ACS logo briefing starts at 3 PM ET today. Please join and make your voice heard.
Thank you to everyone who has signed, shared, commented on, and continued talking about this petition. We have now passed 1,200 signatures, and the response is still growing.
ACS is holding its “Brand Evolution: Member Briefing” today, August 18, from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. ET. ACS says it will discuss the research behind the brand evolution, how stakeholder feedback informed the final decision, and take questions from the audience.
Registration:
https://events.zoom.us/e/view/2QJAJDWdRLqzxp0birrfXg
The briefing is open not only to current ACS members, but also to past and future members. Students, early-career chemists, former members, and people considering ACS membership can participate and submit questions.
Transparency and accountability have been central to this petition from the beginning. ACS has repeatedly said that the broader branding work was research-driven and informed by stakeholder feedback. Members should therefore be able to see what that research actually showed. How many ACS members participated? How were they selected? What were they asked about the logo? What alternatives were they shown? Did they see the final design? Were they specifically asked whether the phoenix, Liebig bulb, and cobalt-blue-and-gold identity should remain part of the primary ACS logo?
There are also questions about how the logo change was approved. The current ACS Governing Documents still describe the Society’s historic colors and insignia and contain provisions governing changes to the emblem. ACS should explain how the new logo fits within that framework, who authorized its adoption, and what formal process was followed.
ACS has also indicated that the historic insignia will continue to be used for important or elevated occasions. That does not answer the concern raised by this petition.
The issue is not whether the old insignia still exists somewhere within ACS. The issue is that ACS replaced the logo people will see every day. The mark used on websites, communications, publications, meetings, digital materials, and routine member-facing activity is the one that becomes the public face of the Society. Reserving the historic insignia for ceremonial or special use while replacing it everywhere else is still a major change in how ACS presents itself.
Those are not equivalent outcomes. Keeping the historic insignia for occasional use does not mean the historic ACS logo has retained its former role. Likewise, saying that members participated in research does not establish that members supported the final logo, and explaining what the new design is intended to symbolize does not establish that replacing the phoenix and Liebig bulb was necessary or preferred.
If you attend today, do not be afraid to ask direct questions. Scientists challenge evidence, methodology, assumptions, and conclusions every day. ACS leadership should be held to the same expectation of evidence and transparency when explaining a decision made in the name of the Society and its members.
Ask what the research actually found. Ask how many members participated and what they were shown. Ask how the final logo was selected and approved. Ask why the historic design could not have been modernized instead of displaced. Ask whether ACS is willing to reconsider the decision in response to the reaction it is now receiving.
Please also keep sharing the petition. If you have already signed, send it to 5 to 10 people you know in the chemistry community and continue sharing it on LinkedIn, Bluesky, X, Facebook, professional groups, chemistry forums, and other relevant spaces.
ACS Fall 2026 begins in a few days. If you are attending, keep this conversation going in Chicago. Talk to other members, Councilors, committee members, Local Section and Division leaders, and ACS leadership. The more people who ask these questions directly, the harder they are to brush aside.
Thank you again to everyone who has signed and shared. Please join the briefing today if you can, keep the petition moving, and make sure ACS hears from the people it represents.