National Chemistry Week (NCW) is an annual event held in the United States to raise public awareness of the importance of chemistry in everyday life. It is coordinated by the American Chemical Society (ACS).
NCW is a community-based program that unites ACS local sections, businesses, schools, and individuals in communicating the importance of chemistry to our quality of life.
NCW has won the American Society of Association Executives' Award for Excellence.
More than 10,000 volunteers and dozens of chemical companies donate their time, creativity, materials and funds for NCW each year, and reach many millions of Americans via print, radio, television, and the internet, as well as in person.
National Chemistry Day, first celebrated in 1987 by members of the American Chemical Society (ACS), educators and other individual volunteers, was a vision of the former ACS President Dr. George C. Pimentel.[1] His goal was for ACS to hold a simultaneous event nationwide to impress on the public the importance of chemistry in everyday life. The first celebration was kicked off with a parade down the streets in Washington, D.C.
In 1989 the celebration was expanded to a biannual full-week event, and in 1993 National Chemistry Week became an annual celebration.
Past and future themes for NCW include:[2]
| Theme | ||
| 1997 (Nov 2–8) | Planet Chemistry[3] | |
| 1998 (Nov 1–7) | A World of Color[4] | |
| 1999 (Nov 7–13) | A Global Salute to Polymers[5] (International Chemistry Celebration) | |
| 2000 (Nov 5–11) | Get Cooking with Chemistry[6] | |
| 2001 (Nov 4–10) | Celebrating Chemistry & Art[7] | |
| 2002 (Oct 20–26) | Chemistry Keeps Us Clean![8] | |
| 2003 (Oct 19–25) | Earth's Atmosphere and Beyond[9] | |
| 2004 (Oct 17–23) | Health and Wellness[10] | |
| 2005 (Oct 16–22) | The Joy of Toys[11] | |
| 2006 (Oct 22–28) | Your Home — It's All Built on Chemistry[12] | |
| 2007 (Oct 21–27) | The Many Faces of Chemistry[13] | |
| 2008 (Oct 19–25) | Having a Ball with Chemistry[14] | |
| 2009 (Oct 18–24) | Chemistry — It's Elemental![15] | |
| 2010 (Oct 17–23) | Behind the Scenes with Chemistry[16] | |
| 2011 (Oct 16–22) | Chemistry—Our Health, Our Future![17] | |
| 2012 (Oct 21–27) | Nanotechnology The Smallest BIG Idea in Science![18] | |
| 2013 (Oct 20–26) | Energy: Now and Forever![19] | |
| 2014 (Oct 19–25) | The Sweet Side of Chemistry — Candy[20] | |
| 2015 (Oct 18–24) | Chemistry Colors Our World[21] | |
| 2016 (Oct 16–22) | Solving Mysteries Through Chemistry[22] | |
| 2017 (Oct 22–28) | Chemistry Rocks![23] | |
| 2018 (Oct 21–27) | Chemistry is Out of This World https://www.acs.org/content/dam/acsorg/education/outreach/celebrating-chemistry/2018-ncw-celebrating-chemistry-english.pdf | |
| 2019 (Oct 20–26) | Marvelous Metals https://www.acs.org/content/dam/acsorg/education/outreach/celebrating-chemistry/2019-ncw-celebrating-chemistry-english.pdf | |
| 2020 (Oct 18–24) | Sticking with Chemistry https://www.acs.org/content/dam/acsorg/education/outreach/celebrating-chemistry/2020-ncw/2020-ncw-celebrating-chemistry-english.pdf | |
| 2021 (Oct 17–23) | Fast or Slow...Chemistry Makes it Go! | |
| 2022 (Oct 16–22) | Fabulous Fibers: The Chemistry of Fabrics! | |
| 2023 (Oct 15-21) | The Healing Power of Chemistry |
Celebrating Chemistry is designed to engage and educate children (Grades 4th - 6th) in the basic principles of chemistry and are available in both English and Spanish. Most editions are aligned with either National Chemistry Week (NCW) or Chemists Celebrate Earth Week (CCEW) and contain articles, experiments, and puzzles based on each year's themes. Below you can also find special Celebrating Chemistry Editions for both NCW and CCEW, which were also inspired by the 2011 International Year of Chemistry.