Over the course of October 16-22, a national celebration of chemistry’s incredible discoveries and triumphs as well as all of the great chemists that ever graced the face of the Earth occurred.

This National “holiday” had never before been celebrated at MSMS, until the Chemistry Club president, Baili Zhong, decided that this would be perfect for MSMS. Speaking to his motivations for starting the event, Zhong stated, “I didn’t know about Chemistry Week until Dr. Morgan told me about it. I then thought to myself that it would be a great idea to celebrate it at MSMS. I know it’s not a particularly interesting or spectacular origin story, but it works.”

On October 20th, Chemistry Club presented the challenge to all at MSMS, including faculty, staff, and students, to dress up as their favorite chemist in hopes of both inspiring the student body to truly see the beauty of chemistry, as well as to have a little fun as Halloween edges ever closer and give out a massive goody bag to satisfy the masses.

The winner of this contest turned out to be Sydney Matrisciano, who won based on her Marie Curie costume and received a delicious goody bag filled with “periodic tables, sucrose (candy) from all over the world and anything else deemed worthy.” Matrisciano explained her choice by saying, “Rosalind Franklin is probably my fav. But Marie is just so well known, and I consider her the greatest female chemist ever. She was a radiant light to the field of chemistry… and physics. Bad puns not included seriously she was amazing yet they wouldn’t even let her into college. And she achieved so much despite that.”

This event will hopefully be a staple for MSMS in the future, highlighting the beauty of chemistry and truly invigorating the student body to hopefully try to explore chemistry as well as appreciate it.  

Zhong has big hopes for Chemistry Week in the future, stating that “We started this celebration for one sole purpose: giving chemistry a little more appreciation from the student body. We hope to get people excited about chemistry and, just maybe, they will try to learn more about chemists and chemistry in general. I believe that this truly is an opportunity to show the beauty of chemistry and the intricate nature in which our world works.”