By Aleksandra Sidorova
A lucky raffle winner received a periodic table magnet and coffee cup from SUNY Plattsburgh’s chapter of the American Chemical Society, also known as the Chemistry Club, to celebrate Periodic Table Day Feb. 7.
Johnathan Jauron, a first-year robotics major, was randomly selected as the raffle winner out of 26 participants. To participate, students had to share which chemical element they thought was best and why. Jauron’s answer was bismuth due to its “abstract crystalline form and array of colors,” as he explained in an email.
Other “witty” submissions included noble gasses, alkaline metals, some transition metals, silicon and uranium, ACS Chemistry Club Vice President Ashley Donato wrote in an email.
Periodic Table Day was created in 2015 by David Steineker, a teacher in Kentucky’s Jefferson County Public School District to commemorate the day the periodic table was published for the first time by English chemist John Newlands in 1863, according to National Today, a website dedicated to gathering information about holidays around the world. Feb. 7 is also a day before the birthday of Russian chemist Dimitri Mendeleev, who is usually credited with compiling the periodic table in its modern form.
The ACS Chemistry Club does not yet have set meeting times, but hosts events about science, including resume-building sessions, mini-lectures, guest speakers and community service, Donato wrote.
