28th IUPAC International Conference on Chemistry Education / 17th EuChemS European Conference of Research in Chemical Education (ICCECRICE 2026), Erzurum, Türkiye, 13-17 July, 2026.
International Advisory Board member
ACS Spring Meeting, San Diego, CA, March 23-27, 2025.
Gabriel Brenner, Pomona College ’26, presented his research at the Graduate and Undergraduate Symposium: “Understanding STEM Students’ and Instructors’ Perceptions of SciComm to Inform Training and Real-World Practices.”In his work, Gabriel explores science communication (SciComm) from a perspective that moves beyond the usual focus on generic performative skills, instead emphasizing underlying factors that hinder effective SciComm training for scientists. He identifies key challenges—referred to as dissonances: (1) scientists’ perceived model of SciComm often does not align with their idealized model, and (2) scientists’ beliefs about SciComm frequently conflict with contemporary SciComm theories.
For this meeting, I co-organized two symposia: one on “Chemistry Festivals,” an ACS program that has supported outreach events across five continents, and another on ACS International Student Chapters, which highlighted the vital role these communities play in recruiting, preparing, and supporting future global leaders of the ACS.
27th International Conference on Chemistry Education, Pattaya, Thailand, July 15-19, 2024.
Invited talk: “Cross-institutional study: Propositional instruction and competence in chemical symbolic language in college students”. This is the biannual global event organized by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, IUPAC.
In addition to the invited talk, I was member of the Scientific Committee and co-chaired one of the thematic lines of the conference, Emerging Educational Trends in Chemistry in the 21st Century. This was my third ICCE: Keynote Speaker, São Paulo, Brazil, (2017), and Invited Speaker, Busan, South Korea (2015).
ACS Spring/Fall Meetings
I attend most ACS Spring/Fall Meetings where my undergraduate collaborators present their work and I participate in ACS governance activities. The next meeting occurs from August 18th through August 22nd in Denver, CO. Gabriel Brenner (Pomona College) will present his work titled “Undergraduates’ Understanding of Nature of Science Communication in a Liberal Arts College”.
73rd Southeastern Regional Meeting of the ACS, SERMACS, October 2022, San Juan, PR.
For this event, we are organizing an interactive remote poster session, i-RIPS, with the participation of 30 presenters from six countries in Latin America. i-RIPS is an effort to make SERMACS even more inclusive in response to the obstacles many undergraduates have experienced in getting visas or travel funds to attend the event in person.
Symposium organizer “ACS Chemistry Festivals, Non-formal Chemistry Education around the World”. This event celebrates the contributions made by the ACS Chemistry Festival program to outreach in Latin America and the Caribbean.
15th European Conference on Research in Chemical Education, ECRICE, Rehovot, Israel, July 2022
“Cross-institutional study of the conceptualisation of Lewis structures by college chemistry students.”, S. Sandi-Urena, P. Muisener, Angy Ortiz-Olvera.
ACS National Meeting
Undergraduate poster session: “Learning experimentation skills away from the laboratory: Household titration of vinegar, an authentic and complete experimentation”, *E. Bertsch-Aguilar, *M. Murillo-Soto, S. Sandi-Urena, 261st ACS National Meeting, online event, April 5-16, 2021.
“Experimentation Skills Away from the Chemistry Laboratory: Emergency Remote Teaching of Multimodal Laboratories”, S. Sandi-Urena, 261st ACS National Meeting, online event, April 5-16, 2021.
Symposium organizer and presider “Research on Learning in the Laboratory” , 261st ACS National Meeting, online event, April 5-16, 2021.
Talk @ ADN
“Symbolic language competence and college chemistry understanding”, Interdisciplinary Seminar Series, Asociación para la Divulgación de las Ciencias, ADN, 1 December, 2020, https://streamyard.com/n6iev6yr5k.
Webinar at Purdue University
“Lewis structures as case study of current teaching of representations in college chemistry”, Seminar Series on Chemical Education, Department of Chemistry, Purdue University , 18th November, 2020.
LatinXChem Chemistry Twitter Poster Conference
Symposium judge. This Twitter Poster Conference is organized by LatinXChem, September 7th, 2020.
47th IUPAC World Chemistry Congress, Paris, France, July 5th-12th, 2019.
(1) Talk: “Use of in-class, interactive strategies to promote attention, interest, and generation of explanations in large enrolment general chemistry”.
(2) Poster: “Cross-institutional study of the conceptualisation of Lewis structures by college chemistry students”. Presenter: Dr. Patricia Muisener (Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New Jersey, USA). This study is in collaboration with Dr. Muisener and Dr. Angy L. Ortiz (Lee College, Texas, USA.)
2019 International Business Pedagogy Workshops, Center for International Business Education and Research, Georgia State University, Georgia, USA, May 30th-June 2nd, 2019.
Poster: “Local Dimension of a Global Initiative: Effect of X-Culture Participation on Students at Small Liberal Arts Colleges”. Presenter: Dr. Dina Frutos Bencze, Saint Anselm College, Manchester, New Hampshire, USA. This project is a multidisciplinary collaboration that stems from my interest in global education and platforms to facilitate multinational, multicultural learning experiences.
257th ACS Spring National Meeting, Orlando, FL, USA, March 31st-4th, 2019.
(1) Symposium organizer and presenter: Research on Learning in the Laboratory. (2) Adviser to the ACS International Student Chapter (traveling with 10 members). (3) Spring meeting of the ACS Committee on Practical Training.
The Webinar Series from the RSC Chemical Education Research Group, 24th October, 2018. “Phenomenological characterization of learning in the college chemistry laboratory.”
15th European Conference on Chemistry Education Research, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland, September 2nd-6th, 2018. “Principles of semiotics applied to the analysis of use and interpretation of Lewis structures by chemistry majors.”
25th Biennial Conference on Chemical Education, University of NotreDame, South Bend, IN, USA, July 29th-August 2nd, 2018. (1) “Learning in the Chemistry Laboratory: What we have learnt through phenomenological studies.”, (2) Undergraduate oral presentation, Giovanni Loría-Cambronero, “Characterization of use and conceptualization of Lewis Structures by chemistry majors and experts”; (3) Undergraduate poster presentation, Dayanna Jinesta-Chavez, “Principles of semiotics applied to the analysis of use and interpretation of Lewis structures by chemistry majors”; (4) faculty collaborator oral presentation, “Interactive activities to promote attention, interest, and explanations in large enrollment General Chemistry classes”.
255th ACS Spring National Meeting, New Orleans, LA, USA, March 18th-22nd, 2018. Symposium organizer and presenter: Research on Learning in the Laboratory.
IV Latin American Congress on Research in Didactics of Experimental Sciences, San Jose, Costa Rica, January 24-26, 2018. Undergraduate posters: (1) Characterization of use and conceptualization of Lewis Structures by chemistry majors and experts, Dayanna Jinesta & Giovanni Loría, (2) Integration of Green Chemistry in the first year chemistry laboratory program, Allan Silva, (3) Qualitative analysis of students perceptions on the use of interactive strategies in large enrollment General Chemistry.
VIII International Chemistry Education Meeting, Buenos Aires, Argentina, October 24-27, 2017. Use of interactive strategies in large enrollment General Chemistry to promote attention, interest, and self-explaining.
IUPAC World Chemistry Congress, São Paulo, Brazil, July 11th, 2017. Keynote talk: Learning in the tertiary level chemistry laboratory: What we have learnt from phenomenological research.
Santiago Sandi-Urena 