36 St. Louis 2018 was a fun year filled with Superbugs, Medicinal Plants, and Innovation! Our first event was an enormous success, scheduled on March 28th at Bone Fish Grill for a dinner meeting. We were honored to have Professor Gautam Dantas from Washington University School of Medicine as our first speaker. His talk was on “Antibiotic-Resistant Superbugs”, and he also won St Louis Speaker of the Year. “Dantas’ Lab works at the interface of microbial genomics, ecology, synthetic biology, and systems biology, to understand, harness, and engineer the biochemical processing potential of microbial communities.” Our second event was on June 15th at the St Louis Botanical Gardens for a lunch meeting in the garden. Wendy Applequest, Ph.D. spoke about the identification, quality control, and systematics of medicinal plants. Wendy’s research places an emphasis on the characterization of botanical materials for biomedical research, and chemical variability within and among medicinal plant species. Our annual Scientific Symposium was September 7th and it was information filled at a wonderful venue. We had six speakers: Mahila Syed, Ph.D. (Avlon) spoke on Innovations in Textured Hair, Beth Kroeger (Steris Corporation) presented on Medical Marijuana, LaWanda Brooks (SweetHead Naturals) discussed bringing health and wellness to the hair salon, Mark Miller (Fitz Chem LLC) spoke on Consumer Trends and what they mean for your next reformulation, Jim Masucci (Monsanto) detailed what is killing our honey bees and what are we doing to combat one of their major pests, and finally Tom Meyer (Chemia) addressed Innovation in Scent: From Fine Fragrance to Functionality. Our final 2018 event was on November 15th for a dinner meeting at Favazza’s on the Hill, in the St Louis Italian district. During this event the 2019 Board Members were installed by Area II Director Yulia Park. The Annual Holiday Party and Officer Installation was a time to welcome new board members and celebrate a great year. Tiffany Collis 2018 St Louis SCC Chapter Chair

37 As I write this review looking at the subzero temperatures we have in Minnesota, I recall the amazing events we have had this past year. We had some very engaging topics at our monthly meetings with a kick off in Feb- ruary by Anna Howe from Evonik, on the synergies of different con- ditioning agents for haircare. March brought us Dr. Jon Ander- son from Actives International, where we got some great insight into a time old practice Fermen- tation and how biotransforma- tion of actives as a novel route with proven efficacy for the in- dustry and a great example of using the principles of Green Chemistry. We got our local spring flower, Jim Vlasic from Greenway Research Labs. for the April meet- ing. With his many years in the product development area, Jim gave us a schooling on the basics of developing cleansing products. This then took us into warm June and our most populous event, our Summer Golf outing. And as always, the Golf Gods smiled on us again with fantastic weather. Thanks to the Dy- namic Duo, Steve Beauchaine and Phil Leith, who have been organizing the event for more than 25 years. As always, the event was an amazing success. Fall, is another gorgeous season in the Twin Cities mostly be- cause that is when the state bird (The Mosquito) dies off! Our September gathering was a newer style of event for our chap- ter started by the 2017 board, a poster session at one of the great breweries we have in the Twin Cities for some lessons in the art of beer making and tasting. I think this also made a comfortable environment for suppliers and Chemists to inter- act and talk about ingredients and technologies. Continuing with the industry education our October meeting was on Preservation trends in Cosmetics by Rocco Burgo from Inolex speaking on conventional and non-conventional preservation approaches and the impacts on the industry. Similarly, we had a great November event with Dr. Pete LeBar- on from ICM products on Silicones and the hybrid solutions to potentially substitute for formulations, which was followed by the officer installation carried out by Jacklin Hoffelt our area III Director. With that, I would like to wel- come the 2019 TCCSCC board, Melissa Christenson (Chair), Justin Steinke (Treasurer), Mari- sa Plescia (Secretary), and Jim Vlasic (Chair-Elect). Also, my sincere thanks to Na- dabia Helland, Kristen Haaken- son, and Chad Pavlis for their support and work over the year as it was great to work with such enthusiasm. Looking forward to 2019 events including our Ho- listic Symposium on March 12th and 13th and continued suc- cess of the chapter. Divyesh Patel, 2018 Twin Cities Chapter Chair Twin Cities