, where we took turn to introduce one or two committee members in each Newsletter. I hope you have enjoyed acquainting with each of the committee members. I’m glad that two remaining committee members, Mrs Tania Notaras (Envirolab Services Pty Ltd) and Honorary Associate Professor Roger Read (UNSW), are being featured in the segment of this Newsletter. Both Tania and Roger are RACI members who need no introduction at all! I first came to know Tania during an annual poster presentation evening by high school students who had completed their CSIRO Student Research Scheme in the early 2000s. I was later excited by the news that Tania was elected to be the President-Elect, and subsequently the President, of the NSW Branch, while being elected to the Board of RACI at almost the same time! I’m sure it was not easy for Tania to juggle with all these, while running her own business! Similar to Clarrie, Roger is also synonymous with RACI because of his long association with the organisation. Therefore, Roger is like an encyclopedia to many of us in the Branch Committee and he is always the one we turn to when advice is needed. The Branch Committee is very grateful to have Tania as the Immediate Past President, and Roger as the Past President since 2018.
It is with sadness for me to announce that our Branch Coordinator, Claire Jung, will be leaving the office at the end of June. Claire has been a solid pillar in the Branch Office for the past two years or so, helping out all groups in organising their webinars more recently, while coping with tasks in running all school activities. For all these, on behalf of office bearers of many groups and also the Branch Committee, thank you, Claire, for your hard work, and we wish you all the best in your future endeavours. A replacement for Claire is currently being sought.
To all members, please continue to stay safe and I encourage you to go for vaccination when it is your turn.
Danny Wong
RACI NSW Branch President
“Nurture the passion, discover the possibilities"
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