Through our symposium, we aspire to highlight the current opportunities and challenges associated with the advancement of chemistry for, and in the developing world. By assembling a group of world-class speakers from both developed and developing nations, we aim to showcase innovations designed to improve quality of life in impoverished regions and to illustrate the benefits and challenges of conducting scientific research in these areas. Our goal is to bring the growth of science in the developing world to the attention of the international scientific community and garner support for this critical need.

We are a distinguished group of students from the University of California, Santa Barbara and we are proud to serve as the Graduate Student Symposium Planning Committee for the 239th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in San Francisco, CA.  We comprise a diverse collection of graduate students from the Materials and Chemistry departments at UCSB and we are committed to raising awareness about the challenges of conducting modern science in the developing world.

GSSPC members from left: Jasmine Hunt, Kato Killops, Brian Lin, Frank Leibfarth, Mike Dimitriou, and Nalini Gupta