Maureen Rouhi

Change agent, Concerned citizen, Educator/Teacher, Journalist, Parent, Policy maker, Potential employer, Writer/Editor

A. Maureen Rouhi is the Editor-in-chief of Chemical & Engineering News. Chemical & Engineering News is the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society. It reports current events in the chemistry enterprise, including recent advances in research, education, industry, funding, and regulatory policy. C&EN has a weekly circulation of about 110,000. It is produced by staff based in Washington, D.C.; Edison, N.J.; Berlin; Boston; Chicago; Dallas; Hong Kong; Houston; London, and Oakland, Calif. Rouhi is responsible for about 50 full-time staff. Rouhi received B.S. and M.S. degrees in agricultural chemistry from the University of the Philippines, Los Banos, and a Ph.D. from the University of London. Her professional experience includes independent research and teaching in the Philippines and in Iran, scholarly publishing, journalism, and news organization management. She began her scholarly publications career as a copy editor trainee at the American Society for Microbiology. In 1987, she joined the American Chemical Society, where she has worked ever since, except for an 11-month detour to the American Pharmaceutical Association (now the American Pharmacists Association), where she served as managing editor of the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. At ACS, she worked in books production, books acquisitions, and production of multimedia continuing-education courses. Her journalism career began when she joined C&EN in 1994. Her favorite reporting assignments were those about chemical ecology, the chemical senses, natural products, organic chemistry, the history of chemistry, pharmaceuticals, and fine chemicals. From 2004 to 2012, she was deputy editor-in-chief of C&EN. In that capacity, she focused on the daily operations that help make C&EN the first choice for news about the chemical enterprise. She took over as editor-in-chief in September 2012. In this capacity, she aims to take C&EN to the next level of excellence and achievement by expanding its influence, extending its global reach, and strengthening its digital presence. As ACS Publications VP for the C&EN Media Group, she is responsible for the publication's strategic direction and financial sustainability Rouhi's leadership and management skills have been honed by more than 20 years of service at the American Chemical Society. The world's largest scientific society, ACS is a nonprofit professional organization with a multidisciplinary membership of more than 163,000 chemists and chemical engineers.

Public understanding of science is my passion. Americans doubt science. A public that doubts science won't support it. Without science, the U.S. will fail as a nation.

Journalism, Science Communication and Publishing

I immigrated to the US with a toddler and $400 almost 30 years ago. My path was from the Philippines, through the UK and Iran. I lived in Iran at the height of the Iran-Iraq War. Our home was in northern Tehran, in the same vicinity as the home of the Ayatollah Khomeini. when Iraqi planes came to bomb Tehran, one of their targets was the ayatollah's residence. During air raids, some bombs felt very close. How I learned to speak Farsi, to make Persian tea and serve it with all the requisite posturing of hospitality is a story on its own.So was my struggle to cover myself in Islamic garb and and behave as a Persian, which in the end I realized was impossible for me. My marriage required a lot of work to harmonize a Catholic-raised Southeast Asian sensibility with the conservative, Islamic state I was living in. With our daughter growing up in the US, the diversity of cultures intensified even more. 30 years hence, we are survivors--my husband, our marriage, our daughter, and I.