A Message from the Division Chair: August 14, 2025
[NOTE: This message was originally sent out to Division members via email on August 14, 2025. To view the original email in your browser, click here.]
Dear Members of the Biochemistry and Chemical Biology Division,
It is my pleasure to write this message to you as Chair. As we approach the Fall 2025 national meeting in Washington, D.C., I am excited to share with you several important updates and happenings within the division!
First and foremost, I am thrilled to let you know that as of January this year, and after a long effort, we changed the name of our division from the Division of Biological Chemistry to the Division of Biochemistry and Chemical Biology. We will retain the BIOL abbreviation, and though you might see “DBCB” and related titles, it is still the same division for dues and national meetings! Keep an eye out for a new logo in future communications from the division. This change comes with the overwhelming support of our membership as well as the formal approval of the ACS. I want to thank our previous chairs, Professors David Giedroc, who initiated the process, and Jen Heemstra, who spearheaded this change as well as the rest of our executive committee for helping navigate the lengthy approval process.
First and foremost, I am thrilled to let you know that as of January this year, and after a long effort, we changed the name of our division from the Division of Biological Chemistry to the Division of Biochemistry and Chemical Biology. We will retain the BIOL abbreviation, and though you might see “DBCB” and related titles, it is still the same division for dues and national meetings! Keep an eye out for a new logo in future communications from the division. This change comes with the overwhelming support of our membership as well as the formal approval of the ACS. I want to thank our previous chairs, Professors David Giedroc, who initiated the process, and Jen Heemstra, who spearheaded this change as well as the rest of our executive committee for helping navigate the lengthy approval process.
The change of our division name was not taken lightly and represents the vision of you as our members as well as a significant amount of work from our leadership. We believe that this new name reflects not only the growing interest in Chemical Biology as a discipline and community, but the broad impact it has in both basic and translational science. We hope that as the Division of Biochemistry and Chemical Biology we will be able to better represent the interests of our membership and help advance the field by promoting our science and the scientists we represent.
Second, as you may know ACS is changing the format of national meetings, and in doing so encouraging divisions to co-program sessions. Fortunately, this is something that comes naturally to our community as we already work at the interface of disciplines. Because of this you can expect to see more in the way of sessions that are sponsored by multiple divisions. We look forward to continuing to work closely with other divisions such as MEDI, ORGN, COMP, CARB, and others to bring the most exciting and cutting-edge science possible to national meetings.
Additionally, I am thrilled to let you know that starting next year the Bioconjugate Chemistry young investigator award will be hosted in our division! This award is jointly sponsored with the journal and was previously hosted in the PMSE division and recognizes “an outstanding young researcher who has made a major impact at the interface of synthetic and biological systems”. We thank PMSE for their help in hosting the award as well as graciously transitioning the award to BIOL. You can look forward to seeing recognition of talented early-career scientists in our programming in upcoming meetings and communications from the division.
Division elections will be happening soon so please be on the lookout for ballots in your email later this Fall – there are several important positions open and a great slate of candidates who are volunteering to serve. If you are interested in volunteering or working with the division, please feel free to reach out to me or other executive committee members who you can find on our website. Although my time as division chair will end at the end of this year, we are fortunate that Professor Peter Beal will be heading the division in 2026.
We are also looking to recruit someone to help write a division newsletter on a regular basis, so if you are interested, please let us know!
Thank you for reading and I look forward to seeing you in DC!
Sincerely,
John Schneekloth, Jr.
Chair, Division of Biochemistry and Chemical Biology