Society for Applied Spectroscopy William J. Poehlman Award
Recognizing an outstanding SAS Regional Section that has met the goals and ideals of the Society over the past year.

SAS Cleveland Regional Section

The SAS Cleveland Section is being recognized as this year’s outstanding section for maintaining a consistently high level of activity throughout the year and completing a large number of projects which furthered the mission and goals of SAS. These projects included the 59th annual May Conference, which included a full day of programming with three parallel sessions and several plenary/invited talks and award presentations. The conference fostered communications between members, students, and equipment vendors. The Section organized the event in conjunction with the local ACS and AVS sections and the Microscopy Society, and was able to obtain 28 (!) industrial sponsors. The latter achievement, in particular, is a strong example of the success that regional sections can have in finding financial support for projects. Other Cleveland Section activities included seven monthly meetings, several of which featured speakers from outside the Section’s boundaries, and a number of educational outreach presentations. Of the latter, one activity of note was the “Spectroscopy for Kids” program, which reached a total of ~1800 students (elementary to high school) at 10 different events, and included a teacher training workshop.