A European voice for chemistry
The Royal Society of Chemistry has been an influential member of EuCheMS from the beginning, and was a founding member of its predecessor, the Federation of European Chemical Sciences. With ECC7, the 2018 EuCheMS congress, set to take place in Liverpool, we consider the importance of our continued involvement in EuCheMS as the UK moves to leave the European Union.
The European Association for Chemical and Molecular Sciences (EuCheMS) aims to nurture a platform for scientific discussion and provide a single, unbiased European voice on key policy issues in chemistry and related fields. Representing more than 160,000 chemists from more than 40 member societies and other chemistry related organisations, EuCheMS relies on a unique network of active researchers involved in all fields of chemistry.
Its divisions and working parties organise regular conferences covering different areas of chemistry, and are a key mechanism for EuCheMS to engage the wider chemical science community. A founding member, the Royal Society of Chemistry is the largest chemical society in the association and our chief executive, Robert Parker, is an appointed member of its executive board.
EuCheMS congress comes to Merseyside
As well as the conferences organised by the individual divisions and working parties, EuCheMS organises the biennial EuCheMS Chemistry Congress, which we successfully bid to host in Liverpool on 26-30 August this year.
“Scientific collaboration across Europe has a long, rich history – the first-ever paper read at the Chemical Society in 1841 was authored by German chemist Justus von Liebig,” says Robert Parker.
As active members of EuCheMS, it is a real honour to bring the EuCheMS Chemistry Congress to the UK for the first time, continuing the EuCheMS traditions of collaboration, advancement and communication. The congress brings together all of the different areas of the chemical sciences, promoting interdisciplinary collaboration to tackle global challenges.
With the theme ‘molecular frontiers and global challenges’, the congress will feature five days of scientific and technical sessions, plenary lectures, oral and poster communications, keynote speakers and roundtable discussions, as well as networking opportunities, an exhibition and a unique social programme. There will be a dedicated programme for early career chemists, jointly supported by the EuCheMS European Young Chemists’ Network and our own Early Career Network.
“It's a little bit different from most conferences in that it's a high level congress where the content covers the whole of chemistry,” says Professor David Cole-Hamilton from the University of St Andrews, as of this month past-president of EuCheMS.
“The idea is you go and listen to very high level people talking about their subject and you think about whether you can somehow get your research to support what they're doing. It's really a way of getting interdisciplinary research going – how can you apply the chemistry that you do to a problem. And the problems that are addressed are really big ones, such as climate change and antimicrobial resistance.”
The congress in Liverpool will also feature specific, subject-orientated symposia, focusing on the areas of
- Catalysis;
- Chemistry in the life sciences;
- Energy, environment and sustainability;
- Inorganic chemistry advances;
- Materials, interfaces and devices;
- Organic chemistry advances;
- and physical and analytical chemistry advances.
The six confirmed plenary speakers are leading academics from a variety of areas of the chemical sciences:
- Professor Ben Feringa CChem HonFRSC, from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, whose research on molecular machines won him the 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
- Professor Paul Alivisatos, from the University of California, Berkeley, who has made ground-breaking contributions to understanding and harnessing the fundamental physical chemistry of nanocrystals.
- Professor Frances Arnold, from Caltech, USA, who has pioneered methods of directed evolution (a process that mimics natural selection to evolve proteins) to create useful biological systems.
- Professor Stefanie Dehnen, from the Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany, whose research looks at the synthesis of novel heavy metal chalcogenide complexes, with a range of applications.
- Professor Christopher Dobson CChem FRSC FRS FMedSci from the University of Cambridge, UK, who researches protein folding and misfolding, and its links with medical disorders, particularly Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.
- Professor Jin-Quan Yu, from The Scripps Research Institute, USA, winner of our 2016 Pedler Award, whose work focuses on developing catalysts that could improve the environmental friendliness of chemical processes, as well as expedite the discovery of medicines.
We'll be publising profiles of all of our plenary speakers throughout the year.
Chemistry has no nationality
As the UK begins the process to leave the European Union, maintaining strong links to the European chemical sciences community is crucial. “As our president, Professor Sir John Holman, said recently: chemistry has no nationality,” says Dr Parker. “UK chemical scientists are proud members of an international scientific community and we will always recognise, celebrate and contribute to that endeavour. This congress is a fantastic opportunity to showcase the strength of the contribution from geographical Europe, and for European chemists to connect with other researchers from Europe and across the world."
“Our goal is that the congress will support the advancement of scientific knowledge, bring together members of the scientific community from diverse backgrounds and specialisms, support the next generation of European scientists and strengthen the collective voice of European scientists. We look forward to welcoming colleagues from mainland Europe and beyond.”
The Royal Society of Chemistry has been, from the very beginning, at the heart of EuCheMS and has always provided full support to its initiatives
Professor Cole-Hamilton adds: “I think it becomes more important because, as we leave the European Union, the influence the UK can have over what happens in the rest of Europe will become much less. Yet at the same time what happens in mainland Europe will affect the UK, whether we like it or not.”
In July 2017, EuCheMS published an advice paper for the European Commission Brexit negotiators, outlining the advantages of UK involvement in Horizon 2020 and other framework programmes.
“The Royal Society of Chemistry has been, from the very beginning, at the heart of EuCheMS and has always provided full support to its initiatives,” says Professor Pilar Goya Laza, research professor of the Spanish Research Council at the Instituto de Química Médica, who this month, takes over from Prof Cole-Hamilton as EuCheMS president. “In light of Brexit, it will be even more necessary to strengthen the links between both organisations. EuCheMS being extremely concerned about this matter, has issued a consensus position paper, ‘Research and Education Without Borders After Brexit’. This statement has been endorsed by the majority of our affiliate chemical societies including some of our supporting members such as the European Federation for Medicinal Chemistry.”
“This is a major indication of support and solidarity for the UK from EuCheMS at this difficult time,” says Professor Cole-Hamilton. The paper, signed by 21 presidents of EuCheMS member societies, or their representatives, concludes with the statement: ‘EU scientists urge the negotiators to retain as strong as possible a relationship between EU and UK researchers. Continued collaboration without borders will improve research across all European countries for the benefit of mankind.’
Raising the voice of the chemical science community
Professor Cole-Hamilton has been EuCheMS president since 2014 and has led the association’s involvement in a number of high profile activities. Through our membership of EuCheMS, the Royal Society of Chemistry has been able to influence a variety of issues affecting the chemical sciences. In 2015, EuCheMS successfully campaigned to ensure the European Commission continued to have access to sound scientific advice, through the establishment of the High Level Group of the European Commission’s Scientific Advice Mechanism. They also advocated the position that the European Parliament eventually took for the Paris Agreement on climate change and have ensured the chemical sciences are represented on the EU high-level commission on Open Science and the European Commission Circular Economy Missions.
EuCheMS have also campaigned strongly for the destruction and banning of chemical weapons, working with the Israeli Chemical Society (a EuCheMS member society) and Israeli government to encourage Israel to ratify the Chemical Weapons Convention. At the EuCheMS congress in Seville in 2016, EuCheMS member societies signed a declaration deploring the use of chlorine as a chemical weapon in the Syrian conflict.
“I do believe that over the last few years the profile of EuCheMS in Europe has increased dramatically, and I think that's important for the UK at this time,” says Professor Cole-Hamilton. “EuCheMS as a European body is a possible method, in the area of chemistry, for the Royal Society of Chemistry to have some influence over what's going on – indirect, but at least a way that their ideas and suggestions can be channelled to the people in the commission and the parliament.”
Commitment to European chemistry
As a UK scientist, Professor Cole-Hamilton is excited to see the congress hosted in the UK. “I think it's fantastic. First, it shows the commitment of the UK to the European chemical community, which I think is very, very important. And it shows the commitment of the European chemical community to the UK because they voted to hold it in Liverpool – selection of the venue is by a vote of the executive board, which is representative of the whole of Europe.”
“In line with other EuCheMS chemistry congresses, the 7th EuCheMS Chemistry Congress is going to be a most exceptional celebration”, says Professor Goya Laza. “The programme and so many other exciting activities are being organised by a fantastic team at the Royal Society of Chemistry who are doing their very best to make the Liverpool congress a great success. The fact that so many European and worldwide chemists will be meeting precisely in Liverpool can be regarded as a symbol of the close links that exist between UK and EU researchers that everyone hopes will remain after Brexit.”
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7th EuCheMS Chemistry Congress, Liverpool 26–30 August 2018
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