The First Annual CANNCHASHNA Award

What’s to come with CANN; Cannabis Chemistry Subdivision

CANN or better known as Cannabis Chemistry Subdivision was founded in 2015 to build a home within the American Chemical society for cannabis chemists. “This gave cannabis scientists a way to be connected at a time there was no collection of information and standards” says Ezra Pryor, founding member and Past Chair of CANN as well as Applied Markets Specialist at Heidolph.

Now 3 years later CANN has implemented a scholarship that is open to the entire scientific community. This scholarship award is like none before it and promises to be a positive influence on the state of the art and on cannabis chemistry’s place in the larger scientific community. With contributions from Heidolph North America, CANN has been able to make their vision a reality. The donations fund a travel award for the chemists to share their accomplishments with the larger scientific community during ACS national meetings.

Anyone attending the ACS National Meeting in New Orleans in March can attend the award symposium when each award winner will participate in a unique symposium presentation (schedule below). There is also a free networking event on Monday 3/19 at 6:30 P.M. at the Rusty Nail, even for those who aren’t attending the conference. If you can, come join us for our official parade immediately before the networking event by meeting up with us at 5:45 P.M. at Heritage Park (across the street from the convention center)! For those that cannot attend either, we will have booth 1200 in the exposition hall.

Those interested in applying to the next round of scholarships can send a resume, abstract and title to [email protected] before July 1st. Questions and concerns can be posed to the same email. The 2019 awardees will be required to take part in the 257th ACS National Meeting & Exposition on March 31-April 4, in Orlando, Florida. CANN is excited for the next generation of cannabis scientists to win this award.

We are both pleased and humbled to present the first round of awards at the 255th ACS National Meeting when CANN, a Subdivision of ACS’ Chemical Health and Safety Division (CHAS) can focus on the work of the award recipients. This award can serve as a beacon of light for those who have done good works and need to share their accomplishments with others in the community.

The award winners come from a diverse set of backgrounds and span three countries besides the United States. In addition to the obvious benefit of bringing these chemists to a forum to present their work, it is also hoped they will be the first of an intimate cohort whose collaboration and support further drives the leading edge of cannabis chemistry. Below you will find an introduction to each of the winners with a bit of info on their background and what they will be presenting:

Dr. Jahan Marcu is the Chief Science Officer at Americans for Safe Access and the Director of Patient Focused Certification. He earned his Ph.D in Cell Biology from Temple University. Dr. Marcu is also serving as Program Chair for CANN and has the distinction of being one of the founding members of CANN.     

Andrew Pham is the Scientific Director at BelCosta Labs and Consultant at ILP Scientific LLC. He received his Masters degree at Northeastern University working with Dr. Makriyannis. Andrew is also the Current Chair of CANN. Pham’s presentation will take on the complex challenge associated with the operation of motor vehicles under the influence of cannabis and the chemistry of so called drugged driving laws.

Dr. Mark Scialdone is the President of Better Chem Consulting. He earned his PhD from Wayne State University and holds a wide number of patents mostly from his time at Dupont first as a Research Chemist, then as Senior Research Chemist, then as Research Associate and finally as Transformer Insulation Application Research Scientist. Mark also has the distinction of being one of our founding members. Perhaps one of Dr. Scialdone’s most notable accomplishments was the discovery and patenting of a modified THC molecule known as “hexahydrocannabinolic acid” termed HHCA.

Dr. Linda Klumpers is a Director at Cannify, Consultant at BIRD Life Sciences & Business Consulting B.V. in the Netherlands, and Associate Dean for professional education at the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences. Her presentation will focus on the current state of our knowledge on the effects of terpenes and cannabinoids on the human body.

Dr. Melissa Lewis is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Molecular Design and Pre-formulations at the University Health Network at Toronto, Canada. She received her PhD from the Department of Chemistry at University of Western Ontario. Dr. Lewis’ presentation will focus on Canadian medical cannabis and the effects of decarboxylation on the components of extract products.

John de la Parra is a Lecturer at Tufts University as well as Owner and Principal Scientist at Vine Research and Consulting. Parra is defending his thesis this year from Northeastern University in biosynthesis, isolation, and analysis of novel plant-derived pharmaceuticals. Parra’s presentation will focus on rapid metabolomic phenotyping of Cannabis Sativa.   

Dr. Michael Schafroth has just received his PhD from ETH Zurich, Switzerland in application of stereodivergent methods to the synthesis of tetrahydrocannabinol and other cannabinoids. Dr. Schafroth is currently in a post doctoral position at Scripps Research Institute. Dr. Schafroth’s presentation will focus on cannabinoids from the plant Radula marginata and their effects on the human body. 

 For more information or an illustrative image please contact:

 Media:           Nicole Kvasnicka

                       224-265-9600 x111

                       [email protected]