9 Florida The Florida Chapter Kicked off 2019 with a record setting meeting in Ft. Lauderdale. James “Vince” Gruber of Jeen International presented on the hot topic of Fermentation Technologies in Downtown Ft. Lauderdale. We had many of our student members in attendance and it was a great benefit for them as well as the many chemists that were present as they learned how fermentation – a technique used since the beginning of time to preserve food and has evolved to find its place in our cosmetic industry as well as many other industry for raw materials that we use every day. In April the Florida Chapter had its second and final Chapter meeting before completely settling into Sunscreen Symposium planning mode. Patrice Heintz of Interpolymer presented on Water-Based Acrylate Polymer Dispersions at the Columbia Restaurant in Tampa. The Florida Chapter’s biggest event was our biannual sunscreen symposium. The 2019 Sunscreen Symposium was held on September 12th - 14th, 2019 at Disney’s Yacht and Beach Club Resorts in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. The Symposium was highly anticipated, and the Chapter experienced its highest attendance in history. The symposium opened on Thursday with a Free Continuing Education Course under the instruction of Mark Chandler and Julian Hewitt to a record-breaking crowd. Mark and Julian tag teamed and covered the hot topics surrounding today’s sunscreen industry and proved to be very impactful for the formulators, researchers, and all industry professionals present. Golf and Tennis tournaments was also a part of the highlights on Thursday, a mix of seasoned and golfers who “just love to golf” took to Disney’s Magnolia golf course for a great time. Thursday Evening events opened up with the cocktail reception, Tabletop Exhibits, and Poster Sessions where over 20 posters and 60 exhibitors ranging from testing laboratories, raw material manufacturers, finished product manufacturers, software suppliers, SCC national and Suppliers Day all showcased their latest developments, research, industry news and more! The evening was busy with attendees eager to learn and visiting every exhibitor and listening in on the poster presentations. We had great representation of student posters and would like to congratulate them on the level of professionalism and expertise in the work presented. Day two (the first day of technical presentations) covered many hot topics affecting sunscreens in our industry. Day two ended with our famous and eagerly anticipated Symposium party at Epcot’s World Showplace. This year’s theme “Its Carnival Baby” was a huge hit with flavors of the islands, costume, music, and cuisine as the audience networked and danced the night away. Day Three of the symposium was highlighted topics directly related to the new FDA proposed ruling of sunscreens and sunscreen safety. We had Dr. Theresa Michele who was the most anticipated speaker of the day present to the audience on just about everything they needed to know regarding the new proposed ruling. The symposium was packed with three full days of events giving attendees a tremendous amount of practical information and research to take back to the workplace.

10 The year ended with Chapter Elections, Officer Installations, and awards for the outgoing officers and chapter advisor. The new board members were officially installed in November. As the chair of the Florida Chapter for the past three years and on behalf of the 2018/2019 board members we would like to thank all of our members and supporters for their contributions towards our Chapter events. Our Chapter saw the greatest growth in membership in 2019 and greatest student participation in history. Special thank you to Stephen Dawes, Vanessa Thomas, Ed Leonard, Peter Toth, Art Vallejo, Marie Rinaldi, Diane Tramonta and all of our members. Thanks to all of you we had a very successful 2019!