Educational Outreach Activities between the ACS Division of Chemical Education's International Activities Committee and the Sociedad Cubana de Quimica

Ernest L. Eliel, in his capacity as ACS president. initiated contacts with the Sociedad Cubana de Quimica in the early 1990's and 2000's. Using those initial contacts as a springboard, several ACS presidents, especially Marinda L. Wu and Diane Grob Schmidt. continued to improve relationships between the two societies. In 2015 Presidents Raid Castro and Barack Obama started normalizing, relations between the two countries, permitting a Cuban delegation to attend the 2015 Boston ACS meeting. At this meeting representatives from the International Activities Committee of the Division of Chemical Education met with the Cuban delegation to discuss possible collaborations. This led to the attendance of four ACS educators at the 2016 Simposio Internacional de Quimica in Cayo Santa Maria, Cuba as well as a forthcoming, workshop at the University of Utah.