29th January 2007 marks the 100th anniversary of the first Faraday Discussion meeting which took place in London and debated osmotic pressure.   The Discussions are organised by the Faraday Division of the RSC, which traces its origins to 1903 when the Faraday Society was founded.  In 1972 the Society relinquished its autonomy to become the Faraday Division of the Chemical Society, and subsequently the RSC, following a merger with the Society for Analytical Chemistry and the Royal Institute of Chemistry.   The Division greatly values its interdisciplinary character, particularly its links with physicists and biophysicists, and the amalgamation has further strengthened the links with other chemists.  

Today's Faraday Discussions are unique international scientific conferences which focus on rapidly developing areas of physical chemistry, chemical physics and biophysical chemistry.   They have a special format in which papers are distributed to all participants in advance of the conference and almost all the meeting is devoted to discussion of the papers.   In this way, any participant at the conference has the opportunity to make a major contribution, and the papers and discussion are published in a dedicated volume of the well-regarded journal, Faraday Discussions.   As Professor David Clary FRS, President of the Faraday Division explains, "these unique scientific meetings emphasise open discussion on the fundamentals and physical applications of the chemical sciences."

As part of the celebrations a half-day symposium, Frontiers of Chemical Physics, was held on the 29th January 2007 in Oxford.  Several of this year's RSC award winners spoke and are pictured below.   From left to right, David Clary (President of Faraday Division of Royal Society of Chemistry, Oxford), Rosalind Allen (Harrison Prize, Edinburgh University), Fred Manby (Marlow Medal, Bristol University)), John Simons (Liversidge Lecturer, Oxford), Helen Fielding (Corday-Morgan Medal, UCL) and Mark Child (Boys-Rahman Lecturer, Oxford).