National Chemistry Week (NCW) is an annual event held in the USA to raise public awareness of the importance of chemistry in everyday life. It is coordinated by the American Chemical Society (ACS).
National Chemistry Week is a community based program that unites ACS local sections, businesses, schools, and individuals in communicating the importance of chemistry to our quality of life.
National Chemistry Week has won the American Society of Association Executives' Award for Excellence. More than 10,000 volunteers and dozens of chemical companies donate their time, creativity, materials and funds for NCW each year, and reach many millions of Americans via print, radio, television, and the internet, as well as in person.
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National Chemistry Day, first celebrated in 1987 by members of the American Chemical Society (ACS), educators and other individual volunteers, was a vision of the former ACS President Dr. George C. Pimentel.[1] His goal was for ACS to hold a simultaneous event nationwide to impress on the public the importance of chemistry in everyday life. The first celebration was kicked off with a parade down the streets in Washington, D.C.
In 1989 the celebration was expanded to a biannual full-week event, and in 1993 National Chemistry Week became an annual celebration.
Some past themes for NCW are as follows:
| Theme | |
|---|---|
| 1997 | Planet Chemistry |
| 1998 | A World of Color |
| 1999 | A Global Salute to Polymers (International Chemistry Celebration) |
| 2000 | Get Cooking with Chemistry |
| 2001 | Celebrating Chemistry & Art |
| 2002 | Chemistry Keeps Us Clean! |
| 2003 | Earth's Atmosphere and Beyond |
| 2004 | Health and Wellness |
| 2005 | The Joy of Toys |
| 2006 | Your Home - It's All Built on Chemistry |
| 2007 | The Many Faces of Chemistry |
| 2008 | Having a ball with Chemistry |
| 2009 (Oct 18 - 24) | Chemistry—It’s Elemental! |
| 2010 (Oct 17 - 23) | Behind the Scenes with Chemistry |
| 2011 (Oct 16 - 22) | Chemistry - Our Health, Our Future! |