1,000+ signatures and ACS leadership contacted. Let’s keep the momentum going into ACS Fall 2026

Thank you to everyone who has signed, shared this petition, and taken the time to explain why the historic ACS logo matters to you. We crossed 1,000 signatures only eight days after launching on August 5, and that happened because people across the chemistry community kept passing the petition along and encouraging others to speak up. We have now sent a detailed letter directly to ACS leadership and to the offices responsible for governance, branding, finances, and member engagement. The email was sent to president@acs.org, CEO@acs.org, secretary@acs.org, bylaws@acs.org, branding@acs.org, b_ffeedback@acs.org, and membershipfeedback@acs.org. The letter asks ACS to explain why the historic phoenix and Liebig-bulb logo was replaced, release the research that informed the decision, identify how the new logo was formally authorized, disclose the costs associated with developing and implementing it, and explain how the change fits with the current ACS Governing Documents. ACS has said that the broader branding project involved two years of research and engagement with members and other stakeholders. We have asked ACS to publish enough of that work for members to understand what it actually showed, including how many members participated, how they were selected, what they were asked about the logo, what alternatives they saw, whether the final design was tested, and whether members were specifically asked if the phoenix, Liebig bulb, and cobalt-blue-and-gold identity should be retained. We also raised the governance concerns that several supporters have identified. The current ACS Governing Documents still specify cobalt blue and gold as the Society’s colors and describe an insignia containing the phoenix, ACS lettering, and Liebig bulb. They also address Board approval of changes to the Society’s emblem. We have asked ACS to explain the formal status of the new logo, whether the historic design remains the official ACS insignia, and what action authorized its replacement as the primary public-facing logo. We have also offered to provide the signer information available to us through Change.org as a CSV export if ACS would like to review it directly. At this point, the most useful thing everyone can do is keep the momentum going. If you have already signed, please share the petition with at least 5 to 10 people in the chemistry community. Send it to colleagues, students, professors, former classmates, ACS members, Local Section and Division colleagues, and anyone else who may care about how ACS represents chemistry and its own history. Even a few personal shares from each signer can put this in front of thousands more people. If you are attending ACS Fall 2026 in Chicago, please talk about the logo there and make your voice heard. The ACS Board of Directors Open Meeting takes place on August 23, so this is an especially important opportunity to ask questions directly. Ask what the member research showed. Ask how the logo change was approved. Ask how it fits the Governing Documents. Ask whether the Board is willing to reconsider the decision. Please also talk to Councilors, Local Section and Division leaders, committee members, and other ACS members while you are there. If you know an ACS Councilor, send them the petition before the meeting and ask them to look into the issue themselves. The more people who raise the same questions independently and respectfully, the harder it becomes for this to be treated as a passing reaction to a redesign. This effort has never been about opposing modernization. ACS could have modernized the historic logo without discarding the phoenix, Liebig bulb, colors, and chemical symbolism that made it unmistakably ACS. Thank you again to everyone who has helped get the petition this far. Please keep sharing it, keep talking about it, and if you are going to ACS Fall, bring the conversation with you. If you receive a response from ACS, know of an ACS leader we should contact, or have information relevant to how the logo decision was made, please reach us at sharksapphire@protonmail.com.